Running Head: INTERNET AND TEENAGERS

The Use of Internet Creates Adverse Influence on Teenagers

Tabassum Akhter

13304131

Sec: 08

Course: English 102

BRAC University

Date of Submission: 20th August 2013

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The Use of Internet Creates Adverse Influence on Teenagers

On Christmas Day, 1990, in a lab at Cern in Geneva, Switzerland, Tim Berners-Lee

finished building the tools to create the World Wide Web (Krotoski, 2010). Twenty years

ago, this act of releasing the technology for free had been a revolution. Twenty years later,

this snowballing cyber age – with Twitter, Facebook, Skype, YouTube, Google and a maze of

other electronic avenues – has engulfed the lives of today’s youth, where playing out into the

fields has been replaced by surfing over the internet. Researches show that 87% of the youth

today go online, representing 21 million youth (Weiss, 2005). It has become a growing

concern in the society, especially among the parents, about the cyberspace’s detrimental

impacts upon the teenagers since it is concealed beneath the whitewashed faces of social

media and other sites and generates addiction, which results in reduced efficiency of the

students. Furthermore, it exposes them to the dangers of cyber bullying, and ruins the

teenagers’ creativity and originality; not to mention, it also creates destructive impact upon

family bonds.

The creators of social media and other beguiling websites assert that the growth in the

use of Internet is leading towards modernization among youths. It enables accelerated

exchange of information and opens up diverse opportunities for valued learning,

responsibility, and independence. Students can learn to manage time and resources

effectively, master meaningful context, and communicate this information clearly to the

intended audience (Wakefield & Rice, 2008). An admirable example of such websites could

be ‘Studious.com’, ‘Schooltraq.com’ and ‘Pearson book store’ all of which aims at making

experience of education interesting, captivating and organized for the teenagers. However,

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this breakthrough in proficient and grassroots communication is merely one face of the

profound cyber metamorphosis that is altering people’s existence. On regards to the growing

concern over cyber age’s impact on teenagers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

estimates as many as 50,000 pedophiles are online at any onetime, and suggests that one in 10

children has met a stranger on the internet, a quarter have received a pornographic junk mail,

and a third have been subjected to unwanted sexual comments (The Daily Telegraph, 2006).

This clearly reflects the danger to which the teenagers are exposed by being constantly in

touch with the Internet, the most common result of which is addiction, where the teenagers

may spend hours after hours surfing the Internet which otherwise might have been allocated

for their precious studies. Hence, this generation of addiction hinders teenager’s studies, as

well as marks down their efficiency and productivity. This has been supported by Reed

(1999) who says that media violence has a stronger effect on children because they lack the

real life experiences to judge whether something they see on the screen is realistic.

The Internet has been claimed to be a vehicle for youth to express themselves. The

availability of services like blogging and the rise in the number of online-based shops might

allow the teenagers to identify and refine their potentials. Historical incidents nowadays also

take place due to this possibility of youths to express their views, examples of which includes

the toppling of dictators in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere. The same method of

Internet mobilization also rallied multitudes of American protestors for the Occupy Wall

Street movements (Charleston Gazette, 2012). It is that expression of views which enables

the teenagers to boost up their confidence level; however, these same expressional views,

when being targeted of cyber bullying, can greatly distort the inner strength of the juvenile.

Cyber bullying is a fear when a person receives threats, negative comments, or negative

pictures from other person, (Sharma, 2011). It has started to become a dangerous trend in the

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society, with an age group below eighteen being a more susceptible target. Traditionally, the

“bullying” was merely limited to a certain group, however this explosion in the use of

Internet broadens the group of bullies. On a research carried out by a Kowalski and Limber

(2007), 11% of the interviewed students where victims of cyber bullying and 4% were

bullies. This rising trend not only creates mental disturbance among the teenagers but has

also extended its impact to some of its victims even committing suicides. The seriousness of

this adverse effect of Internet using cannot be overstated and needs careful precautions from

parents.

