The Negative Impact of the Internet on Cognition and Students

This essay critically examines the negative impacts of the internet on individuals, focusing on cognitive functions, smartphone use, and student performance. The author explores how internet usage affects attention, memory, and social interaction, citing research on "brain drain" caused by smartphones. The essay also discusses the detrimental effects of the internet on students' reading and writing skills, including addiction to online games and cyberbullying. While acknowledging the positive aspects of the internet, such as e-commerce and access to information, the essay concludes that the negative consequences of excessive internet use outweigh the benefits, particularly concerning cognitive abilities and the future of the youth.

Running head: NEGATIVE IMPACT OF INTERNET
Negative Impact Of Internet
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Authors note:

1NEGATIVE IMPACT OF INTERNET
The Internet has received negative publicity in recent years. The news coverage
focused on the privacy scandals, harmful behaviour in the form of cyberbullying and cyber
theft and security breaches (Cremer, Nguyen, and Simkin). The internet addiction has lead to
the harmful effects on the social relation as well as social cohesion. This paper focuses on the
negative impact of the Internet on the lives of the individual ( Yu et al.). The following
section of the paper will explain how the use of the Internet has affected the social cognition
of individuals. The report will further focus on the impact of smartphones on the user and
will argue about the impact on students writing and reading skill. The paper also reflects on
the positive side of the Internet. The Internet has a negative impact on the individual.
The Internet is affecting the brains of the consumer as well as the cognition; this is
specifically regarding the attention capabilities, social interaction and memory process (Carr).
From the recent psychological and neuroimaging research, particular evidence is gathered,
which revealed that the role of the Internet is changing the cognition. Firstly it affects the
concentration level as the online information, which is streamed divert the attention of the
users to multiple media sources. It was believed that the attention is getting effected via the
hyperlinks, prompts and attention, which is offering different forms of digital media and
encouraging people to engage in multiple inputs simultaneously. Secondly, as there is much
availability of the information, the memory is affecting as people are relying on the Internet
to remember things. Unlike another external system of memory, the Internet is not
responsible for the user to retain information which is unique and the Internet does not
require their user to retain where or what the particular information is sorted externally
(Brand et al.). Lastly, the research showed that since the online social setting bears a
resemblance to the social process of the real world. However, it cannot be denied that social
media is making alternation in their rules. This can be exemplified by the real word rejection
and acceptance, which is generally ambiguous the social media generally quantify the social

2NEGATIVE IMPACT OF INTERNET
process by providing clear metrics. It should be kept in mind that the impact of the Internet
depends on the age of the user. For example, in the children, it can lessen their long term
development of higher cognition, and in adults, it can decline the memory and physical
functioning.
Smartphones can also reduce the cognition of the human brain. It is proved by several
pieces of evidence that the cognitive capacity of the brain is hugely reduced when the
smartphones are within the reach. Professor Adrian Ward and the co-author carried out an
experiment with approximately 800 smartphones user so that it can be gauged how the people
are completing the task with and without the availability of the smartphones (Ward et al. ). In
one experiment, the participants were asked to take a particular online test in the computer
and the process they were asked to keep their phones sideways, pocket or in their bags. It was
found that the participants who did not have their phones outperformed other participants
with their phones. Thus the findings concluded that availability of the phones reduces the
concentration of the participants and reduces the cognitive capacity, which can be termed as
brain drain. Mobile phones divert the attentional energy from the non-phone based activities
and since the attention of the humans are limited people thus become incapable when they get
the task at their hands (Hartanto and Yang). The mobile phones distraction does not just
happen when the phones are with the user; it also occurs when the phones are turned off, or it
is present in the surrounding. The "intuitive fixes" are futile, as stated by the authors.
Another negative impact of the Internet is on the students. It has been observed in the
American students that access to the digital devices for reading has actually effected the
students' reading skill. As stated in the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress
test, one out of three students can read proficiently. The reading scores have dramatically
declined across various states, income level and races, and this is observed in both the private
and the public school. Students have lost their ground in reading areas, including fiction

