Internet and Anti-Socialism

Running head: INTERNET AND ANTI-SOCIALISM
Internet and Anti-Socialism
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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INTERNET AND ANTI-SOCIALISM
Anti-Socialism is one of the growing issues of the society in the present times. An
anti-social is usually referred to an individual who likes to be left alone, and does not much
care about the company of friends or family (Barret et AL. 2015). This seems to be the case
with today’s generation of youth who are becoming more and more anti-social. The main
reason for this is the Internet. While it is true, that the Internet indeed plays a useful role in
the lives of the youth, it also addicts the youth to certain websites and videos which might not
be suitable for them. Excessive surfing through such websites leads to addiction, anti-social
tendencies and sometimes resorts to violence and various criminal activities. This essay
intends to argue and critically examine how the excessive addiction to the Internet among the
youths may lead to anti-social problems like cyber-bullying, internet addiction and sexting.
The Internet, just like playing several positive roles in the life of the youths of today,
has several negative effects. The biggest negative effect that it has on the life of the
individual is the increasing amount of anti-social behaviour among the youths. The main
reason for this is the fact that while the youths use the Internet, they become addicted to it.
The leads to them wanting to spend all their time in front of the Internet, instead of
interacting with their friends and family members. One of the wats by which the Internet
causes anti-Socialism among the youth is by cyber-bulling (Nixon, 2014). Cyber-bulling is a
serious form of crime committed through the social media sites. This mainly happens because
the youth befriend people om social media who takes advantage of the situation and asks
them to do something inappropriate (Nixon, 2014). When they deny, these people bully them
into doing such things. Hence, this affects them psychologically and mentally, and ultimately
some of them commit suicide, unable to bear the pressure. One of the most common
examples of cyber-bullying is the Blue Whale, where the youth victims were bullied and
blackmailed into committing suicide. There have been many cases of suicide by cyber-
bulling. Another example of suicide by cyber-bullying is the case of the 12-year-old girl who

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INTERNET AND ANTI-SOCIALISM
had committed suicide due to repeated issues of cyber-bullying. Although this is a crime,
there are some who claim that cyber-bullying is in a way good for the youths as it helps to
make them mentally, preparing them for the outside world. Still, it cannot be denied that
cyber-bullying is bad for the youths as it causes psychological breakdowns and other
problems among the youth (Nixon, 2014). This is because the youths who get bullied to do
things cannot disclose their problems to their parents either of the fear of getting scolded or
because of the threats made to the family. This starts to affect them, and they ultimately resort
to drug addiction, ultimately suffering from psychological breakdowns. Sometimes, they lose
all hope and resort to suicide having no other options available to them. One such example
was the case of Erin Gallagher of Florida, who committed suicide. The reason behind this
was that she was getting bullied because of her weight on Ask.fm (Sullivan 2013). It was
followed by the suicide of her elder sister Shannon Gallagher because she felt lonely without
her younger sister. Hence, it is advised that the youth should be careful about who they
befriend on Facebook or other social media. They should also have a control on the time they
are using the Internet, as this will prevent them from becoming anti-social.
The second way in which the Internet is causing the youth to become anti-social is
through the effective use of social media sites and online technologies. Often it is seen that
the youth are spending a lot of time on the social media sites (Rajeev et.al, 2016). They do
not care for any other kind of activities rather than chatting with their friends online. Apart
from the use of Facebook, other social media sites such as Instagram, Myspace, LinkedIn and
WhatsApp also cause the youth to spend their time on these sites. It has been found in a
particular study that almost 22% of youth in today’s age like to spend their time on the
Internet and on the social media sites. The main reason for this according to them is the fact
they get to meet people from all over the world, which is for them is more interesting and
time saving instead of going out and meeting people (Rajeev et Al, 2016). In another study, it