by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: June 07, 2009

There are of course many negative effects of the Internet, despite the untold benefits it has afforded society in recent times. These negative effects range from the anti-social, to the impersonal and insubstantial, to the criminal and fraudulent. Although these negative effects for the majority of people will be considered to be far-outweighed by the positive, there are few who can ignore them in their entirety.

The first and most obvious negative effect of the Internet is how it isolates people in a physical sense from those around them. While such as Social Networking sites may allow members to correspond with people from all over the planet, the face to face, personal contact is wholly absent. This can lead to particularly teenagers who used these sites extensively on a daily basis failing to development the necessary social skills for daily interaction as they go about their adult lives.

There is little tangible about the Internet. Other than the PC and its associated appliances, the Internet user lives in a world of what is essentially virtual reality. Although the knowledge and information which they can gain access to in this respect is virtually unlimited, it gives them no practical experience of life. It does not teach them how to actually build a fence, cook a meal, drive a car - it merely instructs them in the theory regarding doing so. As many people have found to their cost throughout history, an activity in theory and in practise are two entirely different concepts.

The criminal and fraudulent aspects of the Internet are probably its darkest negative effects. Hackers are growing more and more sophisticated as the Internet itself develops and are obtaining access to everything from Governmental Department sites to the bank accounts and financial details of private individuals. This is a truly frightening concept. As more and more aspects of society become computer controlled - or at least computer monitored - there is virtually no limit to the inconvenience and even chaos which these miscreants can create.

In order to minimise the negative effects of the Internet, the individual should carefully control the amount of time which they spend using it. They should force themselves to get away from the PC and engage in practical activities on a regular basis, giving their body the exercise it needs and their mind the stimulus which only real-world social contact can provide. They should equally ensure that their PC is fully protected at all times with the likes of anti-virus software and a firewall and in these ways the true negative effects of the Internet can be both minimised and controlled.

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