The current era can be called the ‘digital era’ or the ‘age of the internet’. The reason I am saying this to you is that if you look around yourself and the people everyday you deal with, you can understand how the internet and smartphones, including other digital devices, have been subjugating you with an unbroken chain. And we are completely unaware of this.
The internet and digital devices directly or indirectly impact human activities going on in this world every day. It is the internet that provides us with a new type of communication medium that is more accurate, easy to handle, and fast.
A statistical report from Datareportal says that more than 5.44 billion mobile phone users are out there in the world and 5.16 billion out of them have the access to the internet according to Statista. This means almost one-third of the total population uses the internet on their phones or other digital devices such as laptops, tablets, smartwatches, etc. and it's increasing furiously.
We cannot think of our lives without it, can we? So, a question might come up- what is the harm if we use the internet so much? The answer is everything can be affected because of the overuse of the internet. The unprecedented growth in internet usage can create some worse problems. Problems like internet addiction and the percentage of cyberbullying can be raised extremely.
Due to widespread internet usage, the safety of our lives has become questionable. Every moment we post photos and share videos on the internet with our family and friends innocently. But remember there is always someone who always keeps an eye on you and your every activity. If you think about this calmly and carefully this is not good for our society and people. Our privacy is being exposed to someone daily whom we don’t know and we do not know for which vile causes they will be used. If you think addiction to the internet puts our lives at risk and horrible situations beyond our thoughts. For the information, India has the highest rate of cyberbullying which is 38%, Brazil (29%) and the USA (26%) are behind these countries.
Internet Usage and Addiction
The Internet is the most significant medium which connects all the people in the world. From shopping or paying someone or for educational purposes we need internet connection deliberately for each and everything. The right definition of ‘internet usage’ is that internet use is the population's access to the internet, typically stated as a percentage.
Digital technologies and the internet are getting more advanced over the years. Now there is the 5th generation of the internet which will give more speed (which is measured by bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes) and people start to consume more amount of data these days. We are always on our phones or laptops and doing something on the internet- probably using social media, watching reels, chatting with some friends, or playing video games. This shows we use our phones unnecessarily most of the time in a day.
We are getting addicted to the internet madly and badly over time. A new report on cyberpsychology says that “ 6 percent of the world's population now suffers from Internet addiction. And the most dangerous part of that is 80% of them are adolescents means their age is between 12-18 years. This is the time when all the children started to grow up in an actual sense and most of them are at school. They start to understand the world, their purposes, their responsibilities, their goals, and their lives. But at this age, they are getting addicted to some online video games or cashing money by using different apps over the internet or making reels for Instagram and Facebook, etc. which are not expected.
Cyberbullying and Threats on the Internet
There is a new term in the world and that is ‘cyberbullying’. Well, we all know what bullying is, then what is new about it? According to UNICEF specialists ‘cyberbullying is bullying with the use of digital technologies. It can take place on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms, and mobile phones. It is repeated behavior, aimed at scaring, angering or shaming those who are targeted.’
The thing every time we unconsciously expose our personal information on the internet while using it. Now you wonder how is it even possible. There are trends at present to take selfies everywhere you go or even at home or make TikTok videos about the things you do in your daily lives there is another thing is that whenever using any laptop or mobile phone or any digital device it automatically tracks your location because of satellite connection. So, every time you take a picture or upload a video you are sharing something on the internet about you which can be used against you later by anyone.
‘Cyberbullying’ is mostly a youth problem. We are aware of the word ‘memes’. Now ‘internet memes’ might seem funny and good at the early stage when started because it makes people laugh. But over the years, these memes are being used to attack people virtually. It is mostly for political purposes nowadays to mock a political leader of the country or hurt the emotions who support them. Students also make and use memes to make fun of the people they don’t like or to take revenge on someone without thinking about the following consequences.
Now as I mentioned earlier, the internet is faster than you think, any news or information can be reached by anyone in the blink of an eye. So, whenever we put those memes on the internet, it might upset someone, and he or she might make the wrong decision to end their life. So, memes are a kind of bullying or torture of someone mentally which is not good for humanity sometimes.
Now there are other things like using fake accounts to send anonymous messages on social media platforms, spreading lies by posting videos or photos, sending threatening or abusive messages, blackmailing someone for wrong reasons, etc. These are all activities mostly done by the young people of our generation.
There is another kind of ‘cyberbullying’ which is not direct but it causes harm mentally and emotionally to anyone. So, when teenagers post videos or photos on their social media accounts and some of them got the most likes and comments over someone, they start to feel disgusted and irritated with themselves, and they start to doubt themselves and their abilities just over some posts on the internet. And their friends keep teasing them for not getting any likes or shares, they gradually loosen their hopes and mental stabilities over time. As a result, the capabilities and potentiality of the person have never gotten the chance to be enhanced or developed. This has become a real issue when even a five-year-old girl knows to use social media handles.
We are living in a digital era and we know we cannot ignore the internet and the benefits we get from that. But what we can do is control our actions and the decisions we make for ourselves. So, be aware of the fact if we monitor our activities on the internet and try to use it for good purposes without sabotaging anyone or anything, then it can be good for all of humanity.
Written by - Joy
Edited by - Kritika Sharma
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