Has the arrival of the internet done more harm than good?
All the Yes points:
- The internet has become a major source of information for many people. However, online information …
- Everyone’s privacy is greatly harmed by the internet. We can quickly see what politicians and celeb…
- You can choose any identity you want when you are online. Many people hide behind profiles they hav…
- Many people are just addicted to the internet. They can’t stop browsing, they are hooked on gaming …
- Since the nineties, instant messaging and emailing has been used to extract passwords, bank account …
- The internet has allowed big companies to capture a lot of business online while smaller, local comp…
All the No points:
The internet has become a major source of information for many people. However, online information …
Yes because…
The internet has become a major source of information for many people. However, online information has usually not gone through the same checks as newspaper articles or books. There is a higher risk that some of the facts or quotations from a particular source in an article are false. Whereas newspapers might lose customers if people find out they gave been ‘selling lies’, a blog can be easily deleted. If people base their opinions on information they find online, they could well be basing their opinion on false facts. Since the internet gives equal space to material of greatly varying quality, this is a serious risk.
No because…
The internet gives millions of people access to information they would not otherwise have had, which is a huge benefit. And people who read the news online are not that easy to fool. Especially when you spend a lot of time online, you can tell bloggers who just want to shout from bloggers who carefully refer to their sources. The type of people this argument worries about are not the type of people that read high quality newspapers in the first place, they would read the trashy ones. The problem of bad information and news making is not unique to the internet; there are lots of trashy magazines as well. We learn in schools to double-check our sources and not believe everything we read, and we can apply that skill whilst surfing the internet.
Everyone’s privacy is greatly harmed by the internet. We can quickly see what politicians and celeb…
Yes because…
Everyone’s privacy is greatly harmed by the internet. We can quickly see what politicians and celebrities are doing when the paparazzi posts news pictures online, but people can also see what we’ve been doing. Some sites store information. Some ask us to fill in information which can be sold to other sites for commercial purposes. Once we post something online, it is almost impossible to erase it from the net. For example, if I break up with a person, they can take revenge and post embarrassing photos of me online. There have been numerous court cases where a woman demanded that her ex remove some privately taken photos from a dating site, so that she would be left alone. Unfortunately, the law cannot protect your right to privacy in this area.
No because…
You are the first and most important person to protect your own privacy. Don’t fill in private information, if you don’t want people to know about it. There are laws protecting you from websites that just sell on your information, but if you give personal information out without being sure that it will be properly used you only have yourself to blame.
You can choose any identity you want when you are online. Many people hide behind profiles they hav…
Yes because…
You can choose any identity you want when you are online. Many people hide behind profiles they have made up. They start making nasty remarks on public forums or chat rooms. They would never have normally said these things, but because they can hide behind an identity they start upsetting and hurting others. Even though other people can try to stop them from this behaviour, their warnings are not as effective as a warning from someone you know very well, like a friend, a parent or a teacher. The internet’s anonymity allows them to show sides of themselves that, for good reasons, they normally wouldn’t have shown. This increases the risk that, because they get away with it online, they show similar behaviour in their real life. This harms everyone.
No because…
Against this group of people who misbehave online is a group of people who have finally found individuals with similar mindsets. Not everyone likes the same things and the more unusual your preferences, the harder it will be to find friends. The internet has finally given many people a place where they can be themselves, and where they can meet likeminded people. It is a great relief for them that they do not have to fear being discovered by people they know.
You cannot let a small group of badly behaved people ruin the freedom of many others. We should work on creating better policies to deal with rude people, but we should not go back to the old situation where people who are different in some way end up feeling isolated and lonely.
Many people are just addicted to the internet. They can’t stop browsing, they are hooked on gaming …
Yes because…
Many people are just addicted to the internet. They can’t stop browsing, they are hooked on gaming and they spend too much time indoors. Instead of going out for a walk or play outside, they sit behind their computers for hours. A sad consequence of the addiction is that they are so used to high speed information by just clicking on the next link that they can no longer appreciate a good book, or a nice conversation with a friend. By failing to take exercise they grow fat and unhealthy. Their family life suffers and their only relationships are online – they can’t cope in the real world.
