Internet Harms Social Interaction - Essay Example

Internet Harms Social Interaction Introduction Due to technological advancements in today’s world, there have been tremendous changes in the facets of social life impacted by the rise of social media. Cavanagh notes that the internet creates an environment in which people can work and communicate in isolation, as well as form relationships across global geographical regions (16). Besides other roles such as enhancing business, the internet creates new ways in which people communicate and interact in their social lives. As such, communication through the internet has acted as one of the ways in which people’s lives transform in the modern globe. Due to advancements in modern technology, which can overcome a wide range of obstacles related to space and time, it is possible to deduce that such technology should be used in more important ways including understanding multiples of cultures, as well as communicating effectively with other people. Use of the internet has dominated today’s global communications, which has led to a wide range of negative impacts on social interaction. Although the use of internet may have positive impacts, the level of negative impacts depends on the nature of people’s online activities and the different activities that they give up in order to spend time socializing using the internet. The use of the internet as a platform that supports social interaction encourages individuals to spend considerable time socializing through online mediums at the expense of companionship and face-to-face communications. In this sense, interaction socially could be hindered by the dominant use of the internet and other online social platforms. Negative Impacts of the Internet on Social Interaction Given the dominance in the use of the internet in the contemporary world, and its subsequent domination of social interaction, several issues arise. Pertinent issues related to impacts of the internet on social interaction include isolation. Evidently, the internet creates a world in which communication occurs in a virtual environment. The internet acts as an electronic mode that drives people out of the physical world and into a virtual space. Through connections in the virtual space, communicating parties may interact without challenges as if they are in a physical world (Cavanagh 36). As a result, the quality and number of physical social relationships that people develop is subject to compromise. There is a great difference between online relations, based on social media, and physical interactions. People do not expect any more consequences from virtual relationships, apart from the communication part, which is different in the case of physical relationships. As long as individuals in the technological world do not have expectations to benefit more from online relationships, then there is no good reason as to why they should enjoy the power of the internet in communication since it drifts away the face-to-face interaction that dominates the beneficial part of communication (Bargh and McKenna 576). As a result, dominance of the internet as a method of communication creates a situation where individuals are apart but supported by virtual connections. Communicating parties, therefore, tend to drift apart as they substitute physical relationships with electronic ones. Additionally, communication through the internet presents significant challenges in passing a clear meaning of the communication process. People attach different meanings to different expressions communicated through online means. When using the internet, people tend to make hostilities easier by way of using internet-based confrontation, which in turn makes communication more ineffective to the advantage of hateful parties concerned. It is important to understand the reason as to why people prefer online confrontation as opposed to face-to-face discussion, because they feel uncomfortable to confront other parties physically (Kling 437). In addition, expression of emotions through online means is poor and inadequate compared to face-to-face transmission of the same piece of information. As such, internet communication acts as one of the most adequate ways to send emotional messages. Failure to communicate emotional messages blocks the parties concerned from registering the respective negative emotions, including messages engender. The challenge, in turn, gives some of them the illusion that they are not really doing harm, whereas their counterparts get the illusion that they are receiving the best deal. Unfortunately, it depicts that the parties concerned do not usually transmit their respective information with as much compassion as they could have done physically, and often leading them to send a different message relative to what they intended to send leading to more confusion in their communication, as well as the distortion of the message. Because of internet communication dominance, information distortion is a major occurrence in interactions between individuals. Internet social interaction reduces the susceptibility of the parties involved to provide information. Due to the physical gap between the parties concerned, some of them may be tempted to provide false or adjusted information. There are cases when the parties involved in communication or interaction need to work out something with their counterparts. Situations arise especially when communicating parties feel uncomfortable with the situation. Using the internet as a means medium of communication may make the communicating parties less lenient and more prone to give in. People tend to be tempted to engage in internet communication, especially when presented with challenging situations. It is easier to convince the opposite parties during social communications even when using distorted or false information (Bargh and McKenna 586). Coupled with transferring information in a distorted manner, internet communication is also mainly faced with chances of transferring messages inefficiently. Transaction of emotionally satisfying and sensitive connections acts as an exemption since internet communication allows it by large. The emotional invisibility of the opposite parties in a conversation may tempt individuals to present information that may otherwise not present in the physical presence of the receivers of such information (Kling 439). The absence of the feelings of the opposite parties acts as a trying aspect to individuals to present inaccurate and inefficient information, which acts as a major weakness for internet communication. Challenges related to the use of internet as a communication mode include weak social ties created within the society. Such ties may be because of the communication flaws that are associated with internet communication, including inefficient and distorted messages. In addition, the rampant use of the internet as a mode of connection leads to the attachment of less importance to physical and social interaction. Because of dominance in communication on the internet, people get less reason to engage in face-to-face discussions with others, where such communication modes would be more time and physical effort consuming. Because of the distance between individuals, engaging in sustainable relationships becomes a challenging task. As a result, social issues within the community are solved in isolation with individuals separated by wide geographical differences. In such kind of an impact, internet communication displaces face-to-face discussions and encourages interaction through technological means. Such an impact is to the contrary of the proposal by psychologists that face-to-face communications are of higher quality, especially when viewed in terms of their consequences of enhanced well-being and satisfaction. In most cases, social interaction is considered to have a wide range of psychological impacts on the people involved. Due to the reduced physical contact when using internet interactions, internet communication is considered to have lower psychological quality as compared to face-to-face discussions. Relations that are formed physically tend to be more meaningful, close, as well as long lasting since the parties involved, have a deep understanding of the real issues facing each one of them. In addition, face-to-face discussions act as a means of bringing real issues into the real world. As a result, it allows people to connect, share real experiences, as well as depict their physical identity (Cavanagh 19). Such information is greatly essential for the survival of a viable relationship, as well as for the enhancement of consistent communication within the society. On the contrary, sharing of such physical concerns and information is usually inadequate in cases where it is done over the internet. As a result, internet communication reduces physical contact between members of the society, which in turn reduces societal cohesion. Given the drawbacks surrounding internet communication, it would be justifiable to construe that such electronic communication has less important social welfare and is thus, less complete. Internet communication should be considered less social since the parties involved do not physically express their respective physical cues (Kling 442). As a result, it eliminates the expression of the elements of their reactions even though such reactions act as a depiction of their respective group and societal norms. As a result, internet communications may cause the extinction of group norms as because they enhance individualism as a norm. Conclusion Although the internet plays a vital role in communication in the contemporary global environment, it has threatened to break down social interaction. Like other useful technological tools, it requires the use of unbiased judgment to support advancement in technology and to render the internet useful. Due to the use of internet communication, individuals tend to distort messages. Such an impact of internet communication is related to the absence of the parties receiving the information. Based on the negative influence of the internet on social interaction, the level of ethics in social interactions reduces with the rampant use of the internet. Indeed the use of the internet as a tool of communication acts as a drawback in enhancing healthy social interactions, and thus, relationships. Works Cited Bargh, John and Katelyn McKenna. "The Internet and Social Life." Annual Review of Psychology (2004): 573-590. Cavanagh, Allison. Sociology in the Age of the Internet. New York: McGraw-Hill International,, 2009. Kling, Rob. "The Internet for Sociologists." Contemporary Sociology 26.4 (1997): 434–444. Read More