Abusive Usage of Internet Can Destroy Society - Essay Example

?Abusive Usage of Internet Can Destroy Society It is undeniable that one of the best things that ever happened to the modern society is internet. Internet has taken the world by storm and has revolutionized virtually all aspects of life in all societies. Internet has made the world a global society by providing a platform in which people can interact instantly and simultaneously. Additionally, it has provided a convenient means of conducting business, networking and social interaction. In the midst of all these remarkable fetes, internet also poses great threats to the same society that it has benefited. Arguably, use of internet within rational realms is safe and beneficial both in short and long term. Internet usage in the workplace makes the operations quick, effective, and reliable. However, misuse of the internet in an organization ahs detrimental effects that can destroy the organization and the society (Anandarajan, 2006, p. 15-17). This paper, therefore, presents an argument on how abusive usage of internet can destroy society. Sedentary Behavior The fact that internet has made communication possible by just a click of a button poses a serious threat to the society. It is a common phenomenon to see people sitting in front of their computers the whole day and get all their needs accomplished. Whereas it is possible to meet our needs through internet use, the same can potentially pose a great health risk to the society. Sedentary behavior has become the order of the day as the society use internet for virtually all activities. It is only a matter of time before an appreciable size of the society becomes physically inactive. Indeed, some scientists have flagged sedentary behavior as one of the causes of overweight, obesity, stress, and other related diseases. This is certainly destroying the society and the same will continue unless the society develops moderate use of the internet. Overdependence Although the internet is a relevant source of information, overdependence on the internet is arguably one of the factors that have led to a lazy society and poor quality of education. Ideally, all the information we need is in the internet and hence students and researchers have turned to the internet for the provision of this information instead of going to the libraries and other physical sources (University of Notre Dame, 2008, p.1). This has led to immense levels of laziness since the students will only need to sit in front of a computer and do their studies. In addition, the overdependence on the internet has led to poor quality of educations as the students and researches simply rely on the internet information with no further insights to the topics in question. Hence, issues of plagiarism that negate quality are very rampant in the modern information sector. Moreover, excessive time spent on the internet can jeopardize a marriage, as the partners will have no time for marital issues (Young, 1998, p.222-224). Moral and Ethical issues The internet has clear-cut avenues to immorality and unethical behaviors. Where there are no age limitations to the access of internet in the world, the internet contains subtle and immoral information that is highly accessible to all. Contents of pornography (Erooga, 2012, p.14), drug abuse, terrorism, and other unpleasant attributes feature in the internet (Asian School of Cyber Laws, 2003, p.2). Additionally, children can become victims of sex offenders who use the internet to target children, lure them, and communicate with other sex offenders (Davidson, 2008, p.66). Students and minors misuse the internet by accessing the sites that influence them to immoral and unethical behaviors. Teens copy these behaviors thus degrading morality in the society. In addition, internet users misuse the internet by login to music sites like YouTube and downloading videos, movies, and audio music free. These acts promote music piracy and are against music copyrights and patents. Hence, they are unethical as they deny the music producers and artists their due returns. This oppression muted to the artists through piracy is a society problem that is avertable by using the internet reasonably. An organization should institute measures that will ensure proper usage of the internet free from ethical and moral issues hence avoiding lawsuits, effect on profits, and ensure productivity (Barbeito, 2004, p.133). Political Instigations Politicians and political followers have since time immemorial used the internet for various purposes. Many politicians have used the internet to solicit support in their political adventures of which many have succeeded. In the US, the followers of Obama and McCain did log in to the internet and offer them psychological and even financial support to boost their success (Smith, 2009. P.1). However, many politicians and their followers to launch attacks against their opponents have used the internet. Propagandas, hate speeches, and demeaning information against political opponents well take place in various internet sites. A politician will unleash to the world and possible voters degrading information against their opponents with an aim of denying them support and crashing the support they already have. Hence, the misuse of internet has led to unethical, unwarranted, unworthy leaders ascending to power through this dubious means. The unworthy leaders will subsequently offer poor, corrupt, unethical, and biased governance thus degrading the society. Additionally, many governments in various occasions use the internet to launch information attacks against other governments with an aim of intimidating them, coercing them, or inciting them to war. The use of fax messages, email messages, voice calls, and video conferencing take place over the internet. As such, many world wars take place because of abuse of the internet. Indeed, the Al-Qaida issue threatening messages and warning to the world especially the US through the internet. Some of these threats have actually come to reality prompting war in the world. On the other hand, the US Department of Defense has launched videos and images of terrorist in the internet with an aim of demeaning their influence. Moreover, the recent upsurge of revolutions in the Middle East relate to internet misuse. Demonstrators send incitement messages and videos to their colleagues