Introduction
Today it is eminent that the role of computers has a huge impact on every person. Computerization has taken over the majority of the societal roles and has dramatically improved lives. The battle with technology is dynamic and a continuous process expected to bring about new challenges each day.
This primary influence comes from Internet usage, which seems to be very vibrant, particularly among the youth, due to the stable and anticipated creativity. That’s why the author will explore the negative impact of the Internet on society in the essay.
Society is dependent on technology today. Having computers in the workplace, homes, and mobility enable effectiveness and efficiency. Today’s technology has advanced to a point where there is massive support for security intelligence. The Internet, therefore, enables resourceful communication and sharing of any form of information, whether it is useful or abusive.
Thesis Statement about Internet
“The Internet technology is affecting an individual’s life in a negative way.” This paper examines the real situational effects of internet technology on users and forms an analysis of how the Internet can cause depression. This negative effects of the Internet essay also focuses on the intellectual behavior of people regarding effects and other cyber-related crimes.
Literature Review
Effects of Internet usage on the brain and behavioral development
One prominent impact of internet technology is the creation of a democratic media. The broadcast is international and free.
According to McDonnell (p.1) the highly recognized sites that allow a personal view makes the aspect of internet publishing easy and accessible to the majority without the need for technical knowledge. Internet tools in the majority of the search engines such as Google promote democratic media and form a basis for other macro-media such as weblogs, videocasts, wikis and podcasts.
The universal knowledge behind these tools is to enhance knowledge transmission by allowing direct and literal subscription and automatic collection of text, audio or visual data. Internet is thus a good source of peer pressure, particularly among the youth.
Through internet usage, people are putting up with negative information and giving up personal trust and values, and such pressure becomes a form of a negative force. In most cases, it would be invariable to have a link between the development of the brain and the behaviors. The Internet provides high emotional or intense influences, thus leading to a poor decision such as crime related activities.
The brain of a teenager is under some less optimal control mechanisms and thus under higher probability to act from guts or instincts in submitting to internet posting that relates to criminal activities, especially when confronted with stressful, depressing or emotional strains.
Internet users are hastier, insistent, emotionally volatile, high-risk takers, proactive and reactive to strain or stress and are thus at risk of peer influences (McDonnell, p.1). They focus on the short time payoffs, underrate any long-term consequences, and are therefore prone to looking for an alternative course of actions such as cyber crimes.
Psychological Effects of Internet on Young People
Young people are often curious; therefore, their time on the internet is the time of experimenting and seeking newness. The adolescent brain may be more vulnerable to social discomforts due to internet addiction. These social effects can bring about potential social experiences, such as contributing to the feeling of less shyness, more interaction, ability to hack others’ information and discover more from the internet. Some of the unrestricted information on the internet also causes negative behaviors.
Phonographic material causes negative anxiety and inability to make decisions makes them feel the need to explore their sexuality and deal with different emotions concern with uncertain and impulsive activities since human beings have to make decisions based on the challenge at hand.
There are many different reasons why people use the internet, probably to relax, have fun, find rest, forget problems, and mostly to meet friends. The youth mainly engage in internet activities because they easily find their styles. They suffer from external or internal anxieties while trying to be like others. Internet usage is fine as long as it serves the role of determining the right character in a person.
The social interaction on the internet is arguably one of the reasons why American teenagers mimic the same lifestyles and have similar talking style. People in a group network act differently and do some weird activities they would probably not do on their own. This is the identity of a group as opposed to that of an individual. The control placed on these behaviors can easily crumple before the achievement of a valued need.
One of the huge challenges of internet usage among children and teenagers is increased maturity and changes in the lifestyle that easily leads to criminal activities or conflicts. If not controlled, internet usage leads to addiction or continual usage thus a trend that causes solitary usage and depression. In most instances, when solitary use occurs, then the addict has more significant future problems related to chronic addiction and isolation from the rest or even communication problems that may lead to mental-related complications (Kelland, p.1).
If not controlled, internet usage leads to addiction. This form of usage thus causes friendlessness and depression. In most instances, when solitary occurs, then the internet addict has more significant future problems related to other kinds of chronic addictions and communication problems that may lead to mental-related complications.
According to Glor, (p.1), addictive surfing can have a severe impact on mental health, “internet addicts” spent proportionately more time browsing sexually satisfying websites, online gaming sites, and online communities. They replace real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites and this in time is replacing normal social function, which might have a link to psychological disorders like depression and addiction.
Cyberbullying is also becoming a common trend where we find rude comments and insulting words that one would never use in person. The police explorations of whether cyber intimidation was the root cause of teenage suicide in the New York town of West Islip, is a clear indication of how internet addiction is contributing to depression. That Soccer star Alexis Pilkington, 17, took her own life on March 21, 2010, following social disturbances from social networking sites (Glor, p.1).
