The Internet is having a negative effect on the quality of social life - Essay Example

?Negative effects of the internet Introduction The use of the internet has increased globally over the last few years. This followed the development of affordable smart phones and other hand held communication devices such as tablets and laptops that have enabled mobility of access (Ling, 2004). The internet has revolutionized different aspects of human life leading to increased commerce and human interaction all of which have made life both better and easier. However, while people continue to appreciate the development that has successfully globalized the world, the negative effects of the technology also spread drastically. The use of the internet has had several negative effects on different aspects of the society. The following essay discusses the negative effects that the use of the internet has had on education and culture over the years. I. Culture Culture refers to the arts, habits and customs that characterize a society’s way of life. Culture dictates a society’s way of life since it includes the values, behaviors and beliefs that a society considers acceptable. Before the development of the internet, most societies had independent cultures, which safeguarded their morality and ethics. Such encompassed the modes of dressing, religions, dietary and interactions among others. Any of such cultures sought to develop peaceful interaction among members of the society. They thus upheld decency of behavior and set out clear behavioral patterns in every group in the society. In short, most of the cultures developed peaceful societies. With the advent use of the internet, people have intensified interaction as the internet overcomes the physical and geographical barriers. This implies that people readily traded cultural values by abandoning those they consider retrogressive and adopting those, they consider better (Nayar, 2010). In this respect, the internet has availed numerous sets of cultural features with negative consequences on the contemporary society. Among such features is the use of violence among the youth. The youth constitute the most active population on the internet. They interact on the numerous platforms especially the social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, the internet provides cheaper modes of entertainment through films and video games. Most of such modes of entertainment glorify violence, which often constitute the central theme. The users of the internet adopt most of these qualities thereby opting to violence as the most effective way of solving interpersonal differences. Most people borrow dressing patterns from the internet often copying hose adorned by celebrities and established western designers. The two groups have turned culture into a product, which they manipulate and sell to their esteemed customers. The consumers of such cultural products on the other hand assimilate the products without questioning a feature that has progressively degenerated the societal norms and values of decency and privacy as more people continue to wear revealing clothes which the celebrities and designers claim fashionable. Attire in most societies has thus change and continues to portray sexuality that the celebrities and the designers have established through their increased market researches to sell better. Most clothes that the youth among other internet population wear thus portray sexuality often revealing some of the sexual features of humanity. Some even glorify in nudity. In the glorification of nudity and the conversion of every cultural feature into a commercial product, the internet community has successfully turned sex into commercial product a feature that has increased the infiltration of pornography into most modern day societies. Numerous cultures respected sex and the human nudity terming such as very private and confidential issues. Pornography is not just a social ill but also a criminal offense in most countries. However, producers of such contents prefer the internet since it offers them anonymity thereby perpetuating their acts. Some incorporate children and animals; the trend epitomizes the extent of social degradation in the contemporary society (Cebulko, 2007). The fact that the products find market is an indication of the extent of moral decay perpetuated by the increased use of the internet. An effective culture should promote peaceful coexistence. Most cultures did this by encouraging dialogue as a means of solving problems. Additionally, the earlier society was less populated and people therefore did not interact as much as they do today. In such set ups, people rarely wronged one another and in case they did, they often found peaceful means of solving their differences. The current society on the other hand is characterized by intense interpersonal interactions on the internet thereby making the users of the internet more susceptible to wrong one another. The users of the internet thus trade abuses, which are always the easiest way of making an offender, feel belittled. The trend has resulted in an abusive society in which people commonly curse and use abusive and obscene words to express any kind of emotion. The internet especially the social networking sites provide effective platforms hat perpetuate negative ethnicity, racisms among other interpersonal differences such as religions. The society has exhibited differences since time immemorial. However, the more effective cultures appreciated the differences and sought to develop holistic nations in which people coexisted peacefully. The internet on the other hand has succeeded in negating the interpersonal differences thereby worsening the effects of negative ethnicity and racism among others. Several pages on Facebook and other trending features of Twitter propagate interethnic wars as they enable people sharing a common trait to admonish those who exhibit differences. There