There are constant debates about how much time it is healthy to spend online, and whether or not many of us do too much of it. Parents and others might argue that excessive time spent online is bad for your emotional health and prevents you from experiencing the real world.
But there is another side to this argument: the online world has a lot to offer. And if you use it the right way, you stand to gain a lot from it. You can do everything from learn history to find recreational activities to create your own AI girlfriend. Let’s take a closer look.
The arguments against
Again, old-school naysayers will insist that people – especially, but not only, young people – need to get off the Internet and step out into the sunshine. Their arguments against the use of the Internet are many:
1) Getting sucked into online activities can be addictive. Some people really cease to be able to tear themselves away, and they lose sight of reality. Children in their developmental phases get so attached to their devices that they cannot function without them.
2) There is a lot of potentially harmful stuff on the Internet. Both kids and even adults can fall victim to sites that include inappropriate material, including pornography, terrorism, drug-related sites, and more. The dark web is particularly dangerous, leading people into cults and other nefarious activities.
3) Education can lose its meaning. The job of teachers is getting harder and harder these days because kids can simply go online and pull up an entire research paper using Chat GPT. And not only does this material prevent students from using their own intellectual faculties, it can be wrong in what it tells people. AI is known to be faulty because it pools together everything that it can find, true and not.
4) It can be far too easy for students to stray from online educational activities and start playing online games while they should be doing their homework. With everything available in one place, the temptation to slide into lazy activities can be too great to resist.
All of these are certainly legitimate concerns, but they are not the end of the story. Actually, each of these points can be addressed with the right arguments.
The arguments for
Let’s now take a look at why spending more time online CAN be worth it. There are just as many pros as there are cons.
1) Kids don’t have to get addicted to online activities. Effective parenting can apply to the Internet just as much as it does to any other activity. If parents teach their kids that they have to limit their screen time when they are young, and continue reinforcing these rules, they are much more likely to stick. And arranging for outdoor activities with other kids doesn’t hurt, either.
2) There are plenty of ways that harmful sites can be kept at bay. Parents can put controls on their kids’ devices, and they can also teach their kids about appropriate and inappropriate material. As people learn about the Internet, they also need to learn about the dangers of malware and other harmful things that can arise from the use of sketchy sites.
3) The Internet can be a great place! There are lots of not only educational gems out there, but creative ones, too. As mentioned above, you can even create your own ideal girlfriend out of AI. How cool is that? If art is your interest, there are some amazing graphic design programs out there, and you can combine your talents with AI to come up with really creative and interesting content.
4) Teachers and professors are starting to get on the ball about the use of Chat GPT. Although it can be a challenge to stay ahead of it, there are programs that educators can use that can find material taken from these programs and identify it, even if students make some effort to paraphrase.
5) The use of gaming can also be controlled. This is also part of responsible parenting (and, when kids come of age, responsible adulthood). However, we should also note that gaming isn’t all bad – mastering a game can help develop strategic thinking capabilities, concentration, and more. And some people even choose to pursue a career in gaming development, which can be a very interesting and potentially lucrative career.
It’s up to you
As you can see, the way you approach online life is very much up to each individual. When kids are young, it is their parents’ responsibility to make sure that they put their online existence into perspective. And in adulthood, people need to watch these things themselves. As mentioned above, this is just as true for the use of the Internet as it is for eating sugar or drinking or any number of other things.
What we should be careful not to do is shut out the Internet altogether. Many old-school types tend to get reactionary and say that we should just do away with it altogether. But this would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There are amazing things online that we ought to take advantage of and which can help us grow and flourish. We just need to be sure we can do it the right way.