Analysis of Internet addiction as a psychological illness
According to Citizen (p.1), when someone is, using the internet, it is possible to suffer from several illnesses or addicted. The illness or condition depends on what you are doing and how long you will be online. When used to cyber cafe visits to read e-mail, one is tempted to take more time to excessive gaming, chatting and text messaging.
This can lead to brain illness because people often neglect essential livelihood requirement such as sleep or food due to internet addiction, they suffering but consciously assume it is a healthy lifestyle. This chronic illness can smoothly go unnoticed unless a therapist intercedes (Citizen, p.1).
The most affected people are those who are educated but socially shy. In line with Citizen (p.1), they are mostly the middle age women. They use computers as an escape route from reality. A computer does affect people’s lives and cause emotional upsets to the person who wants to be pre-occupied online for a long time.
Effects of Internet on Lifestyles
“The Chinese government launched a national wide campaign after a survey found that 14 percent of their teens are vulnerable to becoming addicted to the internet” (Eunjung Cha, p.1). According to the government, they are trying to stamp out what the communist youth league calls “a grave social problem” (Eunjung Cha, p.1).
The state policies focus more on eliminating cybercrime, which seem to ruin lives for instance cases where causes of assassination have a connection to mimicked characters in online entertainments. The internet is equally forming a sequence of suicide-related cases and poor studies, especially among the youth.
Depression and suicidal thoughts are higher among the students deemed “internet-addicts” (Eunjung Cha, p.1). According to self-report questionnaires, gender is not a differential factor. Internet addiction was likely to affect males, as well as females and cause children-major depression disorder.
Eunjung Cha, (p.1) indicated that users are becoming addicted to the internet similarly that individuals become addicted to drugs or alcohol. This internet addiction finally leads to academic, social and occupational impairments. According to Eunjung Cha, (p.1), individuals on chat rooms may use tactics, such as peer pressure to arouse feelings and thus course them to commit suicide.
Effects of internet on schools
Today, digital technology has become completely part of the youth’s life. It has fully incorporated all the social characteristics in their lives. Many students pick up new styles of learning, communicating with new people and formulating creativity. The behaviors are like permanent fixtures into their reasoning styles and operating procedures.
It is common to find a situation where children use knowledge-gathering techniques that appear alien to adults, mainly their parents and teachers. In relation to Lane (p.1), such advancements have severe impacts on the education platform.
People have established ways of harnessing the technological aspects into career settings for decades but failed to implement security and ways of limiting information access. There is some resistance on usage, but implementation is a good indication that educators appreciate the effectiveness and importance of technology.
According to McDonnell (p.1), the education sector is the most affected by internet usage; students can gather techniques of hacking networks and finding illegal ways of accessing information. This is arguably the reason why institutions are also not enthusiastic enough to embrace full technological platforms such as digital networks and incorporation of social networks to education systems. They focus on security matters due to potential threats posed by social network technologies.
Conclusion
Current social settings can give the impression that internet usage is under control, but a closer look at the phenomenon indicates that every day a person starts to use and subsequently becomes addicted to the negative aspects available in the net.
Possibly the pressure to resist deception is tremendous and persistent unless there is an intervention, especially by the authorities such as parents when the person involved, is a minor. Sometimes failure to control internet access is due to the current social setting for instance; most of the parents are full-time employees probably looking for the overtime and better remuneration in support of the family.
They may be trying to work out one area while the other collapses. The biggest problem in the majority of the minds lies on the reason why people especially the youth are misusing the internet. The most likely answer is within the family setting. They emulate their parents who are their closest role models.
They embrace the social settings and meet friends who deceive them into engaging in social mischiefs such as pornography, online gambling, and information-hacking activities. They may also suffer from solitary use due to stress. Whichever the case, parents are the most effective cure to the vice. It is the parental responsibility to face the problem and talk out with the teenagers on the dangers involved before things are out of hand.
Works Cited
Citizen, Ottawa. “Recognize Internet addiction as a mental illness, MD urges that compulsive e-mailing and text messaging could soon become classified as an official brain illness.” Canada: CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc .2008. Web.
Eunjung Cha, Ariana. “In China, Stern Treatment For Young Internet ‘Addicts’.”
Washington, WA: The Washington Post Foreign Service. 2007. Web.
Glor, Jeff. “Cyberbullying Continued After Teen’s Death.” New York, NY: CBS Interactive Inc. March 29, 2010. Web.
Kelland, Kate. “Study links excessive Internet use to depression.” London, UK: Lane, Reuters Inc. Feb 3, 2010. Web.
Lane, Christopher. “Side Effects From quirky to serious, trends in psychology and psychiatry.” New York, NY: Sussex Publishers, LLC. 2009. Web.
McDonnell, Dean. “How does the internet affect the way we mentally behave?” Hubpages Inc. (n.d.) Web.