The Societal Dangers of the Internet

Introductory Paragraph

I am writing this paper to everyone that is in their late teenage years at this moment. Essentially I am writing to anyone that is around my age. I feel that I was born in a very crucial time. When I was younger, the Internet was becoming more available to the public, and it certainly was not easy to use. The main mediums of the media were newspapers and magazine articles. Reading books was still considered fun, and not a laborious task forced upon children by annoying teachers and parents. If you were born around the early 90s, you have seen the rise of the Internet. You know both the simple times before and the exciting times after the explosion of the Internet throughout our culture. I think that this is a very crucial generation because being raised both in a culture that did not focus mainly on the Internet and one that now focuses almost completely on the Internet we are able to bridge the gap between the generations. Because of this I am writing to my generation to warn them to be aware of how the Internet is affecting us. It is alarming not knowing the extent of the consequences of something that has become integral to our lives.

The Societal Dangers of the Internet

Imagine everything that you do in an average day, from waking up in the morning to when you fall asleep at night. Did you think of every time that you got on the Internet? Did you remember the three times that you checked your notifications on Facebook? Did you remember checking your Email or looking up a news article? Odds are that you did not. The Internet has become such a major part of our lives that it is already second nature to get online.  With the variety of what it gives us, it’s almost deceiving how much the Internet affects our lives. Because of how much we use and depend on the Internet it is pertinent that we comprehend the full effect that it has on our lives, especially the negative effects it may have on our life.

The danger of the internet is how quickly it is changing our society, from reading and writing to how we interact socially. This is something that I had not seen myself until looking back on my own life. When I was little the Internet was something that I was rarely on, simply because you could not be on the Internet and have phone access at the same time. So my time on it was limited by my parents and whether or not they were expecting a call. There also was very little to do on the Internet anyway. Games and social networking were just barely beginning and therefore a lot less engaging. This freed up my time to play outside, read books, and just use my imagination to have fun. However, as the Internet grew more easily accessible and entertaining, I started spending more and more time on it. Reading became a chore that took too long to be considered fun. Then entering high school, I bought a laptop through my school. This opened up a whole new world of finding research easily online and staying in touch with my friends. I also started getting all of my news online. I began to read short articles that were quickly understood and then forgotten. “And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation” (Carr). In his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr states this discussing the possibility that the use of the Internet, specifically search engines, is affecting our ability to read long articles and books (Carr). It’s a disturbing thought that the Internet may be causing us to not be able to read as easily or as in depth as we used to. This concept can be seen slowly spreading throughout our culture and society in more ways than just how we use the Internet. Conversations are shorter and to the point; writing about how we feel has dwindled down to a tweet limited to one hundred and sixty characters. The frightening part of this change, is that it is hardly noticeable anymore. Now when I collect my thoughts, they seem to arrange themselves perfectly to fit a witty Facebook status or a clever Tweet.

Another danger that can be seen with the increasing use of the Internet can be seen in the way that people interact with each other both in person and over the Internet. While this does not directly address reading or writing, I think that it indirectly affects how we read and write. In some ways it can be seen as beneficial to writing. We write now more than ever before with blogging and social networking sites. In his article “The New Literacy” Clive Thompson discusses a study done by Andrea Ludson on how the Internet is affecting the way that we write, specifically college students using blogging and social networking sites. In it she comments on how young people are writing more now than ever before because of the Internet. This can be very beneficial to our generation because we are becoming more capable of writing for a specific audience and more knowledgeable of writing in general (Thompson). However, I can see this in a negative light as well. Because it is so much easier to just type out one’s opinion to the faceless mass that is the Internet, we are slowly losing our ability to interact socially in person. So while this increase in writing online is benefiting our ability to write in general, it does not necessarily make it beneficial to society overall.

One negative aspect of this is that we are less able to interact one and one, focusing more on oneself then on others. Christine Rosen makes an interesting point, comparing sites such as Facebook to self-portraits. While the internet does provide us with a fantastic tool for self-expression, it also provides us with the opportunity for self-seeking attention (Rosen 1). I think that this is interesting when compared with Andrew Sullivan’s perspective on writing on the Internet. Through his description of the Internet he sees writing as more open conversation than more traditional forms of writing. He himself says “It renders a writer and a reader not just connected but linked in a visceral, personal way. The only term that really describes this is friendship” (Sullivan). This is an interesting take on something that is causing us to be less conversational in our daily lives. It also does not consider how impersonal this conversation is, focusing more on the idealized “conversations” that occasionally float around the blogosphere. There is more to a traditional conversation than words on a screen. Body language, emotion, and tone are all important to a conversation and all are lost when using the Internet. While many may say that this is no better than letters and books that were all handwritten, I think that there is a difference.

With conversation more easily available on the Internet, it detracts from interaction in person. Why leave your house to talk to a friend when all you have to do is check to see if they’re online? Whereas with letters and books most chose to go out into the real world to communicate simply because it was quicker. Many may question what this has to do with literacy, but I think that all forms of communication are connected in some small way. What do people write about on the internet? They usually don’t write about what they were doing online. They write about the business that they’ve started, the family trips that they go on or the music that they like, because nobody wants to read about the Internet while they’re online. It’s similar to how people are never watching television in a television show. Why watch someone do what you are already doing? “They cater to a nation that now lives in a state of permanent amnesia” (Hedges).  Losing the ability to interact in person will change the way we write because we will not be limited to writing about virtual experiences. We will lose that human experience that provides the excitement and interest of reading.

The Internet is such an all-encompassing concept in today’s society, that it is difficult to see the extent of its effect on us. While we must progress as society progresses it is important that we do not ignore something that has such a significant impact on our lives. Understanding that something has both beneficial and detrimental effects is important. As the generation that is developing just as fast as the Internet, it is important that we acknowledge both the positive and negative aspects of reading and writing before and after the Internet. Our culture is on the precipice of either a spectacular age of culture and knowledge or a dismal age of loss of literacy and in-depth thought. It is important that we maintain balance in how we use the Internet, despite the ever-increasing use in everyday situations.  

Works Cited

Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008. The Atlantic. Web. 27 Jan 2012.

Rosen, Christine. “Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism.” The New Atlantis Number 17, Summer 2007, pp. 15-31.

Scribner, Sylvia. "Literacy in Three Metaphors." American Journal of Education 93 (1984): 6-21. Print.

Sullivan, Andrew. "Why I Blog." The Atlantic Nov. 2008. The Atlantic. Web. 27 Jan. 2012.

Thompson, Clive. “Clive Thompson on the New Literacy”. Wired Magazine. 24 August 2009.