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Joshua G. Robinson

Shannon Freestone

Language Arts 12

October 10, 2016

How Does the Internet Affect People?

I am an internet junkie. I am on the internet whenever I get the chance, and because my

computer setup is in my bedroom; I am on the internet almost all day. As of recent, the internet

had become of the greatest sources of information ever known. A question that comes up to me

is: What will be the long term consequences of the internet in todays generations and

generations to come? This question can be answered by breaking it into separate research, the

following are ones I will attempt to answer: effects of internet usage on intelligence, changes in

behavior and changes in overall perception by the massive amounts of information accessible by

the internet. I ask this because I have noticed that myself and others have had some changes

since the internet hit the masses.

I have absorbed massive amounts of information from the internet, this knowledge I have

come to possess is a lot of general information about a huge variety of subjects. I would expect

that the average amount of information an individual possess would have increased. In an article

on fusion.com, The Internet makes you think youre smarter than you really are, by Isha Aran;

Aran cites a study by lead researcher, Matthew Fisher. Fisher is a lead researcher at the American

Psychological Associations Journal of Experimental Psychology. Fisher exclaims that, It

becomes easier to confuse your own knowledge with this external source. The experiment

contained two groups: one with access to the internet, the other without. Participants were asked
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to research some questions. The result found that people with the internet were more likely to

had a misconceptions based on false internet results. An internet article The internet: is it

changing the way we think? from thegardian.com takes the opinions of several experts ranging

from novelist to psychiatrist. The article by John Naughton cited that of 370 internet experts

from the Pew Research Centre's Internet & American Life of Life project, 80% agreed that the

internet enhances intellect. A psychiatrist, Ed Bullmore wrote: The rapid growth of this huge,

manmade, information-processing system has been a major factor stimulating scientists to take a

fresh look at the organisation of biological information-processing systems like the brain. This

still does not provide adequate evidence. Intelligence is a hard thing to determine, and due to

most studies being surveys that rely on the participants honest answers; evidence for proving

influence of the internet increasing/decreasing intelligence can be quite inconclusive.

I have seen many people post false information that spreads like wildfire on social media

sites. An article at bbvaopenmind.com by Manuel Castells : The Impact of the Internet on

Society: A Global Perspective, exclaimed that, The speed and scope of the transformation of

our communication environment by Internet and wireless communication has triggered all kind

of utopian and dystopian perceptions around the world. Castells explains that this is because

perception is distorted by anecdotal observation and biased commentary. Castells proceeds to

explain that because of the need for social media connectivity; actual physical interactions have

lessened. The internet gives us access to many perspectives and views, but because many people

are not cautious enough; misconceptions can rapidly spread and give individuals a distorted

perception of reality.

Due to my constant internet usage there is bound to be some sort of change in behavior. I

am not alone. A book,The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains, by Nicholas
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Carr, depicts a story about how Carrs experience with the internet made him more shallow as

a person. Carr summarizes his point in the first couple pages: Calm, focused, undistracted, the

linear mind is being pushed aside by a new kind of mind that wants and needs to take in and dole

out information in short, disjointed, often overlapping bursts the faster, the better.(10) Carr is

explaining that the way we use the internet for convenience is changing our attention span. This

is reconfirmed later in the book: When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes

cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning. Its possible to think

deeply while surfing the Net, just as its possible to thinks shallowly while reading a book, but

thats not the type of thinking the technology encourages and rewards.(116) In Carr's

experience, the internet is dulling the human experience.

In conclusion, the effects of internet usage are only now being made know. The sources I

have cited were all written in the last 5-10 years. Due to being so new, research is limited on the

internets effects on society and individuals. One point that was fairly consistent is that people

are not cautious enough when they interpret information. Many people tend to think that the

internet causes a bit of laziness due to convenience; that the internet has caused a skimming

culture. This is definitely partially true for me and I definitely see this often from others.

Works Cited

Aran, By Isha. "The Internet Makes Us Think We're Smarter than We Are."Fusion. N.p., n.d. Web. 9

Oct. 2016.
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Naughton, John. "The Internet: Is It Changing the Way We Think?" The Guardian. Guardian News

and Media, 2010. Web. 9 Oct. 2016.

"The Impact of the Internet on Society: A Global Perspective - OpenMind." OpenMind. N.p., n.d.

Web. 9 Oct. 2016.

Carr, Nicholas G. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton,

2010. Print.