Imposing Internet and Its Effect on Society - Term Paper Example

Imposing Internet Sukinah Alawami Mrs. Leddy Internet has become an integral part of our life. The influence of technology has challenged the way we conduct the fundamental operations in our everyday life. The development of technology has imposed a great impact on learning theories and multimodal learning is one of them. According to Wolfe and Flewitt (2010), involving learners in using the technology at an early age helps them access more information on a subject enhance their understanding. The two researchers believe that learning is the process of acquiring and regenerating information with the help of methods to get benefits. However, retention of this knowledge is being affected incredulously. The way we process data cognitively has changed with the appearance of the Internet. Internet was recognized to be a powerful resource tool in multimodal learning environment. However, there are various keys shortcoming which onset the fundamental cognitive abilities of an individual who is participating in the multimodal learning environment. This paper sheds light on the implications of internet in our society. Imposing Internet Educators are being forced to broaden and shift their concept of literacy instruction to multimodal , interactive, and learner controlled. Multimodal interactive environment has imposed strong pattern based on learning environments. Multimodal environments pattern visual education may serve as a very important advantage as a wide range of remedial and compensatory technology tools become available for students with disabilities (Edyburn, 2008). However, Internet dependency has grown immensely in the last few years. The rise of chat rooms and social media has made us all socially independent, which dwell in virtual social cafes and chat rooms exchanging our ideas or talking. Technology has many positive aspects but, in the wrong hands, it can become a dangerous tool. It is a valuable tool but it is somewhat misused by today’s teenagers. The two main forms of technology affecting teenagers are cell phones and Internet. This technology has allowed teenagers to have inane communications and thus contributes to the ‘dumbing down’ of society. We spend more time corresponding with our friends on cell phones and in the Internet more than we do during our work or other activities. Focusing on technology, we start ignoring social life. Today, teenagers are lacking basic social skills, because of an absence of face-to-face communication assisted by this technology.  The art of personal communication is being lost as it gives way to a new era of interaction. The introduction of cell phones and the Internet has challenged our notions of space and time by putting communications into hyperdrive. However, as we are in this constant state of communication, our time is not devoted to our own life.  Imposing Internet and its effect on society The art of interpersonal communication is slowly dying in the technologically inclined children of today. Looking at the current generations (particularly 25 and under), and the upcoming generations we can see so clearly that society is not going to stop moving away from this idea of using technology as our primary communication methods. There are many 12 year old children with smart phones, tablets and laptops. This is not to say that technology is ruining society because that’s so far from true; however, it is dumbing our society down. We’re removing the necessity of skills such as face-to-face communications, basic math without the help of a calculator, and writing in proper English vocabulary. Texting alone has made a huge impact on the grammar, spelling, and punctuation skills of people of all ages, including those over 25. These technologies at our disposal are here to make our lives easier, and teach us things we didn’t already know, or forgot. Instead of using them to teach us, we use them to correct us, move on, and forget. The imposition of Internet in this data driven learning environment employs a immersive learning culture. However, it fails to assert the retention of the knowledge. In theory, internet should be enhancing our personal relationships and allowing us to keep in closer contact with friends and family than ever before. A recent study by the University of Maryland shows just how difficult it is for people to “unplug” from our always-connected world. University of Maryland research concludes by explaining, students who described their feelings when they were not allowed to utilize social networking used the same terms associated with drug and alcohol addiction withdrawal: frantically craving, very anxious, extremely antsy, miserable, jittery, and crazy. The Maryland study found that most students were not just reluctant to go without their media links to the world. They were physically unable to do so. Internet Learning Internets imposition has had variegated influences on the education system. Multimodal learning which instigate creativity in students has revolutionized learning patterns in the world. Firstly, this fact may be explained by great investments being made by the American state for online studies development and encouragement of professional education for e-learning activities. About 13 billion US $ has been allocated from the American budget for this purpose.( P. Brey, 2006 ). Establishment of E learning in the united states has given rise to a cogent, creative, learning environment which has enabled a higher degree of interactivity among professors and students. Furthermore, professors and assistants have developed their students’ critical thinking and have given them more freedom in their choice of discussion topics and mutual exchange of ideas and information and knowledge expansion.