Geographic Society
Effects of internet on the society
So far, the Internet has had a remarkable impact on society. Although it has made life easier in many ways, the issue that has led to a great extent of debate is whether the influence is positive or negative.
Some of the negative effects include easy access to pornographic sites with little or no restrictions in terms of age limit. This compromises the safety and moral values of the young children having access to the Internet since in most cases it leads them to sexual addictions. The Internet has also facilitated cases of paedophilia since paedophiles use the Internet to target innocent children who are online. In 2007, a study in Britain showed that this is the number one reason why children under the age of thirteen are becoming susceptible to rape and sexual abuse. Internet crimes have also been reported to be on the increase. The effect of this is not only felt by the fraud victims, the law enforcement officials also have a hard task in catching and punishing the people responsible because the Internet enables the crime to be committed in different geographical areas. Due to these and other negative elements, some say that because the Internet is not regulated, it contributes to crime and decreases the safety of human beings. However, despite these negative aspects, there is little doubt about how useful the Internet can be. These include:
Communication
The most popular use of the internet is communication, with email topping the list of all the technologies used. The Internet has facilitated fast communication irrespective of the geographical positions at a very cheap and affordable price. One can communicate with someone who is on the other part of the world within a fraction of a second. Some other types of communication technologies possible via Internet also include email discussion groups, chat groups, and instant messaging. There are also networking sites like blogs and social sites like Facebook and Twitter. These are unique to networked computer environments and have become widely popular because of the Internet. These forms of communication help people to socialize, network and explore different cultures and ethnicities easily amidst the busy schedules of day to day activities without need of travel hence improving peoples’ livelihood. Other technologies, including teleconferencing and Internet telephony, are also available on the Internet. They also are adaptations of other technologies to the Internet. These are very important in the business world. Seminars, conferences or any other business meetings can be held without the people being in the same room, building or even country. This helps in saving time and travel expenses at the same time eliminating inconveniences that might be caused by someone being out of office the whole day.
As a form of mass communication, Internet has helped in activism e.g. online petitions, where one can be able to post a petition on an issue and collect signatures online. The Internet has also been used to call for revolutions. An example is the just concluded Egyptian revolution which is reported to have started by an Internet activist (someone sending invites to people for the protest through Facebook).
Information
Another great advantage of Internet is provision of information. Any kind of information or data on any topic can be obtained from the Internet. With availability of search sites like Google, Yahoo, MSN and many others this is made possible. This is especially useful to students for it enables them to get more information on what they may be covering in there syllabus that probably their teacher won’t mention. On this note, the Internet has also become a great pathway to research because information on all that has been done on a subject can be obtained easily hence allowing one to know areas of necessary improvements or adjustments and also areas of great concern. Researchers also use the Internet to share with others on what they have worked on and their findings by posting their publications and their written journals on Internet.
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This entry was posted on Friday, September 30th, 2005 at 6:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.