Dark Side of Internet

'The Internet has transformed how we live, work and play. Imagine what life would be like if tomorrow we were deprived of e-mail, sites like YouTube or tools like Google Search.'


The dark side of internet

Ease of accessibility of information for the picking is not always a good thing.

Just as companies and organisations use social networking to advertise, hackers and con men have been quick on the uptake - using spams attack on millions of users to trick them into revealing their user names and passwords.

A common ploy by hackers, for example, is to send Facebook messages to a victim's list of friends, claiming the person is stranded and asking for money to help him or her.

The porn industry, frequently a far-sighted and early adopter of new technologies, has also pushed adult entertainment increasingly into the mainstream via the Internet. Though the authorities try to block them as much as they could, few will somehow slip through the checks and continue to take advantage of the "young and green" net users unaware of such scams.

In the workplace, employees have been caught red-handed when their Facebook accounts showed photos of them out having fun when they were supposed to have reported sick,etc.  Some major companies have already block such access in offices and staff are not allowed to get "hook".

A survey of 1,460 office workers in Britain earlier this year found that half of them visited social networking sites during office hours, spending an average of 40 minutes a week, posting sensitive information, and costing £1.38 billion (S$3.1 billion) in lost work hours.

Then there are the many humiliated people who have had compromising photos or information of themselves posted online, or others who were victims of online sexual harassment or cyber-bullying.

In one of the most notorious of such cases in 2006, 13-year-old American Megan Meier killed herself after being taunted online. Her friend's mother had created a fake persona of a male teenager online to torment her, because she thought Megan was gossiping about her daughter.

Spending too much time on such sites can also be damaging, leading to addiction problems and anti-social behaviour, said psychologists, who are already seeing such numbers picking up.

Young net users admit to spending hours a day surfing and playing computer games and seems to create social disadvantages to these youngsters.
'We have countless online friends but fewer real ones. We have so many activities in cyberspace but spend even more time alone. The Internet has brought people closer, and pulled them further apart, than ever before.'

It will be difficult to predict what will happen over the next 10 years, say the experts, computing speeds will be even faster.

'Imagine downloading a whole movie in a minute or so. Access will also become even more mobile, so that even more of what you get on your PC will be available on handheld gadgets like phones.'

Companies are also looking at areas such as how best to track eye movements so as to assess search efficiency, online advertisements and navigation, or how to search images based on visual characteristics instead of text tags.

Let's hope there will some kind of literacy or educational means of maintaining the net users and guiding them along the path without having to overindulging and use of the computer or netbook.