Internet

The Internet is undoubtedly the most ingenius form of communication in the history of mankind. A decade ago, the Internet was more or less unheard of, by the vast majority of people, whereas today, it has developed into a huge phenomenon, and in modern society it acts as a powerful tool throughout the world.    The Internet is a mass collection of countless services and resources, which are available at the touch of a button. Today, almost all households contain the Internet. Some would say we have access to the entire world from the comfort of our home, thanks to this spectacular element of technology. However, as with every innovation, the internet similarly, has it's pros and cons.  These are outlined as follows:              Advantages of the internet   l        Communication:  The prime target of the Internet has always been communication. It has come to be the most popular use of the Internet in today's world. Now we can interact visually as well as verbally through mediums such as Skype, Msn, Hotmail, Facebook, video-conferencing etc. With the aid of these services, it is becoming more and more easy, to establish relationships and friendships, not only with family, friends and acquaintances, but with people from other cultures or different ethnicity.   l        Information: Information is the greatest and most useful advantage of the Internet. Users can avail of a wide range of information, on any topic imaginable, through search engines such as Google and Yahoo. The Internet serves as a key method of research for teachers, students and children, whom are among the top users of the world wide web.   l        Services: A wide variety of services are now provided by the Internet such as : - online banking                                  - travel facilities - e-commerce                                      - bookings - job seeking                                       - medical & other advice - education                                          - downloadable software, eg. gaming, movies, music - news & weather                                - helpful tips & demonstration clips Disadvantages of the Internet   l        Privacy: According to “HUWY”, the greatest problem relating to the Internet, is the lack of ability to control one's privacy. 80% of people surveyed, use the same user password for all their personal accounts online. This makes them vulnerable, as password protection is a weakness, and therfore easily hacked. On well known popular sites such as Facebook, “fraping” is a big issue. This is when people log onto Facebook etc, and leave comments using false identities.   l        Pornography: Where children are concerned, many parents feel that pornographic images are too easily accessed on the Internet. This causes a problem, as computer skills are an essential aspect of modern education, and Internet control is easily disabled.   l        Virus threats: Computers linked up to the Internet are more susceptable to virus attacks, which disrupt the normal function of the computer system. This can often lead to the need for expensive repair, and /or the loss of sentimental and important data.   l        Cyber bullying: This is the use of social networking sites / emails to victimise people anonymously. According to “HUWY”, this is decreasing due to the ability to report abuse on most sites. However, people are still continuing to be targeted through private messaging. This may lead to severe psychological and emotional distress for the victim.    Conclusion As students, we feel, that the ability to access information for course-work, is a major benefit to our studies. We also believe that without having this abundance of information readily available, despite our level of effort, it may prove to be detremental to the quality of our work.  On the other hand, as two members of our group are mothers, we deem pornography and cyber-bullying to be the greatest downsides of the Internet. In our opinion, there is a need for tighter restrictions on the Internet, for the use of pornography and social networking sites.