Week 1: Fears about the impact of the Internet (1b)

What do you think of the fears that some have about the impact of the internet, e.g., enables digital natives to avoid uncomfortable face-to-face encounters; volume of information on the Internet Is distracting and limits our ability to concentrate; readily accessible information decreases our ability to think deeply and build our own unique connections?

Internet brought us not only a lot of convenience and advantages but also the fears to lose our creativity and autonomy. There is so much information available online and people get confused what information is reliable and valid. People can freely express themselves and some of them enjoy anonymity. Parents have to control their kids’ use of computer and supervise their access to open information. Even though with some dark side of the impact of the internet, it seems premature to generalize that internet only bring us hazardous impact.

Even though digital natives were introduced to the Internet since they were very young, they consistently have to interact with other people and it is inevitable to face to the face-to-face encounters with teachers, parents and friends. In addition, people are not so dumb to only rely on readily accessible information and allow it to extinct our creativity and ability to think deeply. New information and technology make people to curious about them and want to explore more. People developed critical eyes to distinguish what is useful and what is not. People make their own connection with already existing information on their own ways and it eventually allow them to be more creative and unique. Since the internet was something that never existed before, those fears seems so natural and some already exist nowadays. However, new problems raised with the emergence of the Internet is something we need to work and think more, so these efforts will never let those fears to exist permanently.