Is the Internet Bad for Us?

ENG 120 I03FY February 23, 2010 Is the internet bad for us ? In the old days, a paper research used to take up to several days, when only libraries and encyclopedias had the right and trustful information. A visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art involved finding the address first, and that took as well quite some time. In our days all this information is just a click away. The Internet, with the help of web pages, such as Google Search and Google Maps, are the solution to every question one may ask. The long days of search have ended, but it doesn’t mean it is a favorable or beneficial thing for each person.

Scientists and professors of well known universities have discovered that this trouble free, straightforward and rapid method has determined not only the brains to delay the thinking process, but also changed people’s behavior in their lives in a negative way. One neuroscientist, Dr. Gary Small conducted a study where he examined the impact of the Internet on a young persons brain. This study consisted of reading a MRI while the person was surfing on the Internet, and another one while it was reading a book.

Then, the results where very surprising: the MRI showed more brain activity in the frontal part, the decision part of the brain, when the person was surfing the Internet. The study reached lots of newspapers, and every person believed that Google is making them smarter. However, after a short period of time, Dr. Small reviewed the results and stated: “On a brain scan big doesn’t mean it is better…It’s exactly as in a golf game, you want to keep your score lower”. One can easily see that this brain activity is without doubt detrimental to all of us and surfing the Internet only decreases our process of thinking, instead of increasing it.

Surfing on the Internet has become a daily routine, by checking the e-mail, researching on some interesting subjects and that takes probably an hour per day, which is ordinary in our days. Still, there are millions of young students that stay an average of fifty hours a week on the Internet and that just doesn’t seem something normal. All this time spent on the Internet has affected their thinking development. A pathologist of the University of Michigan Medical School states that: “ I can’t read “War and Peace “ anymore, I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post on more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it. This is actually a frightening reality that applies to myself as well. Not only I can’t focus on my daily readings for my biology class, but also if I start reading a book, after only twenty minutes I loose my concentration. This inability to make “rich mental connections” and just to think, has transformed our real intelligence into an artificial intelligence, thus the Internet has a direct participation towards our brain development. One can say that the Internet has changed our lives for the better, since World Wide Web possesses information about almost everything. However, not all the information on the Internet is accurate.

There are several web sites where the information is not meticulously verified, therefore one can obtain data and facts that are untrue, even misleading. The best example is Wikipedia, a website where anyone can put any information on this page without any previous examination. Countless students use this web site to research for projects, without knowing the danger of misleading information. Communication in our lives is a tremendous vital thing. Indeed, human beings are born to communicate with each other no matter what kind of lives they decide to live. Communicating with other people allows us to learn about ourselves as human creatures.

It helps us to understand our way of behaving, of thinking in different situations/places. However, the Internet has a considerable effect on our daily communication with out friends, family and even loved ones. The casual coffee in a modern cafe is replaced by staying on Yahoo Messenger talking for hours in front of the computer, and a discussion face to face has become a thing of the past, “thanks” to Second Life, a program where you could meet virtually at a restaurant, cafe or even in a park. The increased access and heavy reliance onto computer games and the Internet for many people today have led to many social problems.

Obsessive computer use leads to addiction, which can lead to financial problems, broken relationships, physical and emotional problems. An example of such addiction affected a Korean family. Their son was sent in a camp for he was playing all the time computer games. This camp helped him to stay away from a computer for two weeks, so that he could concentrate on regular activities. The Internet has extended its power at the point that Google and Microsoft are in the process of creating an online international library, extinguishing books.

This idea would only cause the lost of our culture and history, because books are an important factor in the achievement of today’s knowledge. The vinegar that was used in the old days to sanitize the scrolls from the deadly diseases, was a crucial tool towards finding the location from where they were sent. Studying their chemical components scientists discovered even details of their way of living. In conclusion, technology in all of its forms – social networks, the Web, online gaming – is a net loss for today’s young people. As Grafton states: The narrow path still leads, as it must, to crowded public rooms where the sunlight gleams on varnished tables, and knowledge is embodied in millions of dusty, crumbling, smelly, irreplaceable documents and books. ” Scientists proofed that the Internet is a direct cause of our mental regress, consequently each one of us must take this seriously, before we turn up into a chaotic, unwise and mentally challenged world. Works Cited “Digital Nation. ” Frontline. PBS. WNET, New York. 2 Feb. 2010. Television. Grafton, Anthony. “Future Reading: Digitization and Its Discontents. ” Fields of Reading. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010