No because…
There is nothing wrong with sitting indoors. It’s better to sit indoors and actively research and surf online than to sit in front of a television and passively take in what the TV company decided you should watch. 20 years ago people used to worry kids spent too much time inside watching TV, but viewing hours have dropped as people choose to use the internet instead. There are lots of educational games and news sites we can browse around and learn from in much more effective way than television could ever provide. Furthermore, many people keep up their social contacts online. Saying they cannot appreciate a nice conversation, or a good book is just a wild claim.
Since the nineties, instant messaging and emailing has been used to extract passwords, bank account …
Yes because…
Since the nineties, instant messaging and emailing has been used to extract passwords, bank account details or credit card numbers. This phenomenon is called phishing. A phisher uses professional-looking websites and profiles, and tens of thousands of people have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to phishers. If we could better control who contacts us, this would not have happened on such a large scale.
No because…
It is unfortunate that people who are willing to help have been abused by others. However, there have been many campaigns that raise awareness about phishing. Governments and banks have provided guidelines about how to recognize phishers. We should firmly deal with the crime of phishing, but not forget how much easier our life has become now that we can do our financial business online and via bank cards.
The internet has allowed big companies to capture a lot of business online while smaller, local comp…
Yes because…
The internet has allowed big companies to capture a lot of business online while smaller, local companies have lost out. And because the internet makes it easier to get work done abroad, jobs have left many western countries for low-wage countries abroad.
No because…
The internet has brought greater prosperity, allowing lots of different businesses to set up online. This has brought a lot more choice to ordinary people, and also driven down prices as people find it easier to compare different companies products. Small businesses can cheaply set up online and find a market for their goods and services. And by making it easier to work anywhere with an internet connection, it has allowed many more people to work from home and to share out projects with co-workers over the whole world.
Hey without the internet you wouldn’t even have this post plus without the internet everyone wouldn’t even know what is going on in the world and the information thingy everyone knows and should have been taught that you do not give random sources your personal information.
Yes
so true
Yes
Far more harm than the good it provides. Agree with all the comments about how disruptive it is, but I also look at it from an analytical “insider” view. I have been in the tech business for 24 years. The first 10 to 12 were fun and exciting trying to discover new and better ways. However, I and many in the industry began to notice a shift. It grew and continues to grow too fast. Breakthroughs became hypertensous expectations, 8 hour work days became 24 hour workdays, recreation and family time disappeared, automation and access has made us gluttonous, text vs. talk has made us misunderstood and misrepresented, false or malleable information made us blindly biased, etc. etc.
It’s extremely dangerous! Someday soon, our reliance on it will come back to bite us. As we grow more dependent on it and integrate it into our daily lives, it’s vulnerability grows 10 fold. Used as a weapon of influence is scary enough, but I fear someday it will be radically taken over and we’ll all be held hostage or it will be shutdown with no recovery. When it does a global virus pandemic will be the least of our worries although is providing a mild glimpse into what it will be like. No medical or bank info, hospitals and power plants will be immobilized, shortages of everything, the list goes on and on. There’s no realistic expectation of how far we’ll be pushed back as civilized people. There are far more of us than ever before, with fewer skills than ever before to survive it.
But, maybe that’s what is required to rebuild and use it properly by future generations. More importantly to reunite us as family, friend and community and realize it’s value. Failure is the best teacher. This one will be monumental.
As someone who’s been around since before the internet, I can say that it’s brought more harm than good. Human social interactions have worsened in general: anxiety/depression is epidemic, social supports have broken down and stressful isolation has increased, courteousness has almost disappeared, people are too wired up to pay attention to each other and their environment, tech addiction is real and debilitating, people have lost useful skills and resilience, online discussions are predominantly toxic, a great many are falling for nonsense and conspiracy theories, youth are too easily and quickly radicalized (hate crimes, mass shootings, and terrorism are epidemic and normalized), fascism has spread worldwide, its helped elect many more dangerous populists like Trump/Bolsonaro/Duterte, its increased global energy use / resource extraction / species extinctions and worsened the likelihood of civilization surviving manmade climate change, etc.
Like any new technology, the internet has brought its own series of disasters; and like all technologies, it must be much more regulated to minimize its harmful impacts and potential to wipe us all out.
