The Internet is applauded as the best thing that has revolutionized every industry and sector in the world. However, the different merits that internet has on the way the world operates does not mean that it is perfect. It is worth noting that the internet has its shortcomings which can be directly attributed to it. It is important to understand the shortcomings of this great invention that brought about the information age to be able to not only understand them but also seek for solutions to the problems. One of the major challenges that came with the internet is cyber bullying.
Cyberbullying involves sending of messages that are meant to threaten or demean a victim through mobile phones, emails, and social media or threatening to release contents such as images, videos or documents on the online sites as a form of blackmail (Taylor, Fritsch and Liederbach, 134). Cyberbullying acts are directly resultant of adaptation of internet and other communication technologies through which the messages are sent over. One of the main factor that makes the internet and another communication technologies suitable to use for cyber bullying is that the perpetrator can easily hide his/her identity from the victim unlike in the physical bullying where the victim and perpetrator have to be in the same room for bullying to happen. The fact that the victim does not know the perpetrator often causes more harm than the physical bullying which one can run away from the bully. In cyberbullying, there is no escape as people have become dependent on technological gadgets for performing all tasks.
The second challenge that arises from increased adoption of the Internet is the degradation of social life especially in families where everyone is busy on their social networks most of the time leading to the rise of the term “together alone”. The concept of together alone refers to a situation where people are chatting with friends in chatrooms, via text messages or on social media sites, yet they are physically alone in their houses. The effects of the internet on the social lives of users is explained by Bargh and McKenna as a cause of depression and loneliness, and also the less the time one spent on face-to-face communication with family and friends (583).
The spread of pornographic materials and uncontrolled spreading of uncensored content is another shortcoming of internet use. Censoring the internet is one of the hard things that any single entity such as the government can try to do in the current world (Bargh and McKenna, 577). Web sites containing pornographic materials only require a declaration that one has attained the legal age of an adult (mostly 18 years) before you can access the videos (Jackson, vo Eye and Biocca, paragraph 6). There is no validating way to ensure that ten-year-old children who access the home computer in the absence of their parents do not access pornographic materials online. Also, the inability of governments to censor online content has led to terrorists using online platforms to advance their terror and also influence careless young youth to join the terror groups (Taylor, Fritsch and Liederbach, 57). Videos of the beheading of captured “infidels” by the Islamic State militants and other terror groups are meant to provoke fear from the people. Communication via emails is another child of the internet that allows sharing of explicit content by teenagers.
While arguing for Internet use in the previous paper, it was mentioned that the most important resource that anyone can have in this age is information. Surveillance in the information age is easy as people easily share their personal information on social networking sites (Eriksson, 85). People are today updating their age, mobile phones, and even what they are doing in real-time to their Facebook or other social sites. It is, therefore, easy for criminals to gather and process information on somebody hence presenting them (criminals) with a chance of hurting their victims (Bargh and McKenna, 576). Hackers and other cybercriminals manipulate cameras installed in people homes to plan how to steal from their victims or blackmail them. In the past, people have had their bank accounts drained by criminals or their house alarm systems hacked before robberies are committed (Taylor, Fritsch and Liederbach, 145).
Internet use also has an adverse effect on the study patterns for students. Students no longer conduct deep studies as there is a wide variety of summarized notes on almost every subject, hence luring the learners to take the shortcuts and use the synthesized contents to pass examinations (Dias, paragraph 12). This leads to half-baked professionals who used shortcuts to finish their studies and get good grades without acquiring the necessary knowledge to perform fully in a specific field. People also no longer read newspapers as they can read the recap of the top stories on their tweeter timeline or Facebook.
In conclusion, despite the many advantages that the Internet is associated with, there are several demerit that its adoption has brought to people. Cyberbullying is caused directly by Internet use and adoption of other communication technologies. Social lives are affected especially for heavy internet users who instead have less time to relate with their families and friends as some completely ignore the traditional media such as radio. The problem of censoring online content means that even children can access pornographic contents while also the terrorists can spread fear to multitudes and while also attracting careless youth to join their terror groups. Cybercrime and surveillance also come in due to the advent of the internet as people can manipulate webcams of personal laptops to spy on unsuspecting people.
References
Bargh, John A., and Katelyn Y. A. McKenna. "The Internet and Social Life". Annual Review of Psychology 55.1 (2004): 573-590. Web. 19 Mar. 2016.
Dias, Patrícia. "Today’S Internet as Research Object: Towards Setting a Common Ground for Internet Studies". SSRN Electronic Journal n. pag. Web. 19 Mar. 2016.
Eriksson, Jakob. "Privacy Is Dead: Long Live Surveillance Symmetry". IEEE Internet Computing 15.1 (2011): 81-83. Web.
Jackson, Linda A., Alexander vo Eye, and Frank Biocca. "Children and Internet Use: Social, Psychological and Academic Consequences For Low-Income Children". http://www.apa.org. N.p., 2003. Web. 19 Mar. 2016.
Taylor, Robert W, Eric J Fritsch, and John Liederbach. Digital Crime and Digital Terrorism. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall Press, 2014. Print.
