Are you a graduating senior in high school or currently enrolled at a college and looking for ways to help cover some of the cost of attending college? We at Satellite Internet Pros value the importance of education and we understand that sometimes the cost of tuition can be the absolute bane of college life. That’s why we want to help one academic student curb their tuition cost by giving away a $1000 scholarship.

Scholarship Contest Rules and Disclaimers: Employees of Satellite Internet Pros and their immediate families are not eligible. Satellite Internet Pros reserves the right to use any submitted essays in whole or in part for promotional purposes. No purchase necessary to enter. Only one entry per student permitted. Personal information provided by all entrants, such as name, address, phone and email address will not be sold or shared with any third party. This information will remain confidential and used only to verify and contact the winner. Prize is non-transferable, non-refundable, and cannot be exchanged for other prizes. These rules are subject to change at any time by Satellite Internet Pros.

UPDATE:

The Satellite Internet Pros $1000 Essay Scholarship has ended for 2011. The entries we received this year have been excellent and Satellite Internet Pros would like to thank all participating students for their essay submissions. The winner of the 2011 Satellite Internet Pros $1000 essay scholarship will be chosen and notified by June 1st. Please keep this page bookmarked and check back with us in 2012 for our next scholarship.

In the meantime, browse through Satellite Internet Pros today for the latest and best satellite internet deals on HughesNet network systems. Choose from one of three affordable satellite internet packages for the lowest pricing including mail-in rebates** for lease and purchase options. Call in today and ask about the current low pricing offer from Satellite Internet Pros.

June 1st – 2011 Satellite Internet Pros $1000 Essay Scholarship Winner

Thank you to all students who participated in Satellite Internet Pros’ 2011 Essay Scholarship. While there were many terrific essays from students across the country, we came to an agreement at Satellite Internet Pros that this particular student’s essay demonstrated with clear and supportive ideas her knowledge of her chosen topic.

Satellite Internet Pros congratulates Sara Khan as the 2011 recipient of Satellite Internet Pros first annual $1000 Essay Scholarship. Her essay on the ways unlimited access of information and social networking on the internet impacts society explored both the positive and negative implications associated with this ongoing concern. Read her essay below:

Prompt: In what ways have unlimited access of information and social networking impacted our daily social lives? Our society? The world?

The year is 1976. My father, a senior at UC Berkeley, needs to find references for his research paper due in four days. Sighing, he heaves his backpack onto his shoulders and heads to the library. With a couple of hours of careful searching and some help from the librarians, he should have several sources by the end of the day.

Fast forward 35 years. My English teacher just assigned a research paper; all sources are due tomorrow. At 10:00 at night, I quickly navigate to the school district’s online library database where countless resources relating to hundreds of novels are located. Within twenty minutes I have three quality essays to reference for my research paper. That, frankly, is the essence of the Internet: hours of dull work cut down to mere minutes.

It is not an overstatement to say that the Internet has revolutionized society and indeed, the world as we know it. The quick, easy access to a plethora of information on an infinite number of topics has changed the way we study, work, and maybe even think. What was once monotonous and dull is now prompt and efficient, limited only by the speed of your Internet connection. Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter make it easy to make hundreds or even thousands of “friends” and reconnect with old ones, not to mention keep up with the ones you already have. Instant communication through applications like Facebook’s inbox messages, the Wall, and instant messaging make even phone calls seem quaint. After watching classic movies like Back To The Future, some may bemoan the depressing lack of hover cars and holograms in society that “the future” was supposed to bring. But to them, I would simply say: look at the Internet. The future is here.

But no innovation is without its darker effects, and our brand new, Internet-enabled society is no different. The same high speed and easy access to information has been decried as the impetus that is re-wiring teens’ minds and causing attention spans to narrow as we feel compelled to click from page to page, quickly losing interest with one only to lose patience with the next. Of course, this is only one point of view, but it does have a certain amount of validity; according to The Economist, the concern is that “prolonged use of the internet—with its smorgasbord of tantalizing tidbits of information—is producing a generation of magpie minds, as users hop from one bright trinket to another, rarely focusing long enough on any one topic to comprehend it thoroughly.” Social networking sites, as popular as they are, have been criticized for implicitly encouraging the youth to limit their relationships to the confines of the computer monitor; communication is restricted to reading words on a screen. As Roger D. Putnam neatly put in in his landmark, debate-sparking book Bowling Alone, “We all have friends online, but in the end, we Bowl Alone.”

Another criticism of the unlimited access of information and files is that, as a result, plagiarism and illegal downloading have increased exponentially. Students are able to easily find essays, worksheets, and even purchase tests and papers online; when it comes to illegal downloading, the number of albums, movies, computer programs and the like available are simply abundant. Of course, plagiarism was a problem even before the Internet, but never to the extent it’s at today. However, the flip side of this is that it’s much easier to detect plagiarism as well. Illegally copied portions of essays can easily be found out through a simple Google search or by using more sophisticated methods such as the website TurnItIn.com, which scans students’ essays for apparent plagiarism after they upload them to the website. Illegal downloading, though, has no such easy prevention. Case in point: 95% of all online music downloads in 2009 were illegal, according to a study by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The music industry has attempted to curb the profit-draining trend through suing illegal-downloading individuals in much publicized lawsuits, but even this has not managed to scare the Internet public into walking the straight and narrow. No matter what the outcome of illegal downloading will be, one thing is clear: in this particular arena, colored with shades of gray as it is, there are no easy answers and no quick fixes.

In the grand scheme of things, the Internet will always be regarded as a great boon to society. Thanks to it, family that was once thousands of miles away is now at our fingertips, courtesy of videochats and social networking sites. The world has become much more connected thanks to technology and we are better for it. The idea that one day we may consider ourselves a “global village” is no longer as preposterous as it once seemed; rather, it is very quickly becoming a reality. As I stated earlier, we aren’t waiting for the future anymore. Ready or not, the future with all its baggage, good and bad, is already here. Are you ready for it?

*The ideas and opinions expressed by the essay writer in this essay do not necessarily reflect the views of Satellite Internet Pros.