The Internet Is Having a Negative Effect on the Quality of Social Life - Literature review Example

Negative impact of internet on social life The internet has been in use for several years now and it is being used into everyday life. People have embraced internet to an extend that it has affected them negatively. The internet is not good for underage since there are bad content such as pornography and other bad sexual behavior that have affected social life. Many people in the society are giving more importance to internet friends than their family and real life friends. Internet is also to blame for spread of drugs and substance abuse, many youths are able to know drug market and how they can get them through the internet. Studies have shown that students take more time on the internet surfing (browsing) negative internet content than studying which affects their academic results. This paper looks at the negative effects of internet on social life in our society today. The internet is the latest technology break group in the communication between people who are at a distance after telegraph, telephone radio and television. The internet is a technology that has overcome distance challenges and has been able to reach many people concurrently. However, the internet has provided users with an opportunity to use it with identifying themselves or even meet with other groups who have similar interests and values. Looking back at the early days of internet, the effects of psychological well-being, the formation and maintenance of individual relationships, group memberships and social identity, the work place and community involvement can be examined. Researchers has pointed out that internet has greatly impacted on the self-expression, affiliation and completion of individuals in the society. Internet is an interactive mode of communication just like telephone and has the ability to overcome distance barriers in a communication channel. The internet is also mass where an individual can communicate to many people at the same time using a single web page. The receivers of this information are not limited to the geographical location. Having massive content reaching many people concurrently has encouraged pornographic maters to be distributed on the internet. Users in the process become addicted to the internet hence spent most the time surfing instead of being with their families and friends. Users who spend much of their time on the internet in the process become depressed and feel loneliness, being ‘locked’ on the internet the whole day weakens the relationship with neighbors and the community. The internet has been feared as the ultimate tool that will change lives of many people. “...will change almost every aspect of our lives---private, social, cultural, economic and political…because [they] deal with the very essence of human society: communication between people. Earlier technologies, from printing to the telegraph…have wrought big changes over time. But the social changes over the coming decades are likely to be much more extensive, and to happen much faster, than any in the past, because the technologies driving them are continuing to develop at a breakneck pace. More importantly, they look as if together they will be as pervasive and ubiquitous as electricity.” (Manasian 2003, p. 4). Negative effect of internet on how people talk to each other Internet communication such as emails have different features of communication compared to face-to-face communication. In electronic mails there are no expression of feelings such has laughing of sad while communicating. This affects how people communicate in real life because they copy the talking expression of the internet. Sproull and Kiesler (1985), came up with a filter model which looked at the technological features of emails and other computer based communications. Computer based communication, according to the study limits the time of social communication compared to face-to-face communication. Computer based communication does not have nonverbal features of speech and it does not occur in the real time. These results into a making a person not act like human during communication effect on the people involved, the results were that people think of themselves more than others in a communication channel. Internet communications also have negative effects on social interaction compared to face-to-face. To be able to analyze the effects of internet communication we will look at the three most important sectors of a social life of an individual. The first area is the workplace; because of limited time and cost of communication on internet communication, Kiesler and others (1984) concluded that computer based communication (CMC) has resulted into violent and unfriendly exchanges between communication partners and reduction in the common dealings when working together with superiors at work place. Behaviors such as name calling, insults and swearing are the effects of internet communication that has been shown in the working environment. Working in groups on a given project at work place is facing challenges and even failure because of poor communication. It has been reported that a group of four individuals in a group may witness personal attack, aggressive communication and other negative behaviors which are as a result of computer based communication (Walther et al., 1994). Social identities disorder has also been attributed to CMC. Spear et al (2002), argued that the decrease