Internet
has been the greatest gift to all those, who love information to be available,
at the blink of an eye. Gone are the days when, a student couldn’t afford to
miss any class, as there was no other mode of gaining knowledge other than going
to school. Today, every bit of information is available online and can be
accessed anywhere, at any time, and from any machine. People are becoming more
and more alert of second to second happenings and thus are aware of their
rights and how to justify them.
Where
one side we see the growth of technical and conceptual skills, why is that
people blame that internet is harming human skills? A survey conducted by
McAfee found that on an average an Indian teen spends 86% of their time daily,
on Facebook followed by 54%, on Twitter. The survey also stated that parent’s
perception and the online reality, has high level of discrepancy. Due to
children becoming more technology savvy than parents, keeping a track of what
all activities children do, becomes difficult for parents. In olden times, free
time was utilized to socialize, make real time relationships and discuss face
to face, no matter how worse the problem was. Today, people have no time for any
of these, as they believe in online dating, online marketing, and online
chatting; precisely anything that includes prefix “online”. Undoubtedly, it has
led to many new business ventures, has eliminated digital divide and has made the
world a smaller place to live. But is that all what we need? A great saying
says it all; “Man is a social animal”. If we stop acting the way we are
intended to, we go against the nature. Every time we have gone against it, we
have suffered the consequences too. Unfortunately may be therefore, every 40
minutes, a crime linked to Facebook, is reported to police. Sad isn’t it? Not
only this, according to a paper presented at the 119th Annual Convention of the
American Psychological Association (APA), pre-teens and teenagers who use
technology, like the Internet and video games, on a habitual basis will have
more stomach aches, sleeping problems, anxiety and depression. Research also
found that, Teens who use Facebook continuously may show narcissistic tendencies
and young adults show more signs of other psychological disorders, including
antisocial behaviors, mania and aggressive tendencies.
Through
over-use of internet we tend to live in a “virtual” reality, which at times is
far from the actual “reality”. Sending an emoticon of a smiling face, through
chat is easy but how many of us actually smile is a question. As artists say, beauty
lies in the eyes of beholder; it is up to the user to make this technology a
boon or a bane for him. It is easy to become dependent but difficult to resist
the dependency. Let us no more become slaves to anything not even to our
desires.
