The Dangers of the Internet

Summary of the Video

The documentary video features the rapid changes of technology throughout the years, as well as the inevitable dangers that the Internet brings to every individual. The entirety of the video was presented in a partition manner. 

The first part involves the transition of technology from its beginning in the past decades up to the present time. From the simple use of the typewriter, telephone, printing press, newspaper, black and white television, the rapid changes of technology began its trackback in the year 1962, wherein a set of information and data was sent from one computer to the other, that led to its expanded connectivity to the other computers worldwide, with the use of the first-ever Internet provider and database. 

Historically, in the span of 25 years, the use of the first printing press contributed to the completion of the equation that took in reality the first ever publication and origin of the first books. On the other hand, the telephone has reached 10% of the world’s population as its ring and dial functions promoted connectivity from one country to another. With the advancements of the use of the telephone, a sudden grasped change was witnessed in the year 1995, wherein from 1% of the population who uses it, the increase continued in the following succeeding years such as in 2005, 2010 and 2014 beginning from 1 Billion in 1995 up to the record high 3 billion in 2014. 

The benefits of the Internet continued to widen as the years rolled by in its offered developments in terms of Culture Accessibility, Social Networking, Endless Source of Information, Entertainment, Education and Ease of Use to mention a few. This led people and individuals globally to place the Internet at the top of their priority list in daily life, which in return places the television, personal bath and car below in ranking. 

To continue with, as the documentary video features the transition throughout time of the Internet, risks are also associated with its vast usage. First and foremost is Addiction. Addiction is considered a danger and risk in the use of the Internet as it leads individuals to the irresponsible and non-disciplinary motives of use with just a click and tap of the fingertips on a mobile phone or tablet. Issues such as Internet Pornography leads 60% of males worldwide to addictively access pornographic websites freely, and 9% of these males access these websites in order to avail and click advertisements that leads to prizes, promos and money that are often times associated with scams. The Internet leads every individual in knowing too much and understanding too little on a daily basis.

The conventional use of information found in the Internet has led to the widespread use of individuals worldwide in terms of Social Media use, as 72,000 users viewed videos in YouTube, 200,000 emails are sent successfully in a minute’s duration and 50,000 applications are downloaded in a minute’s duration via Apple.

With the internet and technology’s usage history that began in 12,000 B.C. up to the year 2003, the number of bytes used per day that only began with 5 exabytes in a matter of 2 days, has abruptly increased to yottabytes at present, which comprises of more than 100,000,000,000 bytes worldwide. As an example, Google accumulates a total of 2.5 billion searches per day as a web search browser. 

On the other hand, the personal use and spread of nonsense information can cause riots around the world as bitten thoroughly by Social Media, wherein as an example, a fire that transpired in London made headlines on Twitter. Thus the premise of Wisdom vs. Accuracy should be applied in the use of web search browsers.

The second risk and danger of the Internet is the invasion of Privacy. As much as the individual is highly engrossed with the use of the Internet, there are tendencies wherein his or her privacy is affected because of the date he or she shares. Numerically, in a year’s duration, 5,000 pounds worth of data is gathered and consumed from different people worldwide. Because of the Facebook posts that we create and with the Twitter posts that we publish on these above mentioned social media platforms have contributed greatly to the 70% fear that has been accumulated in the process of individual sharing.

The third risk and danger of the Internet is the prevalence of Online Crime. The rates of online crime has consistently increased beginning in the year 1990 as 7000 images contained Child Pornography and continued to transpire in the year 2014 with a total of 42 million images that were found on 1 server. In return, a sad reality that remains all over the globe is that, 50,000 people are actively involved in the sharing and downloading of images that depict Child Abuse. As a result, Twitter has gathered 10,000 uses of racist slur terms, 2,000 tweets were sent that contained rape and 69% of young people in the United Kingdom have experienced bullying. The National Crime Agency emphasized on the basis of these scenarios that despite the initiatives that they push, they admitted that only 1% of the child porn users are covered under their jurisdiction.

In conclusion, as Technology and Internet continues to develop and adapt with the changes of time, we are reminded at the end of the documentary video with what Socrates (470-399 BC) said during his time that “Books will promote forgetfulness. People would have become hearers of many things and will have learned nothing.  Thus, with the challenges and dangers that Internet brings, we are reminded of the following motives in dealing with it such as, to interact deeply with our partners, keep our critical faculties alive, stop thinking that the answers always lies out there, remain emotionally connected to real life people, make the discoveries that come when we are bored and letting our minds lie fallow. As parents, educating the children in the proper use of the Internet will be able to allow them to remain connected with the world, to promote and start conversations, not to click irresponsibly with whatever is seen in the Internet and in return, will break the chain of being too attached with Internet usage.

A Commentary on the Documentary Video 

The documentary video was both informative and realistic. The attribute of being informative, in a sense that it showcased the beginnings of the Internet, both in history and in the past, until its recent transition that brought about its status today. Also, the attribute of being realistic in a sense shows the reality of how individuals make use of the Internet in their daily lives at present and how it creates an impact to their individuality as a whole.  Individuals would agree on the documentary video in its aspect wherein addiction, invasion of privacy are indeed considered as prevalent risks in the use of the Internet as these may cause a tolling bite to any individual who uses the Internet with a lack of sensibility, utmost irresponsibility and in-depth loss of discipline.

On the other hand, individuals would disagree on the documentary video in the aspect wherein children are greatly influenced with whatever they see, click, tap, view and watch on the Internet as a result of their own actions. It is for the reason that, the influences that they get from this highly impactful platform, is the effect of negligence and misguidance on the part of the parents. Some other points that people should consider, as an impact of the documentary video is that, parents should be the first exemplars and role models to their own children on how to make use of the Internet responsibly, purposefully and directionally. Finally, Individuals should always think before they click because a simple mistake in clicking, tapping and viewing something on the Internet, may create a horrendous nightmare on the part of the individual that may haunt him or her for the rest of their life.

Additional Information in Relevance to the Topic 

As an impactful conclusion to this article, it is but fitting to know that aside from the 3 above mentioned dangers and risks in the use of the Internet that the documentary video exposed, there are other 3 major risks and dangers that the Internet can give to individuals that other related articles specifically mentioned with emphasis as follows:

1.  Hacking

This internet danger and risk is defined as the virtual invasion of unknown individuals to the personal social media accounts, online banking accounts and email accounts owned and created by a specific individual, that may cause a dreadful image and reputation to the individual whose accounts were victimized by this danger and risk.

2. Identity Theft

This internet danger and risk is defined as a virtual crime of stealing a respective person’s information, social status and lifestyle that may result in a dual identity on the person that pretended to be that specific person concerned, resulting to utmost confusion on the part of the public. 

3. Trolling

This internet danger and risk is defined as a form of virtual discrimination that results to verbal attacks that a specific individual gives to the person being victimized in the form of degrading posts on social media as well as in the form of oral defamation that is done online that in return, impacts shame and humiliation to the individual being trolled.