Meaning and 5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet in our Society
INTRODUCTION
Globalization has become a buzzword, a vague term used by academics, policymakers, politicians, and journalists. Linked in particular to technological developments (and increasingly more so with global means of communication that knows no boundaries), it has come to mean a number of things. Like many other buzzwords there is no shared meaning and consensus among those who use the term or those who have tried to define, explain, and describe this “process,” “project,” “epoch,” or “ideology.”
Since McLuhan launched the cliché of the global village some 30 years ago to describe how media technologies were breaking down barriers between different nations; communication technologies, more than before, have occupied a central place in debates about cultures, communications, commerce, and possible unity among nations and cultures, and hopefully peace. The Internet is the latest technology, which is supposed to shoulder the burden of realizing McLuhan’s dream.
Vast numbers of scholars in all disciplines, and working under what Kessler (2000) described as “the ever more exigent imperatives of political economy of career survival and advancement in universities across the world” have produced new journals acknowledging the term in their title as well as content, and thou- sands of scholarly articles, books, reviews, reports, and conference papers seeking to provide some explanations and answers to the question of globalization.
Meaning and 5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet in our Society
WHAT IS INTERNET?
The word Internet (or internet)[a] is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP)[b] to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing.
GLOBALIZATION: CONTINUITIES AND CHANGE
The diversity of definitions and explanations of the term globalization cannot cover the level of agreement in academia. The supposedly growing interconnectedness and interdependence of economies, cultures and politics is acknowledged, as is the emergence of supranational power and order. Robertson (1992) for example, was concerned about the ways in which the global and the local interact.
Robertson argued that globalization as a process predates modernity and modern societies. Nevertheless,, in Robertson’s “globalization stages,” modernity plays an important role and it is in the final stage (uncertainty) in which all the barriers to globalization have been eroded. For Robertson it was a concept, which referred “both to the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole”.
NEW TECHNNOLOGIES: CONTINUTIES AND CHANGE
It is hoped that the Internet will evolve into a global information infrastructure. It has been hailed as a new engine of history that will transform our sense of place, time, and community and will give way to a new society, a society like never before. New technologies in a variety of theories of information society and debates about the new economy are accorded a significant place. Undoubtedly the Internet will, (and has already), offer new possibilities and opportunities by reducing costs, faster product developments, business transactions, delivery, and much better global coordination.
Enthusiasts, however, praise the Internet not simply for its undeniable advantages that it provides for businesses but for its ability to transcend national boundaries, for making space and distance irrelevant, and above all for sucking away powers from political and economic elites, big businesses, and governments (Dyson, 1998).
THE MYTH OF THE GLOBAL VILLAGE AND THE REALITIES OF THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
Ever since 1994, Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States, announced his plan for a global communication infrastructure and the possibility of a global human community. The issues of new economy and widespread access to information technologies as the agents of this transformation have been top of the international agenda.
The digital divide became a metaphor to describe the existing disparities and the disadvantages of those who either by choice or design were priced out of the emerging digital economy and communities. There is a general consensus that access to the Internet is far from universal, and all parties agree that this is an unfortunate and undesirable situation.
ADVANTAGES OF THE INTERNET
Communication:
The main advantage of the internet is the faster communication than any other device. It’s an instant process. Communication in the form of video calls, emails, etc. is possible using the internet. Thus, there is no specific region that can be accessed.
Information
The internet is the source of knowledge. One can get information about almost everything. It is easily accessed with sources giving you the option of additional knowledge on the subject as well.
Learning
The internet has now become a part of education. Education like homeschooling is easily carried out using the internet. Teachers can upload their teaching videos on the internet and are accessed by people across the world which is helpful for all students.
Entertainment
The internet is now the most popular form of entertainment. Movies, songs, videos, games, etc. are available on many websites for free. Social networking is also possible using the internet. Hence, there are tons of entertainments that are available online with easy accessibility for everyone.
Social Network
Social networking is the sharing of information with people across the world. Apart from being an entertainment website, it has many uses. Any job vacancy, emergency news, ideas, etc. can be shared on the website and the information gets passed on quickly to a wide area.
E-commerce
All business deals started shifting towards working on the internet like transactions of money etc. And this is what evolved into E-commerce later. Online reservations, online ticket bookings for movies, etc. can be done easily. It saves us lots of time.
DISADVANTAGES OF THE INTERNET
Information Loss
The information crucial to us or any important files can be easily taken by the hackers. There is no exact proof for the security for the details we store like account numbers, passwords, etc. hence, sensitive information must be carefully stored by the people.
Spam
The unnecessary emails, advertisements, etc. sometimes are said to be spam because they have the ability to slow down the system and make the users to face lots of problems. Spam emails create confusion as important emails are also stored along with them.
Virus Attacks
The malware or virus threats are so deadly that affects the system to a greater extend. It immediately deletes all important files and finally, the system ends up crashing. The virus attack is possible in three ways.
Virtual World
The people using the internet often will forget the difference between the virtual and real worlds. This causes people to get depressed quickly and it leads to social isolation and obesity problems.
CONCLUSIONS
Current debates about the impact of the Internet at the global level need to be put in a wider historical context. The assumptions about globalization, despite a degree of relevance, are not based in realities. The claims over imminent entering of the world into a distinctly new epoch where economies of scale, the size of media companies, time and space will become less important are not well founded. Similar claims about the impact of information technologies for prosperity, well being, and democracy for developing countries should be treated with a good level of skepticism.
REFERENCES
Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.
Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy. In M. Featherstone (Ed.), Global culture: Nationalism, globalization and modernity (pp. 295–310). London: Sage.
Bell, D. (1960). The end of ideology. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
Bell, D. (1973). The coming of post industrial society: A venture in social forecasting. New York: Basic. Cairncross, F. (1997). The death of the distance: How the new communications revolution will change our lives. London: Orion.
Cullen, R. (2001). Addressing the digital divide. Online Information Review, 25, 311–320. Dyson, E. (1997). Release 2.0: A design for living in digital age. New York: Broadway.