are pages that promote hate messages thereby promoting the disintegration of the society’s moral fabric. The internet brings millions of people together thus creating an active population who try to share information with one another. In such a setup, some people tend to be more critical of the issues and developments around them thereby picking fault in every information they share. The contemporary society exhibits increased interaction owing to the concepts of urbanization and globalization all of which have resulted in more people from diverse cultures living together. To survive in such societies, people prefer developing independent families with no effective culture thereby leaving their children to obtain cultural features from the internet. This implies that the effects of the internet are have more effects on the society since people have no primary source of the values and therefore rely on those they obtain from the internet (Agosto & Abbas, 2011). II. Education The use of the internet has changed the education sector making learning easier and more interactive. Most learners and teachers use the internet as the greatest source of research material. Additionally, the prevalence of the social network has resulted in enabling platforms upon which academicians conduct effective researches since they provide virtual societies in which people exchange ideas freely. Despite the several advantages and conveniences of the internet in the education sector, the technology has also affected the sector negatively often resulting in the production of unprofessional graduates among some of the negative effects of the internet in the education sector are discussed below: The use of the internet as a source of academic materials is disputed since some of the sources are not credible. Most users use such sources as Wikipedia in their researches, the source allows for free editing of the materials thereby permitting the inclusion of unprofessional journals and literature for public consumption. Such sites undermine the value of education since most of the literatures in such sites are not professional (Greenblatt, 2010). The ease of publication and dissemination of literature materials on the internet enables everyone with a computer and an internet connection to publish and disseminate unprofessional materials for public use. Such provide irrelevant information in the different professions to the learners. The trend thus misinforms learners often resulting in conflicting during class discussions. Additionally, the internet provides learners with millions of sources to every piece of information. Most of such are always in readily researched and archived materials that users access and use. However, the ease of retrieval and the availability of such information have eliminated the essence of academic researches. Most learners currently do not carry out effective researches since such materials exist on the internet (Watkins, 2009). They simply load the pages and copy the materials from the sites. Copying and plagiarizing are common trends in most academic institutions since the internet readily provide relevant information on virtually any topic. Owing to this, most learners have ignored the use of research in developing new information. The internet especially the additional social networking sites are addictive, they provide cheaper means of communication and interaction especially for the youth most of who are learners in the numerous academic institutions. The addictive feature of such sites has affected the education sector negatively. Most users of such platforms spend more of their productive time interacting and exchanging ideas on irrelevant issues at the expense of their academic work. It is common to find learners surfing the internet and engrossed on their Facebook and twitter accounts while in the library where they went to study. The trend affects the quality of education negatively. Additionally, the ease with which the users share information on such platforms also promote cheating in exams as most learners use their smart phones to consult their colleagues who consult their books before answering the questions for them. The internet has also developed the concept of distant learning, while the trend is encouraging as it empowers most learners who cannot afford the travel expenses; it is an ineffective mode of learning since it lacks the teacher student relationship and interaction. Most earners do not interact with their teachers outside the virtual classrooms and even if they do, they cannot share the values and features from such teachers. Additionally, the cost implications of the connections and the inconveniences it bears on both parties discourage the formation of interpersonal relations. In retrospect, while the internet has increasingly revolutionized different sectors of both the society and economy, it has several disadvantages and negative influences on its users. Such demand that users exercise self-control in the consumption of the contents of the internet in order to limit its effects. References Agosto, D. & Abbas, J. (2011). Teens, libraries, and social networking: What librarians need to know. Santa Barbara, Calif: Libraries Unlimited. Cebulko, S. (2007). The impact of Internet pornography on married women: A psychodynamic perspective. Youngstown, N.Y: Cambria Press. Greenblatt, A. (2010). “Impact of the Internet on Thinking: Is the Web changing the way we think?” CQ Researcher 20.33 (2010): 773-795. Ling, R. (2004). The mobile connection: The cell phone's impact on society. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann. Nayar, P. K. (2010). An introduction to new media and cybercultures. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell. Watkins, S. (2009). The young and the digital: What the migration to social-network sites, games, and anytime, anywhere media means for our future. Boston: Beacon Press. Read More