(Brey, 2006 ) . From a students perspective E learning has become very popular and acceptable way of studying , owing to its flexibility and higher degree of innovativeness in terms of introducing new and contemporary programs in comparison to traditional faculties. Compared to traditional ways of learning , studying efficiency has increased exponentially over the period of time with the implementation of E learning. Having in mind that the Internet has found its way into daily life and use, both in various domains of entertainment and business transactions, the use of the Internet in the education sphere is naturally expected. Namely, in the sphere of education, the Internet offers a global platform for information storage and its presentation in textual, visual, graphical form. It also serves as a means of synchronous and asynchronous communication (Keegan, 2000). Dual behavior of the Internet Internet has had great impact on the social culture, there are many advantages and disadvantages as well. At one extreme one finds those who only see great benefits who consider the Internet a tool for freedom, commerce, connectivity, and other societal benefits. On the other hand, one finds those who lament the harms and disadvantages of the Internet, and who consider it a grave danger to existing social structures and institutions, to culture, morality and human relations. In between we can find the majority, those who recognize both benefits and harms in the Internet as it currently exists and who recognize its usefulness while worrying about some of its negative impacts According to Esther Dyson The Net offers us a chance to take charge of our own lives and to redefine our role as citizens of local communities and of a global society. It also hands us the responsibility to govern ourselves, to think for ourselves, to educate our children, to do business honestly, and to work with fellow citizens to design rules we want to live by.. Dyson argues that internet serves as an imperative platform to meet and find like minded people, to share interests and to enhance personal interests. However, consider the opinion of the Council of Torah Sages, a group of leading orthodox rabbis in Israel who in 2000 issued a ruling banning the Internet from Jewish homes. The Council claimed that the Internet is "1,000 times more dangerous than television" (which they banned thirty years earlier). The Council described the Internet as "the worlds leading cause of temptation" and "a deadly poison which burns souls" that "incites and encourages sin and abomination of the worst kind." The Council explained that it recognized benefits in the Internet, but saw no way of balancing these with the potential cost, which they defined as exposure to "moral pollution" and possible addiction to Internet use that could quash the motivation to learn Torah, especially among children. According to various commentators the advantages of internet are immense, Array of information is always accessible as they are "a click away" for consumption. Management of these critical information is made easier in the digital world thanks to database management systems, which help to remove data redundancy. The Internet makes it possible for anyone to quickly, easily and inexpensively post and disseminate information and make this information available to a large audience. In this way, the Internet promotes freedom of speech by enhancing the ability of individuals to voice opinions and inform and influence others, which can be considered a great benefit. Internet serves as a great tool for communication , with the cross channel communication power , use of video and audio communication applications. Internet acts a great tool for communication. The internet facilitates the development and maintenance of social relations with people outside ones immediate vicinity, and provides added means to maintain relations with people in different vicinity. Social relations are very important to the functioning of individuals and of society as a whole, and the Internet provides powerful means for developing and maintaining such relations, which is a great benefit. The internet facilitates the development and maintenance of communities of individuals with shared interests and concerns. The Internet also provides new ways for individuals to engage in collective behavior and form social movements. Community formation and social organization are important in any society, and any technology that provides new means to support these processes can be seen to provide important benefit. The Internet enables new models for production by enabling coordination and partial automation of productive processes that span time and space. The Internet also enables new models for commerce, trade and business. These economic benefits translate into social and cultural benefits because they provide people with new products and services and faster and easier delivery of existing products and services at less cost. The Internet facilitates entertainment, both for individual use and in interaction with others, such as playing games and providing forums for collectively practicing hobbies and for sharing and trading cultural objects like pictures, stories, drawings, software, music, and video. The Internet has been claimed to have positive effects on identity formation and psychological development by allowing people to experiment with alternative identities, to hide aspects of their identity that could meet with disapproval or stereotyping in face-to-face situations, to reveal aspects of themselves in relative