3NEGATIVE IMPACT OF INTERNET
analysis, literary experience, and finding pieces of evidence in order to support the argument
(Education Week). It was found that reading is changed when students began to start online.
As they are reading online, they browse and skim through the content to trace keywords.
They usually skip reading longer text and focus on reading shorter text and often not
rereading the content. This habit is transferred while reading the print document as well.
However, the pattern of reading the document is much deeper and enable concentrated
reading this habit did not transfer to the digital medium (Vigdor, Ladd and Martinez). Apart
from this, the students are also exposed to online games which are leading to addiction. They
are more concentrated on surfing the Internet, and there is a lack of creativity that is
surfacing. There are also cases of cybercrime and cyberbullying committed by the students.
There is also a case of family abandonment in using the Internet. For example, a couple in
Korea was so much busy with their virtual baby they forgot their real baby.
However, it cannot be denied that the use of the Internet also has some positive
effects. It is said that using the Internet makes lives easy as well as simple. The Internet
delivers useful information, data and knowledge for personal growth. The use of the Internet
also enables the overall social and economic development of the place. This is achieved when
humans utilize the Internet for effectively productively using the Internet. The use of Internet
revolutionizes information technology. The Internet can be used to promote business. The e-
commerce company sell various products on the Internet. E-Commerce is dominating on the
Internet due to the Internet, and this is generating employment ( Lauden and Traver). The use
of the business in the world has brought about an exciting stir in the world of business, and
there is no scope of holding back. Using Google Ad words, Facebook advertisement and
content marketing are the conventional products which are present in the services marketing
due to the Internet. People are leaning towards the Internet to give a boost to their business.
According to the experts, it is believed that the Internet has facilitated writing, acquiring

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knowledge, thus making people smarter. This can be exemplified by saying that the Internet
has improved the Chinese writing and reading ability (CNET). The hyperlink has facilitated
to converse in a non-linear way that adds to the meaning layer in the writing, which otherwise
would not exist in the paper. The effectiveness of the work is enhanced by the use of visuals,
sound and text.
However, there are other claims which challenge the theory that Internet is has
enhanced the reading and writing abilities of the users they have based their claim on the
ground that the use of the Internet while writing has tremendously effected the spelling and
the grammar and it has, in fact, their habit worse. The condition is such that without the help
of the Internet, they cannot write correct spelling or grammar. Thus from the above
discussion, it can be concluded that the use of the Internet has impacted their user negatively.
It has not only affected the cognition power of the individual where their concentration and
memory is affected. The excessive use of the Internet has hampered the life of the students,
which has, in turn, affected the future of the nation as the youth are the future of the nation.

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Work Cited
Brand, Matthias, et al. "Integrating psychological and neurobiological considerations
regarding the development and maintenance of specific Internet-use disorders: An Interaction
of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model." Neuroscience & Biobehavioral
Reviews 71 (2016): 252-266.
Carr, Nicholas. The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. WW Norton &
Company, 2011.
CNET. "The Internet Can Make You Smarter, Experts Say". CNET, 2020,
https://www.cnet.com/news/the-internet-can-make-you-smarter-experts-say/.
De Cremer, David, Bang Nguyen, and Lyndon Simkin. "The integrity challenge of the
Internet-of-Things (IoT): on understanding its dark side." Journal of Marketing
Management 33.1-2 (2017): 145-158.
Education Week. "Screen Time Up As Reading Scores Drop. Is There A Link?". Education
Week, 2020, https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/11/08/screen-time-up-as-reading-
scores-drop.html.
Hartanto, Andree, and Hwajin Yang. "Is the smartphone a smart choice? The effect of
smartphone separation on executive functions." Computers in Human Behavior 64 (2016):
329-336.
Laudon, Kenneth C., and Carol Guercio Traver. E-commerce: business, technology, society.
2016.
Vigdor, Jacob L., Helen F. Ladd, and Erika Martinez. "Scaling the digital divide: Home
computer technology and student achievement." Economic Inquiry 52.3 (2014): 1103-1119.

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Ward, Adrian F., et al. "Brain drain: The mere presence of one's own smartphone reduces
available cognitive capacity." Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 2.2 (2017):
140-154.
Yu, Mingzhou, et al. "The influence of negative publicity on brand equity: attribution, image,
attitude and purchase intention." Journal of Product & Brand Management (2018).