Essay Sample on Effect of the Internet on Intelligence

Thesis Statement: The overuse and overreliance on the internet is making people more stupid and unaware of their surroundings.

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Introduction

There are billions of people who access the internet on a daily basis. These people use the internet for a variety of reasons from education to crime. The development of the internet can be equated to the growth of the print media in the sixteenth century. When the printing was first made, some parties raised their concerned about the effect that this kind of media would have on the public if people would use it to spread evil and false information. Their concerns were correct as in a short time there were more erotica books than research and educational books. This is the same case with the internet. Despite the advantages that the internet has on the lives of the people using it, the adverse effects of using it far outweigh the benefits.

The main problem that the use of the internet brings with it is the ever-shortening attention spans. Businesses and advertising agencies are making adverts that are more appealing and that are intended to capture the attention of the user despite what they were doing. Furthermore, companies like Facebook are employing attention engineers to ensure that people spend more of their lives in their sites looking at cat videos and adverts. This reduces the attention spans of people who overuse these sites. This overuse has adverse effects on their health and their general wellbeing. Students with lower attention spans cannot concentrate in class for long because they are easily distracted by the slightest things. This makes them stupid as they do not get what is being taught in class.

The use of the internet also results in a lack of creativity. For creativity to happen, a person needs to have long-term memory to make the decisions on how something will work. When adolescents and young adults rely so much on the internet to get any information they are unable to retain any long-term information on any subject in their brains. For example, when many people are asked a question, and they do not know the answer their response is "Just Google it." This makes these people lack any long-term information that can help them in the creative process. This results in a generation of people with no creativity and thus no technological advancements.

The over-reliance on the internet has also resulted in many people having little value in education. The aim of having an education is to get information that you would not have otherwise had. The internet is called the information superhighway as any information, research or answers on any topic can be found just by the touch of a button. Because of this, many people are questioning the need for education as whatever information education could give in several years can be found on the internet in seconds. When many people have this mentality the value and interest in education will reduce to worrying levels.

Conclusion

The internet is a wonderful invention that has helped shape the future of the human race. However, despite all the wonderful advantages that the internet has, it comes with serious repercussions if it is not used appropriately. There is a need to ensure that the use of the internet is regulated to ensure that these adverse effects are kept at bay.