One may argue that the instant availability of information available through Internet

improves and extends the knowledge background of the students, and allows them to do

extensive research on a topic. The procurable academic journal and suggestive guidelines

sides may prove to be a students’ right hand during examination. It is a whirlpool of

information – simply with a click of a button one may access information regarding the

simplest to the most complex of matters, immensely influencing the education system of

teenagers as well. Incidents like the Encyclopedia Britannica stopping to print it’s prestigious

bound volumes because readers switched to free information on computer screens reflect the

significance of rise in virtual information. Also, creative applications like Adobe Photoshop

and Illustrator has been said to promote creativity among the teenagers. However, the

suggestive noble cause of the provision of free information by the Internet does not portray

the entire story. One of the rising concerns among the teachers today is that of plagiarism,

where the students instead of using their originality and creativity, are choosing the easier

path of copying from the Internet. This shortcut definitely limits the knowledge of the

students, and may even subjugate the creativity powers of the youth. From the study

conducted by Don McCabe from the Centre of Academic Integrity, the results demonstrated

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that out of 4500 students who completed the survey, 52% had copied at least a few sentences

from a website page without citing the source. Furthermore, a large portion of students is not

sure if copying from the web was a bad practice. Hence, despite it’s massive usefulness, it is

becoming important to pull some restrictive measures upon the access of information so as to

motivate the youth develop their own thoughts.

The massive growth of the virtual world created by Internet makes it almost impossible

for parents to keep an eye on their children or try to limit the detrimental impacts it might

have upon them due to the viewing of wrong content. Over 80% of adolescents own at least

one form of new media technology (e.g. cellphones, personal data assistance, computer for

Internet access) and they are using this technology with increasing frequency to text and

instant message, email, blog, and access social networking websites (Lenhar and Madden,

2007). In addition, statistic show that the average Internet uses is 13 hours a week, but only

18% has parental guidance (The Daily Telegraph, 2006). This may lead to our deduction that

too much parental interference may even make the teenagers irritated and provoke them to be

rude with their parents; resulting in weak family bonds.

Degraded competency as a result of obsession, breakdown of self-confidence due to

harassment caused by strangers, and it’s obvious effects upon teenagers’ imagination and

resourcefulness are making parents all around the world uneasy and troubled in their efforts

to protect their children from the pernicious impacts of the virtual world. Yet, it would be

unwise to say that Internet does not incite any favorable influence among the young

generation. It is the most significant decentralized media in the world, enabling the juvenile

to connect as well as expand their potentials and knowledge. In this world of globalization, it

will be illogical to suggest the absolute eradication of Internet for teenagers rather, the most

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important thing is to teach and model for our youth how and why to get “unplugged”.

Achieving the balance between “virtual” and the “real” world might be the way to thank Tim-

Berners Lee for his gift on the Christmas day of 1990.

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References

Anonymous (2006, August 26). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). Item: 200608261027423325

Charleston, W.Va. (2012, March 20). Social media’s impact on the world. Charleston

Gazette, The (WV). Retrieved from www.wvgazette.com

Kowalski R.M., Limber S.P. (2007) Cyber bullying among middle school students. J Adolesc

Health; 41(Suppl): S22–S30.

Krotoski A. (2010). The Internet’s cyber radicals: heroes of the web changing the world. The

Guardian. Retrieved from:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/nov/28/internet-radicals-world-wide-web

Lenhar A., & Madden M. Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview. Washington,

DC: Pew Internet & American Life; 2007. Retrieved from: http://

www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/198/report_display.asp.

McCabe, D. (2001). An overview of research on academic integrity. Center for Academic

Integrity. Retrieved from:

http://ethics.acusd.edu/Resources/AcademicIntegrity/Index.html

Sharma, B. B., (2011, March). Analysis of the Effects of Cyber Crime on Teenagers.

International Referred Research Journal. ISSN-0975-3486. VOL-II. Issue-18

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Wakefield, M.A., and Rice, C.J. (2008). The impact of cyber-communication on today’s

youth (ACAPCD-14). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.

Weiss, D.L. (2005, August 11). Youth & The Internet. Focus on the Family.