INTERNET: PROS AND CONS

Science and technology plays a very important role in human’s life. Most of our daily activities are greatly associated with science and technology. One of the contributions of science and technology to mankind is the invention of internet. Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks. Internet is used in almost all the places including houses, schools, and offices.

The function of internet is to connect a network of computers from all over the world. The internet is an information highway that is linked through World Wide Web. Through internet, we are able to receive and send information through web browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome in just a blink of eyes. The best of all, the information can be transferred in various forms which include texts, pictures, songs and videos. The system can also support all types of files, namely JPEG, BMP and GIF for pictures and MP3, MP4, WMA, and AVI for songs and videos. Thus, we can transfer the information that we want without to worry about the formats.

One of the benefits of internet is that it gives us leisure. This is because the net can provides us with various endless entertainments. For example, we can watch videos in YouTube. In YouTube, there are millions of videos with different genres such as funny, romance and horror to suit our mood. Not only that, 8TV and NTV7 channels also have their own websites. These enable us to review back on movies or programmes on television that we had missed out. Radio channels such as OneFM, HitzFm and HotFm also have their own sites for the same purpose and these sites enable us to see the situation in the studios when on air. There are also many sites that enable the users especially youths to watch anime or read manga online. This is good as this enables us to save money as the cost of a manga or anime DVD are quite expensive. These entertainments will not only gives us leisure but also provide fun to us, hence reducing our stress and tense.

E-commerce is another benefit of internet and it is growing rapidly not only in advancing countries like United Kingdom but also in our own country. This e-commerce includes online shopping and e-banking. Through online shopping, we can buy anything we wish as the net provides a range of products from all over the world. The procedures are also simple that is by clicking on the items that we want and put them in ‘’shopping cart’’. In just few days time, depending on the distance between the house and the traders, we can get the products we want in good quality. Examples of famous online shopping sites are Yahoo! Shopping and mudah.com that exhibit diverse products like books, furniture, clothes, electronic devices and office supplies. Doing shopping online is indeed convenient as we do not need to travel from one place to another to buy the stuff that we want.

Another advantage of internet is for educational input. There is a system called out campus that enables a student to attend a lesson from his own house. The lecturer can conduct many students at a same time and the students can also pose questions to the lecturer through

this method. This method also reduces the usage of papers and books as the notes are available online. This indirectly saves our environment as lesser trees are being cut to produce papers. Moreover, students can also download trial questions or exercises very easily through sites like Google and Scrib.

In addition, internet provides us with communicational opportunities. Network sites like Friendster, Facebook, and Twitter enable us to know more friends from different backgrounds and locations besides fastening one’s relationship. This type of interaction will expose us to various unique cultures of people from all around the world, hence enhancing our knowledge and experiences which may be useful in our daily life. There are also social networking like World Vision which aims to reduce the burden and poverty of people. These social networking encouraging people from all around the world to play their part by giving donations to ease the suffering of the unlucky people. This at the same time may inculcate loving society in our country.

Besides that, we can store our data online through systematic data storage that can be obtained easily from the net. Now, with the advancements of science and technology, we can store our data up to 32GB and some even up to 500GB. With this system, we can store our data which includes pictures, songs, videos and documents safely on the net as the data is secured with passwords. With this, we do not require buying the pendrive or compact discs to store our data which is inconvenient and there might be a risk of virus attacks. Furthermore, we can access easily the data from any part of the globe.

Nevertheless, internet not only brings benefits to mankind but also brings harm. One of the main dangers is the spam and viruses. Spam is an unnecessary material received in various forms such as mail that can cause a system to become overload and these results in a slow system. Meanwhile, viruses are malicious software written intentionally to enter a computer without the user’s permission. Examples of viruses available nowadays are Trojan, UST Funny-Scandal, worms and boot virus. These viruses will replicate and spread continuously when the users start the programmes containing the virus. As a result, our computers will get infected and in more severe cases, our data and information will lost. However, we can build a wall against these viruses by installing anti-virus software.

Internet can cause addiction especially teenagers. A study shows that a teenager spend approximately three to five hours a day. It was also found that 95% of the time the teenagers online is to play online games like Maple Story, Dota and Warcraft. The games consist of many levels and thus encouraging the users to keep on playing them to break the levels. This is because the games will become tougher and more challenging up every level. Therefore, game addiction among the users takes place. This addiction will also disrupt the concentration of the students in schools or colleges as their mind was only on the strategies to pass the game levels even though the lesson is still on. Furthermore, surfing the net for a long time can cause health hazards. Sitting too long on front of the screen of computer ca results in backache, muscular cramps and eyesight problems.

Apart from that, the usage of internet also contributes to mobile phone risks. With the easy access of internet, we can download any songs and videos from the net. Sometimes, without we realize that we might download stuff that contained virus. Then, by using Bluetooth or USB cable, we can transfer these media to our phone which has a low defense system towards malware from the net. As a result, our phone gets infected and might spoil. Furthermore, the easy transfer of materials might results in invasion of privacy. Data can easily be share, copy or download with the advancements of technology. This also includes private or confidential data. This can be done by hacking a person’s account. In order to prevent this from happen, we can try to set a more complicated passwords which is more difficult to access.

Internet is a borderless world. Thus, we might accidentally or incidentally expose to offensive materials like pornography that will influence our mind. There are also offensive articles that critic about a person who may affect his reputation and good name. This may also cause misunderstanding and raises hatred in oneself. In multiracial country like ours, this type of articles should be totally banned or forbidden from viewing as fight among the different races will occur like the 13 May Tragedy. Our current prime minister’s slogan of 1Malaysia would also be devastated. The worst, we are unable to block the internet users from posting or publish their materials on the net. What we can do is to prevent ourselves to get to the articles.

Last but not the least, internet can result in exploitations and scams. By using some types of software like Adobe Photoshop or Photo Impact, we can edit a picture very easily. However, some people had misused this benefit by photoshop their own images by making it nicer or younger to know more people through net. For example, a 50 years old man can edit his photo that made him look like a teenager to cheat on the young lady or even young girls. There are some people that use the identity of famous people like artists, actors or models so that more people would add them as friends. This is totally dangerous as we do not know the real identity and intention of the people.

As a conclusion, internet has its pros and cons. But, if human can control their bad desires, the cons of internet will not exist. Therefore, human should use their wisdom that has been bestowed by God to create something that is good and useful to mankind and not jeopardizing their democracy and freedom in surfing the net.