Advantages and drawbacks of the Internet
The Internet is a computer network connecting millions of computers all over the world by telephone line. Any modern computer can be connected to the Internet using existing communications system. It is present in almost every aspect of our lives. Because of easiness of its availability, there are people who even cannot imagine their life without the Internet. Today, there are over a hundred million websites and billions of web pages to see. You can do lots of things using the Internet. It has a great potential and a lot to offer, however, like every single innovation in science and technology, Internet has its own advantages and drawbacks.
One of the main advantages of the Internet is fast communication. You can talk or keep in touch with a person who is sitting in the other part of the world. There are plenty of services in offering. You can use a messenger, e-mail box or chat room and chat for hours with your family and friends. Thanks to the Internet you can even meet and establish friendship with foreigners and explore other cultures. You can be in contact with your business or political partners as well.
Probably the most useful advantage of the Internet is information. Every day most people go online to look for information and share it. You should only go to one of the popular search engines like Google or Yahoo, type the topic and click “Search” and you can get lots of interesting data in a minute. Students and children mainly search information for their study or school projects, scientists for their work and research, the ordinary people for news and sports results.
Entertainment is another big advantage of the Internet. Surfing the net, chatting, downloading music, films and games can provide a lot of fun. Very popular are internet games where players play online in cyberspace and chat at the same time. These games are called “role-playing games” and players act fictional roles in their imaginary world and they should achieve precise goals according to established rules. That is, sometimes people can develop their hobbies and interests by visiting different interesting web pages.
Today there are plenty of online services which can make a life easy. For example shopping, banking, job seeking, booking airline tickets, doing hotel reservations and even studying or language learning. All of these is widely used by people all over the world and become more and more popular because of its functionality and time saving.
Although the Internet is very useful invention and you can do lots of cool things online, it sometimes can be dangerous.
Using different chat sites or message services and even discussion forums you do not know who you are really talking to. People online do not always tell the truth, so you can be a victim of manipulation or even a sexual harassment. If you place your photos on the Internet, someone can download them and use in his own target which is sometimes against the law.
If you use different services e.g. banking, job seeking, online shopping, booking tickets and, spyware programs can steal your personal information. Therefore you should use a password to protect your identity, when possible.
If you download games, music or films, you should be careful because it is illegal and you can get arrested.
After all, surfing the net you can get a computer virus! It is nothing but a program which disrupts the normal functioning of your computer system and sometimes it can end up into crashing your whole hard disk, causing you considerable headache.
In conclusion, the Internet has its advantages and disadvantages. Some people think that it is wonderful invention and others say that it is not safe. The point is that you should be careful searching the net and follow some rules called “netiquette” and have fun.