Impact of Internet on University Students: A Detailed Essay

This essay examines the multifaceted impact of the internet on university students. It begins by outlining the positive aspects, such as access to vast information resources, online educational opportunities, and enhanced communication through social media. The essay then delves into the negative impacts, including potential for plagiarism, addiction, and security and privacy threats. The main body explores challenges related to security and privacy when using the internet, emphasizing the vulnerability of devices to cyberattacks and the importance of protecting personal information. It suggests measures like using cloud encryption, strong firewalls, and checking privacy settings. The essay concludes by summarizing the internet's potential to improve learning while also acknowledging the associated challenges and the need for proactive measures to ensure security and privacy. It also includes a comprehensive list of references from books, journals, and online sources.

INDIVIDUAL ESSAY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Positive and Negative aspects of Internet on University Students..............................................1
Challenges and measures of security and privacy while using Internet......................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Internet refers to the global computer network that provides huge variety of information
and facility of communication as well. This also consist interconnected networks having
standardised communication protocols (Conti and et.al., 2018). Internet and technology are
increasingly used by everyone in today's digital age. Development in the internet technology
brings much benefits for the users but it also brings negative impacts. The present essay
describes about the positive and negative impacts and effects of internet on the university
students. The essay also describes about the various challenges relating to security and privacy
while making use of internet. Further certain measures are provided to keep the information safe
and secured and face the challenges related with the use of internet.
MAIN BODY
Positive and Negative aspects of Internet on University Students
School, higher education and university students makes use of internet for getting access
to pool of information and learning sources. Internet helps in improving the skills, knowledge
and quality of learning and education in many different ways (How Internet is Useful For the
Students, 2016). The university students can use internet for developing their skills, knowledge
and achieve success in education and professional life. Students can make use of internet for
getting study relevant information materials through various sites. Assessment and projects
provided to students requires effective and relevant research which can be done through using
internet. Lots of study websites are available on the internet from which students can get required
information and knowledge. Different subject topics can be studied and researched by students
on the internet. Student can opt for online assignment writing services if they are finding any
challenges for attempting the homework or assignment.
Internet has become useful tool and popular method for student's learning. The other
benefit that students can get through internet includes online education which is becoming a
trend across the globe. Various online educational programmes are available on the internet
through which students can engage into study courses without even going to university or
college. Various universities comes up with different online graduate study programmes which
can be pursued by students for further studies and with managing their job as well (Al-Rahmi
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And et.al., 2018). One can continue their job and education together by pursuing such online
courses or programs.
The students can make use of internet for connecting with their teachers and friends.
Various social media platforms or also known as social networking sites are available on the
internet that allows people to stay in touch with other members. WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram
and Twitter are some of the social media sites that allows students to connect with other people
or teachers or friends. They can share information and knowledge on such websites or also as a
way of communication. The internet is double-sided sword that brings both positive and negative
impacts for student's learning and education (Andersson and et.al., 2018). It serves as teacher for
the university students from which students can ask any question and it will answer them all.
Internet provides various sources of information which can be used by students for completing
their homework, assessment or projects. Such unlimited sources provided by internet leads to
reduce the efforts form the sides of student and they lacks to bring creativity as well (Internet
Effects on Learning, 2019). Students can copy paste information from relevant websites to their
project assessment and it leads to increase the issue of plagiarism.
The negative impacts and effects of internet on university students may include cheating,
increasing plagiarism, waste of time for in-appropriate activities and etc. They may get addicted
to the internet, online games, online shopping and social media websites which can lead to bring
immense affects on their studies. Students may lead to waste most of their time in using internet
and avoid their studies. Internet is very addictive tool that makes up most of the time of users.
Student may spend most of their time on using various social media websites such as Facebook,
WhatsApp or Instagram instead of using this time on doing some productive things. They can
also watch films, videos, films or play games on internet and waste their valuable time. Privacy
and security threat is also one of the negative impacts of internet. Students share their personal
and educational information on the social media websites which can be approached easily by any
strangers for misusing it. Internet leads to create various troubles for teachers as well as students
have wide sources of knowledge which makes cheating easier (Conti and et.al., 2018). Students
can find all the answers for their assessment projects from internet, which can lead to increase
the academic fraud and cheating. One more negative impact of internet on student's learning is
moral corruption. Black websites available on internet leads to impact negatively on the students.
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The moral concepts and personality of students are on developing stage, which can be affected
due to the in-appropriate content or information available on internet and absorbed by students.
