| Having stepped into the era of digital communication, we seldom notice how bound we become to modern technological achievements. But does our life force us to use modern communication technologies or is it we who change our life using them? I think both ways are possible. We are dragged into the world of information interchange and according to the ever-changing requirements of the time we develop our skills of obtaining, transmitting, creating and storing this information. A huge amount of information is processed mainly through the Internet and we tend to regard this source of information the omniscient power allowing us to get an answer to any question. And it seems that students are one of the most active users of the Internet technologies. Besides the entertainment facilities the Internet provides, there is also one thing that makes the web irreplaceable. Students are insatiable consumers of educational materials available in the net. University standards demand a lot of independent work and research which with the help of the Internet has become an easier task to do. Students say that at times it is past all understanding how this or that project could be done without Internet technologies. Even minor tasks which in fact do not require any Internet surfing are mostly fulfilled with its help. So is it just a habit that undermines our intellectual abilities and brainwork or is it our blessing? To solve this issue, I asked a lot of my friends to share their thoughts about the Internet and its usage. The total number of respondents is 25 people aged from 19 to 22 years old. 24 of them study at EFL department. All of them admit they are in need of various Internet services. They all use the Internet every day and consider this as the dictates of the time. An average amount of time spent surfing the web is from 1 to 6 hours a day. 28% of respondents spend less than 3 hours a day, 72% of them are in habit of spending from 3 to 6 hours in the Internet. About 84% of university students prefer to look for the necessary information in the Internet rather than go to the library (16% of the pollees find the data either in the Internet or in the library especially when the book they search for was published decades ago). Almost all of them (92%) confess they use the materials of other people’s works disposed in the Internet when doing their own course papers, research projects, and reports. Very few of them doubt the validity of the information they get from the Internet sites (only 36% of respondents claim they check the materials from the Internet that they use in their studies). And about 96% of them communicate via the Internet for the sake of co-operation with other students while preparing their home assignments and doing a team-project. So, the Internet is the source that makes it possible to study and work effectively, but what about the quality of such work? Answering this question, 88% of students said that the Internet technologies increase the informational value of the study process. Others (76%) say that the nature of the knowledge a modern student gets would be different without the Internet. All of my group mates (40% from the total number of respondents) admit that they are able to spend less time on the work they are not interested in (mainly if it doesn’t concern foreign languages) just with the help of ready-made reports one can easily find in the Internet. So the benefits of the Internet for students are visible even to the naked eye. And for me, personally, the advantages of the Internet outstrip its negative sides. We shouldn’t discard the possibility of becoming more competent and successful if the Internet provides us with such opportunities. The main thing is that the relations “student - the Internet” would be a fruitful co-operation, and not a scamped work.
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