I get several emails everyday from people requesting Gmail and Orkut invites. While many people make such requests politely, some simply make demands like “Send orkut invite to xxxx@xxxx.com” Such emails make me look forward to the day when people will make requests politely in a nontraditional way: people would make requests while knowing that a polite request itself, regardless of its tone, would account as working hard to get something in return, and thus getting something like a gmail invite would count as their hard labor bearing fruit. Because of this, I’ve thought up of an initial, working draft of a list of 5 things I would like to see online one day.

While such a thinking has consequences where many children will start sending polite requests and expect an invitation in return as a compulsory payment, people using such a thinking maturely can achieve wonders in their daily lives and also make it a wonderful experience for people they run into. To date, I’ve sent out Gmail and Orkut invites to everyone regardless of the attitude shown in their emails, even for people who made demands as if they were pointing a gun at the monitor while typing the request email. I was hoping before that they would learn to realize that everything in life comes at a price. Because of that, I present to you my list of “5 things I look forward to seeing online” one day. I look forward to the day when:

1. I won’t have to explain what certain supposedly controversial terms mean.

I look forward to the day when I won’t feel it an utmost necessity to describe in detail and also put acronyms on words like LGBT or Bisexual and Transgender in my writing online. Accepting such a belief or opposing such a thing is irrelevant; knowing about it is a necessity since almost every society in the world has people adhering to such principles. If we start ignoring all the facts and knowledge that don’t relate to us, we won’t know a thing.

2. People will realize that the internet can aid in socializing with others, and not replace real world socializing itself.

I look forward to the day when people will realize that the internet helps in providing new tools to help improve socializing, and not become the main and only form of socializing. That’s when every kid, whether it’s a 13 year old in the playground or a 21 year old on MySpace, will be able to think good for others around them also. Looking forward to the day when people won’t post personal stories, like how their parents fought with each other after having sex, is also included in this outlook; people assume that posting personal life histories that they usually won’t discuss with anyone around them in real life will make them appear cooler online. It doesn’t; it only brings in more visitors who love to read drama. Now that I think of it, I might also read such a drama online if I’m utterly bored and have nothing else to do.

3. People will try hard to stop their emotions from controlling their actions when they hear an idea that they don’t like.

I look forward to the day when people will accept constructive criticism from other people, and when such people will also realize the fact that not everyone in the world needs to have similar ideas. Otherwise, we’ll have more people acting immature when trying to get attention. If you can get upset because a stranger made a comment about someone who you don’t know in person, imagine how easy it would be to control your emotions and actions if it was a close friend or a relative who made such comments, not to criticize someone but to simply control you. You wouldn’t want that to happen in real life; why let it happen online?

4. People realize that writing quality content with a keyboard can be as hard as writing with a pen, and sometimes even harder.

I look forward to the day when people will realize that while it’s easier to copy things on the internet than in real life, it sometimes takes more amount of time and effort for good blog writers to write something online. In most newspapers and magazines, one simply writes an article while letting someone else take care of editing, proofreading and the presentation of the content. A blog article takes more effort than a newspaper article or a journal; in a blog, the writer has to do everything, and also has decide how to present the content to the reader, in addition to tuning the content itself to be presentable over the internet. I also look forward to the day when good voice recognition software will make it easy to write anything on a computer easily.

5. People stop thinking that because of being online, they can’t be held accountable for immaturely showing off knowledge that they don’t have.

I look forward to the day when people realize their strength and their weaknesses. This will allow people to be critics of only things they understand, and will also make people realize that they can’t be everything. Online, most of the people think they’re good writers and make such claims. In my view, criticizing something because the criticism will improve things is far more beautiful than the temporary satisfaction one gets when criticising simply because they can do so online. The internet makes a hero out of anyone, and people feel immune when acting like authorities on subjects they don’t understand. This is the most important thing I can think of as of this writing, and this applies to both online and offline people.

That’s my rough list of the 5 things I’m looking forward to seeing soon. I’m also looking forward to the day when restaurants will have home delivery available 24 hours a day, so that I won’t have to stop posts like these in order to go out and get some food.

What do you think about this? Am I missing any point? Do you think I may have overestimated the positive or negative aspect of something without realizing it? Is there a point above that won’t make such a big difference? Is there a point you would like to see added? Thank you for reading.