urging to participate or continue with the revolutions. As a result, the violence has spread from one country to another via the convincing information sent over the internet. Indeed, were it not for the internet, the revolution in Tunisia would have been contained. Hence, because of internet misuse, violence has spread in the Middle East, and although the demonstrators may be having genuine concerns, many people have lost their lives, others suffered, political instigations took place, and the society accrued negative economic affects. Cyber Crime The modern world manifests technological advancements that have led to major benefits towards the general society. Internet use is part of the technological advancements and its use is arguably the best technological application. Because of these growing treads in the world of technology, internet experts have come to being helping in the effective use of the internet. However, the same experts have gone out of their way to misuse the internet in articulating cyber crime. Man-in-the middle is one of the significant network crimes in the technology world. In this case, a person uses the internet to maneuver their way between two networks and hijacks their communication. They stay between the two networks sending the wrong information that can lead to conflicts (Schoen and Galperin, 2011, p.1). In recent times, the world has experience high-class internet hacking where the hackers access government, secretive, and crucial information, with no consent. This has led to destabilized governments, obstruction in the spread of information, and subsequent sending of threats and wars (Denning, 2011, p. 1). Others include Spam, phishing, Pharming, and Willful distribution of malware. In recent times, a certain US government site was hacked and government secretive interactions between the US and Kenya exposed in the name of Wiki leaks. Moreover, a certain hacker was able to access most governments’ websites in the world. Terrorists also hack international websites when they plan attacks. Indeed, cyber crime is very rampant in the world and poses a very great risk to the society. At the time of the crime, the cyber criminals are able to control the global society. Degraded societal values poor natural interaction The internet has availed easier, quick, convenient, and interactive modes of communication. People in different countries can chat, hold meetings, and debate via the internet. Most significantly, the social sites in the internet provide avenue for teens and other people to socialize and interact with their friends online in real time. Although there are many advantages of reasonable use of the social sites, there are equally significant demerits of social sites that have led to degradation of societal values and poor natural interaction (Kiesler, 1997, p.186-195). Actually, the internet reduced physical and natural interactions in a big way. You only need to log in to start interacting with the world. This has led to reduced parental guidance, as parents never get a chance to interact with their children as they rely on internet avenues for that. This has led to decrease in human values as people rarely interact in human ways. The social sites generate a lot of influence and peer pressure that in most cases is always negative. The children adapt to lifestyles of their role models who are mostly immoral and unethical as they interact via the internet. As a result, the society has experienced moral degradation from the misuse of the internet (Kiesler, 1997, p.186-195). Loss of Cultural Identity The lack of physical and personal connections between parents and their children offer no chance to the transmission of cultures and beliefs. Instead, the internet users derive their cultures from the internet since that is where they spend most of their time and their friends and role models are in the internet. The misuse of internet undermines traditions and advocates for modernity. As such, people no longer indentify with their culture a situation that has negatively affected the society (Kiesler, 1997, p.186-195). I conclusion, I observe that internet is one of the technological advancements with immense the benefits. Reasonable use of the internet is very beneficial. However, the misuse of the internet leads to great societal problems. Some of the societal problems associated with abusive use of the internet include societal moral degradation, loss of cultural identity political instigations, cyber crime, sedentary behavior, overdependence, and moral and ethical demerits. Of concern is the fact that moderate and reasonable use of the internet will avert these societal problems. Works Cited Anandarajan, M 2006, The Internet, and workplace transformation London: M.E. Sharpe, 2006 Asian School of Cyber Laws 2003, Protecting Children from Internet Abuse, viewed 4 April 2012, < http://www.asianlaws.org/fact/ebook.pdf> Barbeito, C 2004, Human Resource Policies, and Procedures for Nonprofit Organizations London: John Wiley & Sons, 2004 Davidson, J 2008, Child sexual abuse: media representations and government reactions London: Taylor & Francis, 2008 Denning, D 2011, activism, Hacktivism, and Cyberterrorism: The Internet as a Tool for Influencing Foreign Policy The Information warfare site 2011, viewed 4 April 2012, < http://www.iwar.org.uk/cyberterror/resources/denning.htm> Erooga, M 2012, Creating Safer Organizations: Practical Steps to Prevent the Abuse of Children by Those Working With Them London: John Wiley & Sons, 2012 Kiesler, S 1997, Culture of the internet London: Routledge, 1997 Schoen, S, and Galperin, E 2011, Iranian Man-in-the-Middle Attack Against Google Demonstrates Dangerous Weakness of Certificate Authorities Electronic Frontier Foundation 2011, viewed 4 April 2012, < https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/08/iranian-man-middle-attack-against-google> Smith, A 2009, the internet role in campaign 2008 Pew internet 2009, viewed 4 April 2012, < http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/6--The-Internets-Role-in-Campaign-2008.aspx> University of Notre Dame 2008, internet Dependence University Counseling Centre 2008, viewed 4 April 2012, < http://ucc.nd.edu/self-help/internet-dependence/> Young, K 1998, caught in the net: how to recognize the signs of Internet addiction--and a winning strategy for recovery John Wiley and Sons, 1998 Read More