Digital Nation- The Mob

Digital Nation- The Mob

         Our society’s connectedness to the virtual world has unleashed both negative and positive outcomes. Today everyone is much more connected then they used to be. It has become something that we as a population have become so dependent on. We use the virtual world for multiple sources like; connecting with friends, researching information, booking travel plans, reading digital books, and a wide variety of other methods. Without the internet I think people would be stuck and not know what to do. People our age and younger have developed extreme internet addictions. One article that I found online was about how there is a thin line for teens and adolescents between casual internet use and addiction. They define internet addiction as “compulsive use that interferes with the natural flow of one’s daily life.” Some form of internet addiction affects most people today. Now a day we can use the internet to take college, high school and elementary level courses, and have office meetings without physically being in the office. Developing some kind of internet addiction is much easier then it used to be because of everything that is possible from the internet.

            Internet is not just an addiction but also harbors negative aspects that are affecting society today. The internet is the source for social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Skype. All of these allow other ways for people to communicate. Even though it gives other ways to connect with one another Facebook is one of the causes for the elimination of the face-to-face interactions that there once was. Some wonder if Facebook has made us less human. An article by Amar Toor asks if the rise of social networking signal the end of Western civilization, as we know it? One aspect that he says we do know is that Facebook has definitely put us in situations that would have never been possible before the creation of the Facebook era. Facebook today has infested virtually every facet of our lives. Today it can make us paranoid, or be the source of illegally information. Facebook or the fact that most people are connected to the virtual world can make a criminal’s job easier. There is a lot of information online that sex offenders, stalkers and hackers can see. I know that I am constantly hearing how someone’s Facebook was hacked into or how some feel they have stalkers because what is written to them by unknown people. Even though there are all these risks to being so connected to the virtual world, it doesn’t seem to stop or slow down anyone. We are all warned of the risks of the cyber world but we still choose to share information and pictures. Why is it that we know these risks but don’t choose to listen?

            I don’t think that anonymity plus connectedness always equals misbehavior and cruelty. The development and the widespread use of the internet unfortunately have just made it easier for people to be cruel to one another. People were cruel and mean way before the internet was developed. The development of the internet I feel has just fueled the anger and hate some people have. Today I have heard a lot of stories of how internet cruelty has caused many young people to commit suicide. If you Google “suicide deaths by internet bullying” hundreds of stories come up from across the country.  Unfortunately as much as people love the virtual world it is also a harmful place that many people choose to take part in. I don’t think that the collective anger online is there because of the internet. The internet wasn’t developed as a way for people to by mean to one another instead it was developed for government departments to research and work from any location. It is what some people have made the internet into and how some choose to use it today that have unleashed these negative thoughts about what the internet truly is.