There is no doubt that today the most noticeable changes occur in the field of information. The internet now plays a huge part in modern life, but its benefits are accompanied by a darker side.
While many of us use the internet to pay bills, shop and send e-mails, there are some people who find it hard to control how much time they spend online, to the point where it interferes with their daily activities.
To begin with, it is not possible to take the computer out of our every day life, but we must take into account that we can easily become addicted to the internet. This disease harms our health, mind, and even our relations with others. The internet addicts were significantly more depressed than the non-addicted group, with a depression score five times higher. The average score of the internet-addicted group put them in the category of moderate-to-severe levels of depression.
Secondly, various communication tools offer not just positive qualities, but also contain certain risks. In 1999 in England, a young man named David Copeland dropped homemade bombs in three areas of London. He killed three people and wounded one hundred and thirty nine. It turns out that he had gained all of his technical information from the internet by reading the ”Terrorist handbook” and ”How to make a bomb”. Both handbooks are currently available on the internet. Websites which contain violence, pornography, information regarding the war on terrorism, information which encourages murder, racism, anorexia, and suicide are frequently found on the internet, and anyone can gain access to it. This type of content can be very harmful to a child’s psyche, which is not yet fully developed.
In addition, today on the internet, it is possible to access information which might otherwise be considered illegal. It is enough to choose the necessary words in the search system, and the user gains full access to unfiltered resources such as: pornographic photos and videos, instructions on how to create explosives, how to deal narcotics and other unsavory information. As is well known, the forbidden fruit is sweet. But it can also be dangerous. This is why children should not be given the choice of whether or not to view such sites which they may accidentally come upon at home or in class. The method by which to protect children from harmful attacks on the computer and dubious websites is a problem for parents and the government.
However, most people are able to avoid such extremes, steer a middle course. Only the people with weak mind, teenagers and children are open to such injury. Even some critics say that internet addiction cannot be diagnosed reliably, and the recruiting method could have resulted in a biased sample. The internet is meant for other purposes. It provides the opportunity to use learning programs and developmental games, to learn foreign languages, and to find useful information on the internet.
In the end, the computer will only have a positive impact on you once you have been able to organize the way you work with it - to correctly prepare a workstation, to strictly monitor the time you spend on the computer. Only in this way you will not suffer from the unpleasant results which can come about from sitting in front of the computer for extended periods of time.