The Internet provides an amazing forum for the free exchange of ideas. Given the relativ

ely a few restrictions governing access【M1】______ and usage, it is the communications modal equivalence of【M2】______ international waters. However I am also troubled by the possible unintended negative consequences. There has been much talk about the "new information age." But much is less widely reported has been the notion that the【M3】______ Internet may be responsible for furthering the fragment of society【M4】______ by alienating its individual users. At first this might sound like an apparent contradiction: how can something which is on the one【M5】______ hand responsible for global unification by enabling the free exchange of ideas alienate the participant？【M6】______ I had a recent discussion with a friend of mine who has what he described as a "problem" with the Internet. When I questioned about him further he said that he was "addicted," and has "forced"【M7】______ himself to go off-line. He said that he felt like an alcoholic, in that moderate use of the Internet was just possible for him. I have not【M8】______ known this fellow to be given to exaggeration, therefore when he described his internet binges, when he would spend over twenty-four hours on line non-stop, it gave me pause to think. He said, "the Internet isnt true, but I was spending all my time on【M9】______ line, so I just had to stop." He went on to say that all of the time that he spent on line might have skewed his sense of reality, and that it made him feel lonely and depressing.【M10】______

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