Discuss the Effects of the Internet on Teenagers (Essay Sample)

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The Effect of Internet on Teenager
* Introduction
In the history of just a few decades the internet has become one of the most important parts of the daily life of human beings. The internet is a vast and naked to eyes universe with billions of computers and mobile phones, networks and now billions of the people connected to each other. There has been always the difference between the usage of the internet between the adolescents and other age groups of the community throughout the world. According to a research study, almost 80% of the American youth aging 12-17 uses the internet and logs on to it nearly the halftime of their day (Louge 2). Although, there has been a significant research on the topic of the internet and its usage benefits but there is a very little concern shown over the impact of the internet on the social and psychological development of the young people especially teenagers. The role of the internet as the sole medium for social networking, shopping, entertainment, communication and education has increased at a rapid rate. The teenagers prefer to go online the internet rather than using other mediums like TV and radio.
The modern internet in the shape of social networking platform started to enter the life of the teenagers by 1997 with the introduction of sixdegrees.com (Boyd, Danah, and Ellison 18). It allowed the users to create their profiles and connect with their friends. In 1998, it allowed the users to search or surf for the friends on the site’s platform. Another site classmates.com, allowed its teenage users to browse for the teenagers of other schools and colleges and send them requests as a friend. The general internet use on the other hand was also adopted by the teenagers when the computers become easily available at home in the 1990’s (Boyd, Danah, and Ellison 18). The technology of software and hardware greatly evolved during the late 1990s with the introduction of Graphical User Interface (GUI) in place of boring black and white platform for operating systems. The computers also became smaller in the size and more economical for the general public. Once admitted as a part of life the internet began to shape the human activities over the time. Now the people especially the teenagers have more easy access to the information as compared to the young people two decades ago (Ahn 1435) .
No doubt there are numerous advantages of using the internet and social media for the teenagers. The easy access to the information and the knowledge has provided the teenagers a global platform to learn about the different things. The use of the social media has increased the exposure of the teenagers to almost people of the entire world. The information that was searched for in the libraries and printed journals for hours is becoming available just in few key strokes in minutes (Louge 3). From the point of view of a teen the internet is a place of "hangout" where they can find information, latest news and share their work with the entire social circle and stay connected to them.The enormous use of the internet by the teenager has increased the concern of its impact on the behavioral development of the teenagers (Louge 2). This research is focused on the social, psychological development and views of the teenagers on the internet usage. Some solutions are also proposed in the research and in concluding remarks.
* Time Spent on Devices
In order to understand the time spent by the teenagers on the internet, it is essential to have the clear idea of time spent by the teenagers on the internet and the time taken for it from the other activities. The information on the time can be gathered by the self report of the teenagers and the knowledge of the parents regarding their children (Subrahmanyan, Greenfield, Kraut, and Gross 9). The research shows that the teenagers spend nearly 8-10 hours a day on the internet. The teenagers self-report reflect the time they spent on the internet. The teenagers as compared to the adults use the internet for multiple purposes. The teenagers use the internet for schoolwork, communication with numerous friends far and near to them and simple entertainment. The adolescents as compared to the adults are more likely to spend time on the internet for the social purposes. They tend to communicate with their friends, make new friends and join groups on the internet for discussion. They are more likely to use it for listening to songs and getting the product information of their interests (Subrahmanyan, Greenfield, Kraut, and Gross 9).
According to the studies, the time spent on the internet also depends on the factors like race, class, gender and social status. According to a research, the boys are more likely to use the computer at the school for the internet as compared to the girls. However, there were no considerable differences in the computer usage out of the school between boys and girls. The boys as compared to the girls are more likely to spend times on the games. There is no doubt the internet has provided an equal platform both boys and girls to play games and access the information. According to the experts, the gaming expectations for both boys and girls on the internet are nearly same. Such spending of time on the internet has the significant negative impact on the interpersonal skills of the teenagers. The electronic friendship has led the teenagers into the solitude (Subrahmanyan, Greenfield, Kraut, and Gross 17).
* Time-Displacement and Internet
There is a theory known as "time-displacement theory" (Shim, 18). According to this theory, whenever a new technology is introduced the humans tend to spend more time using it and reduce their time dedication to older technologies and activities (Shim, 18). The introduction of the internet has reduced the desire of the face-to-face communications with the family among the teenagers. As the time spent on the internet is increased by the teenagers there is a less desire for contacting their immediate family members. The more devastating situation is in the change of the attitude of the teenagers towards their family. As the time on the internet has increased the adolescents tend to withdraw from their parents and other family members. They use the internet as an escape route from the face to face communication from their parents (Shim, 18). In this case, the internet is not the problem it is the way the people use it. The internet especially social media may have caused isolation of their users. They tend to spend more time in the imaginary world as compared to the people living in the real world. The internet is a technology which is evolving at a rapid rate and it not yet determined whether it is a socializing or isolating technology (Shim, 19).
* Internet Addiction
The termination of the immediate contact with the family members and excessive use of the internet is becoming a negative aspect of the young man’s personality. There are terms used like ‘compulsive internet use’, ‘pathological internet use’, ‘computer addiction’ and ‘net addiction’ (Guan and Subrahmanyam 352). The internet addiction generally means the use of the internet in order to escape negative feelings, continued use despite the desire of being offline, having an unpleasant feeling in the absence of the internet and thinking about the internet all the time. The use of the internet as an addict has the negative impact on the education of the teenagers as it is seen that there is a drop in the grades of the students who are addicted to the use of the internet. There are also some other factors associated with it including sleep deprivation, physical health mental and financial losses (in terms of high internet expenses). The services like online chat rooms, IM (Instant Messaging), e-mail and internet games are major reasons for the internet addiction in the teenagers (Guan and Subrahmanyam 352).
To counter the problem of the internet addiction one has to determine the teenagers who are at a potential risk of the internet addiction. It was found that the teenagers the parameter known as emotional intelligence played an important role in assessing the teenagers at the potential risk. The researchers admitted that the internet addiction and online gambling are a part of a broader set of dysfunctional behavior and needs to be looked in and prevented (Guan and Subrahmanyam 352). In order to treat the online gaming, a simple technique is developed and presented fruitful results. The teenagers with the gaming addiction were divided into two groups and asked to write about their attitude towards online gaming and their negative aspects. The participants were given awards for the presentation of their essays. The participants using their freedom of expression presented several facts and their attitude towards the online gaming. Interestingly this simple exercise helped the participants to change their attitude towards online gaming (Subrahmanyan, Greenfield, Kraut, and Gross 19).
It is vital to ensure that the online socializing and chatting is enjoyable to the teenagers and not leading them to become internet addicts. It is an admitted fact that the increased socializing on the internet has the negative impact on the grades of the students. The use internet for socializing also decreases the interest in the friendship and romantic relationships. But on the other hand, there are some positive impacts of the use of the internet (Subrahmanyan, Greenfield, Kraut, and Gross 20). It is seen that the use of the internet for the gaming purposes can improve the cognitive behavior of the users. They tend to be more technological in their approach and their observation powers are increased rapidly. The mathematical approach used in the design of the online games c...