Chapter 5
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF THE INTERNET
As the Internet continues to grow, the issues that confront its stable, beneficial evolution increase in number and complexity. We are going to examine the positive and negative impacts to the society in its short life.
POSITIVE IMPACTS
Faster and Cheaper Way of Communication
Internet revolutionized the way people to communicate across continents. We can send e-mail to our friends overseas and they will receive it instantly. It is much cheaper than sending letters through airmail. It also saves a lot of papers. In the battle of communications technologies, the Internet recently scored a technical knockout over long distance telephone service as it eats away at cost of phoning. Internet also allows people to communicate visually by using web cam.
Collaboration between Researchers
Internet was originally made for scientists and researchers to collaborate with each other across the states and continents. Today it is still one of the most useful tools for researchers to do research.
E-Commerce
One of the biggest impacts of the Internet is how the way companies do their business. E-store sites like Amazon.com is open 24 hours a day and can take orders from all over the world. Businesses today can have access to 600 million people with Internet access.
Amazon.com which started as an online bookshop does not need brick and mortar bookstores to sell books. Amazon.com is the earth's biggest bookstore. We can buy just any kind of books including out of print books from Amazon.com.
Online grocers change the way we shop. If you are tired of making trips to the market every time you run out of bread and milk, the Internet might just have been a solution for you.
Auction sites like eBay and uBid.com let you sell your unwanted things to others.
Manufacturers can buy and sell directly, avoiding the cost of middleman. Dell
PC founded by Michael Dell is the pioneer for direct selling of PC through the
Internet.
Frequently Asked Questions Pages
FAQ pages can provide easy access to customer support and enquiries. This saves companies a lot of time in answering enquiries from customers and potential customers.
Real Estate
The Internet's phenomenal growth and the increasing importance of e-Business are directly impacting what the real estate industry builds, where it builds, and even land and property values. While each real estate product is being affected differently by the Internet and e-Business, overall the Internet has generally positive implications for the real estate industry. The Internet and e-commerce are changing a variety of building designs, including automation in warehouses, flexible space configurations in offices that adapt to tenant improvements, and the inclusion of alcoves in apartments to house computers and other technology.
Finding Jobs Online
Jobs sites like Monster.com, HotJobs.com, JobStreet.com and Jobs.com allow you to look for a job online by posting your resume. It also allows employers to advertise for vacancies that are available at their companies.
Finding Life Partner Online
Internet has a great impact on many couples who found their life partner through chat rooms or through online dating services like Matchmaker.com and Match.com. Finding romance online has become common place today. Match.com has more than 2.5 million members. The Internet is revolutionizing the way people fall in love.
Finding People or Old Classmates
In America and Canada you can use sites like Classmates.com and Reunion.com to find your old classmates that you have lost contact. You can also use US Search service to check background information on certain people. This will help you to check whether your new neighbor has any criminal records and take caution.
Checking Your Genealogy
Sites like Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com have a big database of family trees that allow people to check their ancestry for a fee.
Finding the Fairest Fares
Before the World Wide Web was born, if you wanted to buy airline ticket you had two choices - you could call your travel agent and hope they give you the best fare possible, or you could call airlines, which meant spending time on hold with reservation clerks and compare fares yourself.
Today, thanks to Internet, you have many more choices for comparing and purchasing airfare so you can potentially find the cheapest fare or price on certain services or products.
Stock Market
Internet allows investors to buy shares online without going through a remisier or dealer. Buying stocks online has become so popular because many investors are looking for more independent solution instead of having to call their brokers on the telephone for individual advice and attention.
Ideas Can Be Propagated Easily and Freely
Internet allows exchange of different ideas. For example, Internet makes it possible for Christianity to be spread in countries where it is banned. People from these countries can find out for themselves what Christianity is all about by visiting Christian sites. The nature of the Internet makes it impossible for governments that impose censorship to censor all sites.
The Internet is one of the most powerful agents of freedom. It exposes truth to those who wish to see it. It is no wonder that some governments and organizations fear the Internet and its ability to make the truth known. Before the invention of the Internet, governments can censor information from entering the country.
Encyclopedia
In the past people used to refer to Encyclopedias to find for explanation for certain things that they do not know. Today, the Internet has replaced the voluminous Encyclopedia as a source of reference. The fact that Encyclopaedia Britannica has stopped printing their voluminous books is the evidence how much the Internet has impacted the way we do research. Most of us today no longer use Encyclopedias as a source of reference but prefer to use the Internet.
Online Storage
Online storage sites like Xdrive, @Backup and Yahoo! Briefcase allow you to store and back up your files and access your files later through the Internet. This type of service is very useful if you need to travel and retrieve your files from overseas.
Internet Keep You Organized and On Time
There is one thing we want to organize most of all - TIME. It is the one thing we don't have enough of and the one thing that we cannot afford to loose. There are many Web sites offering online calendars and scheduling tools, e.g. Visto.com, Schedule Online, and Supercalendar.com.
Digital Cash and E-money
Digital cash should make purchase transactions easier, faster, and more secure. In an Internet-driven digital cash transaction, a private key used for encryption at the originating end of a transaction is matched by a "public key" used by the receiver to decrypt the transaction. We can make a deposit by locking the digital cash with our private key and sending it to the bank, which holds the "public key" required to unlock it.
Access a Wealth of Free Information
There are many sites that offer free useful information. Surfers can get this information for free without having to buy books or going to the library. All you need to do is to use the search engine and key in any word or topic that you wanted to find out and it is most likely that someone out there have written about that particular topic.
