The Internet Devil
Since the invention of World Wide Web or known as Internet in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, Internet has revolutionized computer technology and communication. Today, Internet has become a major communication tool and it has led us into a new digital world.
Internet can be seen as a threat to some people or technology. Some of us may be skeptical about it. As mentioned by David Pogue, “Unlike actual law, Internet software has no capacity to punish. It doesn’t affect people who aren’t online (and only a tiny minority of the world population is). And if you don’t like the Internet’s system, you can always flip off the modem.”(David, 2000). It’s true that we can choose to or not to be consumed by this digital network. But we do have to acknowledge that it has become part o the new age culture.
Being involved in this digital revolution, we need to know what harm can Internet may bring us:
1. Cyber Bullying
Cyber bullying is a major Internet issue where the world is concern about. It can leave permanent damages to the suffered victims, such as; suicidal, depression, emotional, psychological and physical torture.
In 2010, a Myanmar girl who is studying in Singapore, committed suicide after been named as “loose woman” on her Facebook page (Elysa, 2011). This is the first cyber bullying case in Singapore. Since then there been social concerns about the impacts of cyber bullying. Most of these victims are teenagers, age between 8 to 17 years old (Microsoft, 2012). In current digital age, children age 8 to 17 years old have great exposure to Internet and media. They are dependent on Internet and it’s has become part of their daily lives. Cyber bullying often happen when the bully stir negative remarks about the victim. Negative remarks can be based on appearance or behavior. It can be from one person or a group. Generally the bullies usually target, “the most insecure person in class”.
In 2012, from a study by Microsoft, out of 25 countries surveyed, Singapore was ranked second highest in cyber bullying rates (Kirsten, 2013).
This year it will be the first time that Singapore participates in Safer Internet Day (SID). Lead by Singapore Media Literacy Council, they have launched a campaign on 11th Feb 2014, “Let’s create a better internet together”. The campaign video presents a heavy focus on “cyber bullying” (Safer, 2014)
I think that SID should not just cultivate safe Internet values on young children on 11 February each year. It should be a ongoing responsibility that starts from education foundation.
2. Endangered Traditional medium
Internet have made digital reading possible. More readers have preferred getting information online instead of purchasing books. Internet have increase the threats of newspapers, books and any forms of physcial publication.
Losing popularity in newspaper decrease the exposure of newspaper advertising. Newspaper is no longer an active role as Internet is the ‘free’ alternative to information as well as advertising. This put many related industry business at stake. (Leiner, 1997)
The rise of social media platform have also decrease our traditional communication platforms. Such as, letters and telephones. Social media connect people closer through the advantages of Internet. And we hardly see interact with friends and family through phonecalls or letter writing.
3. Loss of privacy
The Internet world is a ‘free’ digital world where everyone can access any information anywhere. This shortens the distance between countries, cultures and races, yet at the same time it causes us to be transparent. As if being ‘naked’, we losses privacy and that increase the chance of anyone of us being ‘public’.
4. Loss of social ethics
The conduct of Internet ethical values is still at a very young stage. Many of us may or may not find it important unless such unethical conducts happened on us. Internet ethics is important as they involve social ethical behaviours. Users of Internet may misuse the primary use of Internet and form harm upon others. Because Internet being a ‘free’ medium, the more important it is that we need to form right social ethics to put Internet into good use.
On recent news at BBC, it was reported that 11 students have been sacked from school due to ‘hack teachers’. These students are highly technology savvy and are able to hack into the school grading system to change their overall score. The students lack of integrity and have jeopardised their education through such an unethical act (BBC, 2014). The incident disappoints the school as these students could have used their intelligence academically.
The intelligence of Internet have causes some political issues as well. In the recent uproar of United States (US) spy over Europe, it had shaken the trust between the two countries. It was reported by a Spanish newspaper that National Security Agency (NSA) has monitored more than 60 million phone calls in Europe (Louise, 2013).
Definitely we might not be experts in the field of how NSA has monitored over phone calls and how such transmission is being controlled and protected. But without technology advancement, we won’t be able to gain mobility of communication in today society.
References
BBC, 4 February 2014, Pupils ‘hack teachers’ computers and ‘change grades’, BBC News, Technology
David Pogue, 30 January 2000, "Don’t Just Chat, Do Something," New York Times
Elysa Chen, 9 April 2011, Saturday, Ex-boyfriend called her a ‘loose woman’, AsiaOne, The New Paper
Kirsten Han, 22 November 2013, Friday, Cyber-harrassment in Singapore: Where to draw the line? Yahoo Singapore, Blog, Singapore Scene
Leiner, Barry M; Cerf, Vinton G; Clark, David D; Kahn, Robert E; Kleinrock, Leonard; Lynch, Daniel C; Postel, Jon; Roberts, Lawrence G; Wolff, Stephen S, 2 Feb 1997, Communications of the ACM; Commun, ACM, The past and future history of the Internet
Louise Osborne, 29 October 2013, Europeans outraged over NSA spying, threaten action, Special for USA TODAY
Microsoft Corporation, 2012, Online Bullying Among Youth 8 -17 years old – Singapore, Cross-Tab Marketing Services & Telecommunications Research Group for Microsoft Corporation
Safer Internet Day, 2014, Singapore Safer Internet Day Committee