Agreed
Hey, I do think that the internet is like a zebra. Some parts are a danger zone, and some are quite good! I’m doing a debate and I’m affermative for the internet causes more harm then good.
Can I have a few pointers. Or rebuts???
Thx!
Demi🌻
Nice bro
Internet compresses time and space. It is widely known that internet has been perhaps the most technologic innovation in the field of communication. As everbody knows we should critically use internet to find information. Despite the general known benefits I find internet as the most dangerous thing.
Moreover, we may as well list pages of drawbacks but I list only few of them.Reaching harmful information, cyber bullying, identify theft, armour and heroin using,hacking accounts…These can happen 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.Childeren are being cyberbullied too, their pictures are being used for it.This cruelty is absolutely wrong.
In addition more identfy theft also steal key pieces of personally identiable informations. The information can be used to obtain credit, services in the name of victim,or provide the thief with false credentials. In addition to running up debt, in rare cases, an imposter would provide wrong identification to police, creating a criminal record or leaving outstanding arrest warrants for the person whose identy has been stolen.
What does being social actually mean? Well, according to the Macmillan Dictionary, being social is being in in situations and activities that involve being with other people, especially for enjoyment. Social networking sites do more harm than good.
The negative effects social networking sites can have on individuals effects them emotionally, physically and mentally. This encompasses cyber bullying, the dangers of paedophilia, illegal activities which children can get involved with and the mental illness issues as a result of social networking sites.
Social networking sites are harming society as a whole. I will explain how our ideals of “Social” have changed and how that changing, is harming our society.
Social used to be saying, “Hi, I’m Melanie, Nice to meet you. Want to go out for a cuppa coffee?” Now, our ideals have changed. Now being social is, “Oh look! Some random stranger friended me! I have such a social life.” But do you actually? See according to the definition I said at the beginning, being social is being in situations that involve being with other people. Sure, you can be in a very interesting conversation or situation on social media with other people, but when you’re in that interesting conversation, where are you actually? Are you at home, alone? Are you on the bus? Are you sitting at a restaurant, alone, waiting for your boss, or with your date? How about your friends, where are they? What are they doing? Let’s say you’re on a date. You and your date are sitting, side by side, texting. Maybe you’re texting each other, maybe you’re not. Either way, you’re doing what we nowadays see as social, but in reality, you’re doing the opposite. You’re being unsocial. But because we have changed the ideology around social, we don’t always see it for what it is. So here’s the hard facts, by being “social” to a bunch of random strangers on Instagram or snapchat, you’re ultimately being “unsocial” in the real world. And the real world is where it matters. Digital worlds don’t last, but the choices you make out here, in the real world do. Yes, there is a life outside your cyber walls.
Well said Melanie.
You have to be nieve not to see how different people are now.
Any reasonable person can see this…
Many are now sacrificing values…. sincere, meaningful and (memorable) engagement with family, friends, spouses and children, for distraction. It’s a massive hinderance and problematic to the relationships we have now.
I understand the positives and Im sympathetic for some people who can’t access information easily or meet others in extremely small towns.
Where to find the “middle ground” … I don’t know”
The main issue I have is the “dependency” on the internet and social media.
The Internet bring more good than harm for ordinary citizen, because it allow real speech freedom and knowledge sharing.
The Internet bring more harm than good for government and media authorities, because they are no longer monopolise knowledge and citizen’s voice.
Loss of privacy is big issue for Internet, but for ordinary people, it doesn’t really matter. Privacy is only a big issue for celebrities.
Its obvious that things are not always designed for a wrong purpose …….it depends how u use it .And when it comes to internet , it would be so ungreatful go say that it does more harm (for instance , people who are taking part in this debate are even able to do this via using internet). Its of great use until and unless u add a proverb ‘mis’ to it ( by yourself).
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The Internet has never bring more harm than good. If I may say, the Internet has achieve more then what it was created to for.
Now when you count the number of continent we have in the world and you omit the Internet, then content is not complete.
Now one can be in his or her apartment and travel through the world with seconds.
We can say the Internet is 100% safe or good but due to ignorance, certain group of people have try to paint the internet black.
The internet is my second love and it is totally cool. You hook up with persons you will not meet in real life and lot more.