Save Time and Money
Singapore courts introduce an Internet-based video conferencing system allowing lawyers to argue cases from their offices. Three prisons in Singapore have also been equipped with the system which will save prosecutors' trips to jails to interview suspects. The time saved in traveling and waiting is estimated to amount to more than $20 million a year.
The innovation also would save lawyers the hassle of carrying bulky files to court and allow them to see clients while waiting for their hearings. Clients also save time and money as their lawyers will be in their offices for easy contact.
Small Office Home Office
SOHO allows people to work at their home. Internet makes SOHO possible as it allows users to access the Web and use e-mail and communications software.
NEGATIVE IMPACTS
Viruses and Worms are Spread Faster
With millions of computers connected online daily, viruses are spread faster than ever before. Viruses and worms are usually sent as an attachment or hidden in audio clips, video clips and games.
Two of the most famous viruses were Melissa which struck in March, 1999 and the ILOVEYOU virus that hit in May, 2000. These viruses cost companies and individuals billions of dollars.
Hate Crimes
Sites created by neo Nazis are plenty. Anti Jews and anti Israel sites are also many. Internet can easily influence young people and old people alike to hate one particular religion or race. For example, http://www.answering-christianity.com is a propaganda site that encourages people to hate Christians, Jews and Americans. There is no doubt that the site plays a part in September 11.
False Rumors and Lies Are Spread Easily on the World Wide Web
Rumors about a particular company with the purpose of bringing up or bringing down the price of its shares in the Stock Market can be spread easily.
After September 11, lies about the Jewish conspiracy were spread on the Internet and many Muslims in the Muslim world believe that Jews were responsible for September 11.
Online Fraud
According to FBI, online auctions account for nearly 43% of all reported Internet fraud. Non deliverable merchandise and non payment accounted for 20.3% of Internet fraud. The Nigerian Letter fraud in which targets receive unsolicited proposals or business scams made up nearly of 15.5% of Internet fraud. Credit and debit card and confidence fraud are at number four and number five.
Fraud committed via the Internet makes investigation and prosecution difficult because offender and victim may be located thousands of miles apart. This borderless phenomenon is a unique of Internet crime and is not found with many other types of traditional crime.
Net Addiction
According to NetAddiction.com, information addiction is not only confined to the workplace. Fifty five per cent of parents interviewed expressed concern that their children were turning into info-junkies, due to the vast amount of electronic information available. Seventy two per cent believe that Internet use will exacerbate obsessive information-gathering. Surfing the World Wide Web at workplace also can decrease workers productivity.
Pornography
Adult sites are plenty on the net and children can easily have access to it. Even though adult sites put the condition of entering their site the surfer must be above 18, there is no one to check for proof of age.
Cybersexual Addiction
Cybersexual Addiction has become a specific sub-type of Internet addiction. It has been estimated that 1 in 5 Internet addicts are engaged in some form of on-line sexual activity (primarily viewing cyberporn and/or engaging in cybersex). Early studies show that men are more likely to view cyberporn, while women are more likely to engage in erotic chat.
Online Gambling
Internet makes it easier for people to gamble and lose money. The invention of online gambling sites has not only become a political and legal concern, but a serious health issue. Compulsive gambling has already been established as a clinical disorder, but now the Internet makes the ability to extend one's gambling habit to virtual casinos immediately available without the hassles of traveling to Las Vegas or Genting Highlands. This ability allows people with an established gambling problem to freely explore the Internet as another vehicle to satisfy their addiction. This accessibility also encourages a new breed of gambling addicts to those curious individuals who otherwise might not have tried it such as teenagers or college students.
Young adults who seek admission to an online gambling site can enter freely as no one is there to check for proof of age. This has already created a stir among college campuses who have discovered students using their Internet privileges to gamble and for parents concerned about their young children having access to such sites.
Internet Chat Rooms are Haven for Hackers
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is one of the oldest chat technologies on the Web. The IRC networks have names like Dalnet and EFnet which are actually eBay for hackers. Once the hacker or someone in the underworld has personal information, credit card numbers, social security numbers, address that they want to sell, often they will go to a hacker chat room, a place on the Web using an Internet Relay Chat which provides them some anonymity and allows them to mention that they have this personal information and they want to trade.
The ability for hackers to go onto the Internet and chat up fellow hackers is as old as the Internet itself. But with identity theft becoming a more popular form of fraud, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), more attention is being paid to chat rooms that serve as flea markets for hackers.
Intrusion to Your Privacy
Many Internet companies collect user's personal information as they navigate through a site. These efforts violate individuals' right to privacy. Advertising company like DoubleClick uses a variety of methods to collect visitors' personal information. What we worry is that our personal information could be misused as these companies are monitoring our surfing habits and could sell it to others.
SPAM
Unsolicited Commercial e-mail or SPAM is the main problem faced by users of electronic mail. AOL estimated that nearly one-third of the messages sent daily can be categorized as SPAM. Millions of dollars are lost and millions of hours are wasted in deleting these unwanted mails.
Breaker of Marriages
The Internet is a prime cause of marital breakdown in Britain, according to Relate, the largest marriage guidance organization in Britain. About 10% of the 90,000 couples that seek counseling from the organization each year cite that the Internet as a problem. One factor is that obsession with the Internet can leave little time for partners.
Copyrights Infringement
Warez refers to commercial software that has been pirated and made available to the public via the Internet. Typically, the pirate (also called a cracker) has figured out a way to de-activate the copy-protection or registration scheme used by the software manufacturer.
Peer to Peer file sharing programs like Napster and Gnutella have had a negative effect the music industry because they allow users to download complete works for free without compensating the artists.