The Negative Influence of the Internet on Society

The internet is probably the most powerful, innovative, and popular invention of the 21st century.  Since its inception as a military and academic project back in the 60’s, the internet has grown in leaps and bounds. It developed as the ARPANET which stands for Advanced Research Projects and later transformed into the World Wide Web (WWW). Tentatively, in a bid to increase consumer susceptibility and advance positive adaptation the internet developed into a much wider experience. This saw the development of a number of web browsers and browser wars pitting Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Netscape Communications’ Navigators

The recent past has seen ameliorations on the internet that has resulted into portable devices such as cell phones integrated with this vital technology (Sunderman, 2009 P12. Pp585). In addition, this has seen changes in the browser and interface customization. This has seen a larger number of populace visit websites for purposes such as dissemination of information, purchase of products, and search for information.

The use of the Internet has enormous influence in the society today.  This influence can either be negative or positive. The main advantage of the internet is that it has made it easy for the world to become a global village. This relates to the ease of getting information from anywhere in the world regardless of where someone is. It has also resulted in the improvement of entertainment and communication as well as education throughout the world. It is true that the use of internet has made activities simple (Cowen, 2009 P15 Pp 580). This essay however focuses on the influences of the internet that can be considered as negative and consequently endures to showcase influences of the internet.

The use of internet has changed the way we work. Most people are faced with the problem of having to do more than is required of them at any single time than would typically be the case without internet. This is simply because the internet works so quickly and never stops working. A perfect example to illustrate this is a case where you are working with an organization that requires you to perform several tasks. Typically, modern organizations almost fully rely on the internet for communication. It is therefore expected that anytime your presence is needed you avail yourself without failure since communication is easily done through internet and you are always supposed to be online. The result of this is people have to embrace always the demand of internet. Normal life therefore becomes so stressing since there is little time for resting.

According to an NPR News Segment, the use of internet has also resulted in the decline of the quality of education. There is almost all information that anyone may need about any subject that can be sourced from the internet. Learners can so easily source and save data so quickly without thorough research. This is done without putting great consideration of the importance of class or group discussions. It is so evident that discussing a topic in a face to face dialogue with another person expresses ideas and knowledge very well than a statement on a monitor reading, ‘you must login to view the essay.’ In a class setting, learners may express knowledge and understanding of a subject in various ways such as intonation, facial expressions and other forms of communication.

The use of internet has in one way resulted in moral decadence in the society. For instance, the internet has too much pornography to offer. This has a great influence on the performance of individuals who have been addicted to pornography at school and even in the offices. It cannot be argued that the internet has improved modern entertainment but the content that can be found through such entertainments is what creates much concern and worry . There is also a group of people that use the internet to commit crimes. This could be theft of money from banks or other institutions to their own accounts. This causes suffering to other very innocent people. Though considered as a good technological and process innovation, internet has greatly eroded good morals.

The Internet also serves as a means of connectivity and immediacy. As a result, both at home and workplaces has promoted a culture of social medium that is directly linked with multitasking Cowen (2009. P9 Pp 580). The concept of multitasking has become a trifle to some, who feel that even though you get to accomplish several tasks in the space of time that would have naturally only allowed you to do one, or at most two, the quality of the work done may be affected.

The jump in social media users for interaction has heightened in the recent years. Social media is used purposely for interaction and communication by use of highly scalable communication techniques. The social medium actually involves the use of web based and mobile technologies into interactive discussion and interaction. Peter Suderman (2009. P4 Pp586) described social media as a collection of Internet- founded base applications that build on the ideological and scientific basics. Lately this web based applications have been on the rise with the upcoming of social sites like twitter and Facebook.

In addition to this, the use of social media has been used by early researchers in order to communicate their research findings especially in their endeavor to reach the youth and young people in general. The use of social media has involved the use of blogging sites, social sites such as Facebook, Twitter in order to deliver their intended findings to the intended target and in this case usually the young people. The spread of culture through the internet has been somewhat of an inescapable necessary evil in order for interaction to be sustained between or among groups of people using the internet.

In conclusion, it is worthy to note that in as much as internet results in the saving of time and gives a lot of information, it sometimes overwhelms us. Is life in this internet era more pleasing as compared to the days when there was no internet? It may be much simple to do some things with internet to help but life generally appears to become restless as the use of computers accelerates its normal rate.

References

Sunderman, P.  Treading Water in a Sea of Data. New Atlantis. Number 22, fall 2008.

Cowen, T. Three Tweets for the Web. Wilson Quarterly. Autumn, 2009.