How is the internet bad for us?

It’s a lot of information at our fingertips, but it isn’t all acurate. And it’s addicting.

It causes us to ask total strangers to do our homework.

It can cause a kind of mental laziness. When using a book for reference, you have to think about which book might contain the information you need, and where in the book it would be located. With the internet, you just type a phrase into Google, and presto!

I, for one, would rather be back in the sixties. But that doesn’t answer your question, sorry.

Some people spend more time on the internet than interacting with their families.

Also the internet has created a gap in social etiquette that can be observed when dealing with some of the younger generations.

It exposes you to a reality that you control, rather than the reality that for centuries has been created by the media. When any notable event occurs, you can source thousands of responses to it from people who are actually involved in many cases. This give an ability to genuinely watch history unfolding, rather than just an edited version of it.

For some that might be a bad thing, for others it is enlightening and rewarding. I don’t feel that there is anything inherently bad about it, unless it is abused. This applies to most things in our lives, not just the internet.

It’s like the swine flu, spreads rapidly, can be sickening, or just contagious. And if you’re really old, it probably doesn’t affect you.

— You can teach an old dog new tricks, say UCLA scientists who found that middle-aged and older adults with little Internet experience were able to trigger key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning after just one week of surfing the Web.

The findings, presented Oct. 19 at the 2009 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, suggest that Internet training can stimulate neural activation patterns and could potentially enhance brain function and cognition in older adults.”

TV’S , videogames, and excessive computer use take up time people might be jogging. skating, biking. tennis etc. Kids dont play outside and run around as much anymore becasue they are gaming and myspaceing. There is at least 300 something channels on my satellite tv. I intend to go on a bikeride and end up watching history channel or boom or independent film channel for hours.

In the same way a hammer or lawn gnome is: not at all unless MISused.

I can link you to about 10 German Porn sites in under 30 seconds. ........ That’s bad my friend. Bad for us all.

@buster

And just to extend that list of things that could be done with wasted time: reading, writing, expanding the mind and just engaging generally constructive endeavors.

@virtualist

Similarly, the brains of today’s youth and young adults work differently because of the Internet. We’re geared mentally toward multi-tasking, receiving massive amounts of information, etc.

To the OP: read this article; it’s great and will get you started on your essay. Assuming you don’t learn anything from it, it may even write the essay for you.

Two words…

#1 – Four

#2 – Chan

Nuff said 0_o

The internet is both bad and good, not one or the other.

Economists talk about opportunity cost, the cost of doing one thing instead of something else. The problems of the Internet come from its overuse, in spending time on the Internet instead of other activities. Like television and computer games, when overused the Internet isolates us from our local communities, natural settings and even our families.

Lurve for @dannyc – that was funny! (And probably true).