Cyberspace and Internet: Blessing or Curse to the Human Civilization in the Long Run | HPSC Preparation: All subjects - HPSC (Haryana) PDF Download

Introduction: The blessing or Curse Debate

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the invention of the Internet is one of man’s greatest and most spectacular achievements. It has truly revolutionized the world in terms of how we engage in business, recreates, socialize, educate ourselves, and communicate with each other. However, there are always two sides to a coin. The Internet too, comes with a fair share of undesirable products and side effects.
Many believe that internet-enabled online communication hinders the natural growth of the youth who use up all their valuable time on the internet that they would have otherwise invested in forging relationships with friends and family. On the other hand, proponents argue about the great utility of the World Wide Web and the numerous benefits it brings along in terms of knowledge, entertainment, and communication. They say people are making sensible choices of substituting weak real relations with stronger virtual relationships. The counter argument is that virtual relationships lack feelings of affection, commitment, and attachment. Hence, the Internet is reducing the quality of human ties. The debate is long. It will be better to analyse the positives and negatives, the privileges and pitfalls, in detail.

The Internet Privilege

The Internet has become an indispensable part of our life, and easy access to cyberspace has made the whole world our own. It is an immense source of information that has brought the world together as a global information-sharing community. It is changing the way we communicate, shop, study, and conduct business. For example, you can browse it any time anywhere for the latest information, news updates, and happenings of the world, quickly and easily, and you can share information, hobbies, and special interests with others through e-mail and social networking. The internet also gives online access to the worldwide repository of research work and enables massive open online courses (MOOCs) for every educational requirement.
The internet connects the user with every institutional or organizational entity in the world on their dedicated websites. Online shopping makes it possible to explore the extensive range of what you want and choose the most suitable at the best price from the comfort of your home. Easy return, exchange, and refund make the deals all the more exciting and pocket friendly with no scope of any disappointment. It is a win-win situation all the way. The Internet has infinite possibilities. Every day, a number of new online ventures are launched to make human life easier and more satisfying. Also launched are a number of services and solutions in every field you can think of. What is more, it has even made tele-surgery possible, enabling doctors to perform surgical operations on patients with remote control. This has changed the whole landscape of medicine and surgery. In these respects, the Internet has indeed proved a boon for humanity.

Pitfalls in Cyberspace

The whole of cyberspace may be ours, so to say, but it doesn’t promise to save us from pitfalls. Users need to exercise caution and make safe transactions to avoid falling prey to cybercrime like phishing for personal data. The Internet is destroying humanity and eroding human values in many ways. Anyone can access just about any information they want, with no check on their activity. Pornography has emerged as a big issue because children freely access adult content. Pre-mature exposure to pornographic content depraves impressionable minds and distorts their normal growth. They grow up to degrade human dignity and strain the moral makeup of society.
The Internet is much prone to misuse, sometimes unintentionally but with serious consequences. Online victimization or harassment, including stalking, cyberbullying, and sexual solicitation, are some alarming aspects of the cyber world. Exposure to sexually explicit Internet material leads the youth to twisted sex education, commodifying of women, and the tendency for unsafe sexual exploration, risking disease. The Internet enables an unfathomable ocean of views, reads, and virtual experiences. It lures people to constantly increase their screen time and hooks them on. This phenomenon destroys relationships for lack of together- time, corrupting human thought and values, tweaking work ethics, and making humanity generally lazy. Children as young as ten get so busy playing online games and chatting on the Internet that they barely have time to eat, study, or complete assignments. Studies and investigations have shown a considerable increase in depression and loneliness among the youth as the psychological fallout of Internet addiction.
Internet addiction starts as a means of escape from negative feelings. It consists of the continued use of the Internet despite the desire to stop, the experience of unpleasant emotions when Internet use is impossible, thinking about the Internet constantly, and the experience of any other conflicts or self-conflicts due to Internet use. Internet addiction evidently results in a drop in grades, family strife as the youth hide their excessive Internet use from their parents, health issues such as sleep deprivation and depression due to long hours of Internet use, and financial problems. Interactive communication applications such as chat rooms, instant messaging, e-mail, and online games have most commonly been associated with Internet addiction among youth. Tsai and Lin suggest that Internet addiction is an important concern among adolescents. In their study of 700 Taiwanese high school students, 88 were deemed Internet addicts according to the Internet Addiction Scale for high school students in Taiwan (IAST). It has been hypothesized that because adolescence and young adulthood is a time of identity and relationship exploration, those who have trouble navigating through these developmental challenges are particularly vulnerable to using the Internet as a coping mechanism. Communication and information have never been as accessible and faster as they are now with the advent of the Internet. But the more we rely on the Internet, the more we isolate ourselves from human contact. This certainly isn’t a blessing, for ‘man is by nature a social animal.’

Conclusion

To sum up, Internet has both positive and negative aspects. It is imperative to use it sensibly and responsibly to avail oneself of the numerous benefits it enables and make the most of the immense possibilities it offers. The way it is opening up greater horizons with every passing day will certainly prove a blessing for human civilisation in the long run. However, the best minds and the powers that be must ensure that cyberspace is protected against hackers and users with ulterior motives; for, in the wrong hands, this marvellous gift to mankind has the potential to befall as a curse to destroy humanity altogether.