Challenges and measures of security and privacy while using Internet
In the 21st century, use of internet and technology is increasing, people are being very
much dependent on the internet. Internet acts a world of information and knowledge. It has
become the most important technological tool for everyone in the fast pace world. But while
making use of internet, certain measures needs to be taken for security and privacy of the
personal information. I can face various challenges while using internet and certain measures
needs to be taken for the concern of security and privacy.
Security is very crucial issue and challenges for the internet users (Lonsdale and et.al.,
2019). Internet devices are vulnerable for the cyber attack as because of their constrained
computational sources. The connecting devices are increasing which in-turn leads to increase the
opportunities for exploitation of security vulnerability. This can lead to expose of users
information to theft as users leaves data streams to be inadequately protected. I need to take and
implement various measures in order to be safe and secure while using the internet. I need to
make use of cloud encryption programs while using internet or storing data on cloud. As because
cloud storage are targeted by hackers for stealing the user's information or data. Thus, I need to
protect my personal information by enabling the encryption on mobile phones and computers. I
can also make use of strong firewall for protecting the network and device and it also allows for
controlling the traffic. This can also alert me if someone is breaking into my system without my
knowledge. This also helps in tracking down the viruses which are being send out of the systems.
Turning on privacy settings will also help me to secure the data and restrict cases of cyber
attacks.
Privacy is the another challenges or issue associated with the use of internet. The privacy
issue is becoming prevalent in consumer devices (van Ingen and Matzat, 2018). For example,
devices can be tracked such as smart phones, smart televisions and cars as well. Vision or voice
recognition feature are integrated which can listen to conversations or activities can be watched
and the data is then transmitted to cloud service in order to process. This process may sometime
include third party as well which increases the privacy issue or challenge. I need to take certain
measures while making use of internet in order to secure my privacy and private information. I
need to focus on checking privacy settings while using social media websites and account as
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these networks contain lot of information. I need to check that how much of my information is
visible to others by default. I need to ensure that I don't make use of online services which are
there for sharing of information for storing the personal or private information. For example,
Dropbox and Google Docs are note the safe and idol place for storing personal details.
The security and privacy measures will help in protecting the personal and private
information safe and secure. While using internet and online website, I need to make use of
special tools for being secure from tracking and cyber attacks. Using private browsing will help
me to avoid internet tracking (Wang, Zhang and Taleb, 2018). I need to create another email
address or account for using internet and using such services that requires my personal
information as this will helps me to keep the information safe and secure. I can also make use of
various messaging application having end-to-end encryption. Using secured password will also
help me to keep the information private.
CONCLUSION
The internet effectively opens up various doorways for wealth of information,
educational resources, pool of knowledge, opportunities for learning and all this beyond the
classrooms. Internet has immense power and potential for improving the learning and education
for students but it also have potential for bringing negative impacts for the students. There are
various issues and challenges associated with the internet and thus, users needs to follow some
measures while making use of internet. The issue of internet can be related with security and
privacy of information. Thus, various measures needs to be taken while using internet for the
security and privacy purpose.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Al-Rahmi, W.M. And et.al., 2018. A model of factors affecting learning performance through
the use of social media in Malaysian higher education. Computers & Education. 121.
pp.59-72.
Andersson, G. and et.al., 2018. Long-term effects of internet-supported cognitive behaviour
therapy. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics. 18(1). pp.21-28.
Conti, M. and et.al., 2018. Internet of Things security and forensics: Challenges and
opportunities.
Lonsdale, C. and et.al., 2019. An internet-supported school physical activity intervention in low
socioeconomic status communities: results from the Activity and Motivation in Physical
Education (AMPED) cluster randomised controlled trial. Br J Sports Med. 53(6). pp.341-
347.
van Ingen, E. and Matzat, U., 2018. Inequality in mobilizing online help after a negative life
event: the role of education, digital skills, and capital-enhancing Internet
use. Information, Communication & Society. 21(4). pp.481-498.
Wang, H., Zhang, Z. and Taleb, T., 2018. Special issue on security and privacy of IoT. World
Wide Web. 21(1). pp.1-6.
Online
5 CHALLENGES FACING THE INTERNET OF THINGS. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://techgenix.com/internet-of-things-challenges/>
How Internet is Useful For the Students?. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.allassignmenthelp.co.uk/blog/how-internet-is-useful-for-the-students/>
Internet Effects on Learning. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://itstillworks.com/negative-effects-internet-education-2002.html>
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