in salience of personal accountability and identity has resulted into group-level social identities significant, this has resulted into social group identities where those on the internet forms groups to identify themselves with. Corporate world has greatly tapped into the internet usage in their operations. Many business deals are being negotiated and even agreed on the terms. However, researchers are warning on some effects of ‘e-negotiation’ such as delay in communication can be deemed to be disrespect to the deal or communication between the parties. If one party sends an e-mail they assume that the other party has received and failure to quick response can be treated as disrespect to the terms and conditions of the agreement. Effects of internet use on close relationships There have been a lot of studies on the impact of internet on close relationships for many years making the subject more contentious. Social relationship is the relationship which is an instrument of extrinsic, nonsocial ends of individual desires (Fiske, 1992). Fiske (1992), further suggests a model that explains how humans interact with each other. There is a strong evidence that supports the fact that internet has affected social relationship. Hine (2000) points out that online interaction are totally different from offline social interaction hence poor social order and group efforts are evident to internet users. Many CMC means such as blogs, instant messages, and social web among others are widely adopted by internet users. The point that many scholars are focusing on the possibility of forming genuine personal relationships over the internet. There are four elementary models that can explain the social relation of people; communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching and market pricing. Kraut et al., (1998) on their study of HomeNet project concludes that internet has led into negative results for individual user, like loneliness and depression which causes them to neglect their close relationships. Nice (2001), points out that internet is a limited resource that is acquired at a cost. The cost is both monetary and sacrifices of other activities. Users who spend more hours like 10 hours a week on the internet have problems with their friends and families since they do not find time to be with them. Formation of relationship on the internet Parks and Floyd (1995) carried out a study to establish how internet users form relationships. Research shows that online relationships are similar to those made in person in terms of quality depth and breadth. McKenna et al (2002) established that 50% of the internet users had established a close relationship and even met with their friends. The report further points out that 22% of those respondents had actually married and are living with someone they had actually met on the internet. The study further points out those internet users express themselves better over the internet than face-to-face interaction. This is a trend that has great impact on the social life of individuals where they cannot express themselves freely when they are in group. Friends who liked each other over the internet projected the ideal qualities of the person their partner (Bargh et al., 2002). The use of internet poses risks, more and more contribution on the internet exposes someone’s private information is very high. The studies have shown that internet users express themselves ‘freely’ on the internet than face to face interaction. An individual can leak personal information and share inappropriate content over the internet. Taylor (1974), points out such risks on traditional consumer decision making, where lack of privacy hinders e-commerce. Racism and prejudice There are contents on the internet that are negative and abusive to human kind. Racist go on the internet and write bad message about other race because the internet is not regulated by anyone. Judging others by looking at where they come from, the color of their skin and their language is something that has spread on the internet so much. These negatively affect the social life of those abused and even other race that believes they are superior to others. We can clearly say that abusive video and text messages on the internet cannot be regulated by any government since people always find their way around any regulation. References Bargh JA. 2002. Beyond simple truths: the human-Internet interaction. J. Soc. Issues 58(1):1—8 Bargh JA, McKenna KYA, Fitzsimons GM. 2002. Can you see the real me? Activation and expression of the ‘true self’ on the Internet. J. Soc. Issues 58(1):33--48 Blumler J, Katz E. 1974. The Uses of Mass Communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Kiesler S, Siegel J, McGuire T. 1984. Social psychological aspects of computer-mediated communication. Am. Psychol. 39:1129--34 Kraut R, Kiesler S, Boneva B, Cummings J, Helgeson V, et al. 2002. Internet paradox revisited. J. Soc. Issues 58(1):49--74 Kraut R, Patterson M, Lundmark V, Kiesler S, Mukopadhyay T, et al. 1998. Internet paradox: a social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? Am. Psychol. 53:1017—31 Manasian D. 2003. Digital dilemmas: a survey of the Internet society. Economist, Jan. 25:1—26 McKenna KYA, Green AS, Gleason MJ. 2002. Relationship formation on the Internet: What’s the big attraction? J. Soc. Issues 58(1):9—31 Nie NH, Erbring L. 2000. Internet and Society: A Preliminary Report. Stanford Inst. Quant. Study Soc., Stanford, CA Read More