Impact of IT on society

Today I will be focusing on how society have effected be the WWW (World Wide Internet), giving people a new way to do things in the everyday life.

How facebook, MSN, Twitter, etc have affected our friendships

Social networks like Facebook have affected our society and nowadays it’s a new way of meeting new people and making friends, which is really a quick process because many people are online every day and stay tuned to other people's posts. It's also useful for those who are looking for an old friend haven't seen for a very long time, and there might be a chance of finding the other person connected on Facebook, because nowadays almost everyone has got an account registered on the social network website. It has become also a place where people try to have as many friends as they can, reaching also thousand friends on their contact friends list, which sometimes may be extremely dangerous at times, because Facebook is a virtual world of people of many types, which means that some people connect to Facebook to commit a bad action, which it could cost someone’s life. There are also bullying and threating issues which a lot of teenagers are going through, and many suicides happened in the last few years, which it can be really stressful for those teenagers being on Facebook, which they have a bad influence in the real life.

How new on-line communities join people together (including those in remote locations)

There are forum communities which are suitable for people who want to talk about a specific topic they like, giving the chance of meeting someone interested of your same interests and this would be an excellent way of making friends. Some forums offer monthly competitions which is really good, you can get comments and critics sometimes which not only improves your social life, but also your skills, including your writing because members registered within a forum don’t use text or slang words and some forums don’t give permission to do that for people who have signed up recently. It is also dangerous sometimes because most people in forums like to use a random nickname and also a random avatar (Personal Picture), and you might not know the real identity of the person you are talking to.

Online communities join people also from remote locations, allowing them to connect to forums even from far away.  It is available worldwide, people can connect from everywhere, also using mobile devices allowing them to post topics and private messages.

Good Points:

• People can connect to online communities from remote locations
• Sharing opinions and ideas
• Talk about same interests

Bad Points:

• Anonymous people that may be dangerous ( Often members registered in online communities have a nickname and a random picture, which it can be quite dangerous at times)
• Face people who do not talk in a proper manner or incite a bad topic (eg. Racism)#
• No instant messaging (Forums usually do not have the instant messaging function, which allows users to chat in real time without refreshing the page, causing messages to be delivered not instantly.)

Effect of computer games

Computer gaming has become now also a way of making friends, playing online with people worldwide nowadays is what people do, mostly teenagers. But lot of teenagers spend their life with playing consoles instead of going out, which affects their social life. It is a way where people can play against other people which enables the ability to talk through microphone with them, or by chat, which is a good experience. Not only teenagers play games, but also people who are adult enough to have a place at work.

Good Points:

• Meeting new people ( Gaming is a good way of meeting many people while you play with them. Online gaming allows everyone to talk to each other also through microphone and also webcams sometimes)
• Expanding english dictionary ( Gaming expands the knowledge of using english vocabulary, and improves the spelling, which is really good)
• Anti-stress ( It is a stress free activity for those who had a long day and just relax by playing not longer than 30 - 45 minutes per day )

Bad Points:

• Bullyism ( Online gaming includes bullies, and it is very common nowadays that people get bullied and offended by players that take games seriously, sometimes even threating people) 
• Game addiction ( People might get addicted in Online gaming and this affects their life badly in so many ways)
• Social life ( Some people might have a very bad social life, and most of them do not have many friends in real life, but only in the online gaming community, which it is really bad because it takes them into a different world)
• Missing out opportunities in life if addicted ( Many people have missed out many important occasions in their life, like attending schools, going to work, and this affects badly the community because people start to not care anymore about their life and only think about playing games.)

Internet addiction

Many people are getting addicted to internet, which affect their life so badly sometimes. Some people can’t stay without internet, for many reasons: Social networks, shopping, gambling etc. Teenagers are affected pretty much to social networks, and in some cases it could be really bad causing them to not sleep a lot and staying overnight, giving them a big distraction with their work at school. Internet addiction is really dangerous because it puts people in a position where they will not concentrate on their own life, causing a really bad depression also sometimes.

No need to leave house – online shopping, Wikipedia instead of library, etc.

People don’t need to leave their houses if they need to find any kind of information. Students prefer to use websites like Wikipedia for their researches instead of going into library; People prefer to find the best values on products on websites like EBay, Amazon, Play.co.uk. It is really a good way to find what you are looking for, but people nowadays get scammed a lot and get their bank credit card information stolen, because many computer users are not fully aware on how online shopping really works.