Disadvantages of the Internet

Disadvantages of the Internet

 

Theft of Personal Information

The use of Internet for banking, social networking, or other services, often makes our personal information vulnerable to theft. There are no fail-proof ways to securing names, account numbers, addresses, photos, and credit card numbers from being stolen or misused by thieving websites and individuals.

Unscrupulous hackers can access our sensitive information through unsecured connections by planting phishing software. Needless to say, the damage caused by having our identities misused and our accounts broken into, is often irreparable and most of all, embarrassing.

Spamming

Spamming refers to sending unwanted e-mails, which serve no purpose and needlessly obstruct the computer system. Such illegal activities can be very frustrating as it makes it slower to access our email accounts and makes the entire service unreliable for consumers.

Spammers usually use bots that bombard the receiver with an endless line of advertisements. This can prove to be increasingly perplexing, as it keeps getting mixed with our more important emails. Fortunately, email service providers often have security systems in place to guard against spamming. Fortunately, it is possible to report an email as spam, so that all emails from the same email id or IP address, are blocked.

Malware Threats

One of the most annoying problems with the Internet is the ease with which any malware can infect our computers. Internet users are often plagued by virus attacks that harm their computers and important files. Virus programs are inconspicuous and may get activated simply by clicking a seemingly harmless link. Computers connected to the Internet are extremely prone to IP targeted virus attacks that may end up crashing the system completely.

Internet virus can be of three types. The first type of virus affects files and goes directly for a particular file or file type. The second type harms system and executable boot files. These can be particularly nasty, as they can effectively stop the computer from starting again. Lastly, there's the macro virus, which is the most common as well as the most harmless of them all. The macro virus simply keep changing things like symbols on word files. The type of virus that can replicate and spread itself is known as worms. When a virus is disguised as something else, it's known as a trojan.

Age-inappropriate Content

Pornography and age-inappropriate content is perhaps the biggest disadvantage of the Internet. The worst being underage porn, which is largely rampant in the deeper parts of the web. It is the lack of control over the distribution and unrestricted access of pornographic material, that is detrimental to children. All that parents can do, is lock harmful sites and monitor the sites viewed by their children.

Pornography is not just frowned upon by most societies, it's also banned by some. The Internet makes uploading shocking content so easy, that we end up coming across inappropriate words and images, despite not wanting to.

Social Isolation, Obesity, and Depression

The biggest problem with having the Internet is, its ability to create rifts between the real and virtual world. The virtual world can often seem so alluring that once hooked, going back to real life seems daunting.

There is an addiction for everything that pertains to the web and that includes excessive surfing, online gambling, social networking, and gaming addiction. There are now psychiatric clinics and doctors that specifically cater to resolving the problems created by the Internet. These addictions create both physical as well as mental issues that can lead to health complications if left unattended. It is ironic that, while it is easy to find plenty of online support for agoraphobia, the Internet itself can be a big cause or trigger for it.

The link between obesity and the Internet is rather easy to understand. The more one sits in front of the computer, the lesser one exercises. At the end of the longish list of physical and emotional maladies, is depression. Since all problems are so deeply linked with one another and with the Internet, it isn't uncommon for people to be afflicted with multiple issues. Recent studies and research have gone deep enough to actually differentiate between compulsive Internet use and excessive Internet use. Furthermore, thanks to smartphones, holding a simple face-to-face conversation seems out of the ordinary as compared to chatting online.