anonymity, that they would not reveal in real life, and to expose themselves to a very broad variety of views and opinions (Turkle, 1995; Rheingold, 2000). The Internet has been claimed to have beneficial effects on learning and cognitive development. It has been claimed that the Internet, and computers more generally, support interactive learning styles, enhances learning by supporting new multimedial ways of presenting information, and the development of good sensorimotor abilities (Van Dijk, 1999, p. 204-6). It has been claimed that the Internet can promote a better understanding between cultures and cultural identities by enabling people from different cultural backgrounds and with different social and cultural identities to come together and communicate with each other under conditions that are conducive to cultural exchange. However, many critics debate over the quality of the data that is available on the internet. In addition, critics perceive a number of other negative consequences of Internet use, that concern human development, human experience and social organization. One can argue in many ways to showcase the disadvantages the internet propagates, they are Information overload, It has been claimed that the Internet contributes to information overload, by stimulating the consumption of information and exposing users to an abundance of often irrelevant, unclear and inaccurate messages and data fragments. This has been claimed, for individuals, to cause anxiety, poor decision-making, difficulties in memorizing and remembering, and reduced attention span, and, for organizations, to lead less efficiency and poorer decision-making. It has been claimed that, the Internet contains much false and unreliable information. Moreover, it is often impossible to evaluate the correctness of information found on the Internet, as it is often difficult to credit or evaluate sources. Therefore, the Internet is thought to represent a step backwards compared to more traditional information media. the Internet contains a lot of harmful information: extremist ideology, recipes for making bombs, extreme forms of pornography and so forth. Conversations and dialogues on the internet often contain disrespectful, hurtful and inflammatory speech, and that conversations are often trivial or vulgar. The Internet has also been claimed to facilitate unwanted communication and harassment. Therefore, we can say that internets anonymity and acceptance of vulgarity is causing the decline of social etiquettes. It has been claimed that online social relationships may indirectly hurt offline (face-to-face) social relationships, because people will take less time and effort for social interactions. It has also been claimed that online interactions are less profound, valuable and durable than social interactions in the real world. The emergence of virtual communities and organizations may hurt existing "physical" communities and organizations because people will devote less time and energy to them, and that virtual communities and organizations are less profound, valuable and durable than "physical" ones (Winner, 1997; Borgmann, 2004). It has been claimed that the relative anonymity (or pseudonymity) by which actions can be performed in cyberspace can lead to antisocial behavior that is performed without retribution. Similarly, computer games enable violent and disrespectful behavior that is often left unpunished, and may even rewarded. The possibility of such consequenceless antisocial behaviors is held to harm psychological development. Also, the ready and availability of Internet pornography, that can be consumed relatively anonymously, has been claimed to promote a harmful form of disinhibition that harms personalities. More generally, Internet can lead to addiction (Young, 2004). The Internet has been claimed to harm learning and cognitive development by offering an associationist rather than a discursive model of knowledge (i.e. hypertext and hypermedia rather than traditional types of texts), which limits the attention span of cognitive subjects. Thus, removing the critical ability of the user, who once questioned the information before accepting it as factual data. Conclusion The endless imposition of the internet will remain a quite controversial issue. It is evident that there is a need to incorporate monitory measures to restrict the information. The development of inert cognitive abilities, which are independent of Internet is becoming a hard reality. This reality needs to be changed and addressed immediately. However, with the ongoing development of E- learning and government regulations of content, Internet can become a tool which drives information across borders in an imperative manner. Notwithstanding that many scholars argue that Internet makes us lose our time and makes unsociable, it still brings much benefits to our society. The main problem is to make it serve only for our benefit. The transport which makes us reach the place quickly is also harmful, but we still can’t do without it. Many people prefer walking when they are not in hurry, so it is essential for us also to open the book or to meet our friends sometimes instead of searching the Web. References Casey, H. (2012). Multimodal learning clubs, Middle School Journal, 2(1), p. 45-49. Retrieved from www.amle.org Edyburn, D. L. (2008). Research and practice associate editor’s column: Technology supports for differentiated instruction. Journal of Special Education Technology, 23(4), 60–62. Flewitt, S., & Wolfe, S. (2010). New technologies, new multimodal literacy practices and young childrens metacognitive development. 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