Internet Is Creating A Generation of Anti-Social Youth

The essay argues how the unrestricted use of internet is creating a generation of anti-social youth. The excessive and unmonitored use of internet among the youths is resulting into a deficiency of study, lack of concentration in the important aspects of life, and anti-social behaviour.

Running head: INTERNET IS CREATING A GENERATION OF ANTI-SOCIAL YOUTH
Internet Is Creating A Generation of Anti-Social Youth
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1INTERNET IS CREATING A GENERATION OF ANTI-SOCIAL YOUTH
The significance of internet in the daily life is undeniable in this twenty first century.
Whereas, the use internet is useful is many ways, the overuse of it, especially among the
youths of this century, is becoming a growing concern. It is impossible to prevent
technological advancement, and with this advancement, the use of internet technologies is
growing on an alarming pace. The extent to which youths are using internet, particularly
social media sites, can be regarded as internet addiction. This excessive and unmonitored use
of internet among the youths is resulting into a deficiency of study, lack of concentration in
the important aspects of life, and anti-social behaviour. The purpose of this essay is to argue
how the unrestricted use of internet is creating a generation of anti-social youth.
The popular social media site Facebook has become a self-promotional platform for
most of the people. According to Carpenter (2012), the inordinate use of Facebook is
inflicting narcissistic behaviour among the users, which is turning them into anti-socials. In
terms of psychology, narcissism is the type of behaviour where one is consumed with the idea
of self, demonstrates grandiose exhibitionism (GE), and desires attention. In addition to this,
they also feel that they are entitled to admiration and respect, and exploits people to get
advantage (EE). Moreover, people having a higher EE also signifies that they would seek
social support, and yet, unlikely to provide that. As opined by Carpenter (2012), these
personality traits are the indication anti-social behaviour, and are found in the young users of
the internet. The most common purpose of the young generation for using internet is the
various social media sites, and in these sites, they upload their pictures and statuses
promoting themselves and seeking validation and appraisal of their audiences. The findings
of the research exhibit that Facebook users, who have high GE level, tend to seek a large
audience often by accepting friend requests from apparent strangers. The trend has been that
the success of an individual depends on how popular that person is on Facebook, and the
measurement for popularity is the number of friends and followers an individual has on

2INTERNET IS CREATING A GENERATION OF ANTI-SOCIAL YOUTH
Facebook. This is the proof of their low self-esteem and incapability to distinguish
themselves from external objects. The research further demonstrates that the users with
higher EE tend to respond aggressively to negative remarks and provide less support than
they gain through Facebook. Therefore, it was found that the agenda of the Facebook users
are to seek social validation and support to boost their damaged ego, rather than socialising.
The study of Jonathan Bishop (2013) puts emphasis on another aspect of the abuse of
internet. He discusses the specific problem of internet trolling and links it to the anti-social
personality disorder (ASPD). The act of internet trolling has been causing problems in both
personal and organizational level. Once the act of sending provocative messages has now
extended to the act of sharing offensive and malicious messages. Bishop differentiates the
purpose of trolling into two categories. The more positive type of trolling is the ‘kudos
trolling’, which is mainly for the purpose of entertainment. On the other hand, ‘flame trolling’
is the type of trolling that is offensive and menacing in nature and intended to harm people.
The diagnostic criteria for ASPD are ego-centrism, personal-gratification, lack of empathy,
hostility, irresponsibility, manipulation, impulsiveness, dishonesty, incapability of intimacy,
callousness, and habit of taking risks. Conducting an interview with a male flame troller,
Bishop confirmed that the traits found in him are similar to the criteria for ASPD diagnosis.
When there is the loss of ability in some people to evaluate information about others, they are
more likely to demonstrate anti-social behaviour like trolling. These trollers abuse
information and manipulate those to gain satisfaction from their victims’ misery. The internet
gives access to everyone to use any information available in it. Therefore, it can be said the
lack of control and the surveying nature of internet provide opportunity for these trollers to
abuse the information displayed in there for their personal vindictive motive.
The research conducted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority
(ACMA) (acma.gov.au 2015) sheds light on the trends of internet usage among the

3INTERNET IS CREATING A GENERATION OF ANTI-SOCIAL YOUTH
Australians. The research presented that the age group of 18-44 has a 100% usage rate of
internet. The main source of internet access has been the home, second is the workplace. The
most common medium of using internet is mobile phones among the young generation, while
the middle aged and old people preferred computers and laptops. This thoroughly conducted
research has revealed the growing trends of multiple usage of the internet among the
Australians in this century. While data download is the major purpose, various inline
communities and blogs are also significant reasons for the growing use of the internet. The
people aged 18-24 are more likely to use internet as the medium of file sharing, and 18-44
use the internet to back up and store data. According to the ACMA (acma.gov.au 2015),
Australians are embracing the digital life open-handedly. Digital communication has become
a crucial part of the work life, ways of conducting business and socialising. The research
shows that half of working Australians utilises internet to do work in other places than the
office, and online shopping is becoming more popular day by day. Therefore, reviewing the
data of this research, it can be said that the trends of using internet in Australia is an
affirmative one.
Despite of this data, the research of Ma (2011) demonstrates through a case study of
Chinese adolescents how the internet addiction is grasping the youths all over the world. The
researcher explicitly points out the antisocial behaviours such as selling fake products, selling
and sharing offensive materials, cyberbullying, cheating and fraudulence, and illegal
gambling among the internet users. Excessive use o internet makes the users addicted to it.
Consequently, they become obsessed about the internet and feel anxiety if cannot use it, and
using it gives them pleasant feeling and make them relax. They also become less tolerant and
more impulsive. Moreover, they start to risk their relationships with parents and friends,
education, career, and start to develop a lying and escaping nature. Hence, health issues arise
easily and mentally they become lonely and depressed. This research evidently proves that

4INTERNET IS CREATING A GENERATION OF ANTI-SOCIAL YOUTH
the abuse of the internet disrupts the mental capabilities of the users as well as develops anti-
social behaviour among them.
An individual who exhibits behaviours that have no regards for the social norms and
violate the common rights of people, is recognised as an anti-social. Although there are
multiple aspects in which the use of internet is necessary, the fact that people are overusing
and abusing it cannot be denied. The articles discussed above proves that the consequence of
this uncontrolled use of internet is significant as it makes the users lose any sense of right and
wrong, and grows anti-social behaviours in them. The tendency of the new generation is to
use the internet as a self-promotional platform, and they are lost in self-admiration. They are
also using the internet as a medium to outburst their personal agony and succeed in their
vindictive motives. Thus, it would be justified to say that with a face of a helping tool, the
internet is creating a generation of anti-social youths.

5INTERNET IS CREATING A GENERATION OF ANTI-SOCIAL YOUTH
References
Australian Communications and Media Authority, 2015. Communications report 2013–14
series: Report 1—Australians’ digital lives. [online] Available at:
https://www.acma.gov.au/~/media/Research%20and%20Analysis/Research/pdf/Australians
%20digital%20livesFinal%20pdf.pdf [Accessed 11 Sep. 2018].
Bishop, J., 2013. The effect of de-individuation of the Internet Troller on Criminal Procedure
implementation: An interview with a Hater. International Journal of Cyber Criminology,
7(1).
Carpenter, C.J., 2012. Narcissism on Facebook: Self-promotional and anti-social behavior.
Personality and individual differences, 52(4), pp.482-486.
Ma, H.K., 2011. Internet addiction and antisocial internet behavior of adolescents. The
Scientific World Journal, 11, pp.2187-2196.