People claim that using the internet by students has a lot of benefits because it helps them socializing with people around the world, playing games for relaxing, learning, etc. However, staying on the internet for a long time could distract them from other daily obligations that they may have or from spending enough time with their family. For example, when they have to prepare for an exam, if they use it for study then there is no problem, but most of the time, they spend so much time on it playing games, using social media and even in the class, so they will not be able to prepare for their exams, to concentrate in class, and this can make them to have a bad performance at school. Around 97% of college students in U.
S. use their phones during class for non-educational purposes, according to a study published last month in Journal of Media Education. The survey looked at self-reported information from 675 undergraduate and graduate students in 26 states between 18 and 22 years of age.
Forty-one percent of respondents said that they spent up to 10% of their classroom time using digital devices for non-educational purposes, and another 20% reported spending between 11% and 20% of class time on their devices. Only 3% said they do not use a device during class for non-class-related activities on a typical day. Therefore, when using the internet a lot, distracts the students from other important tasks that they have to fulfill during their studies.In the past when there was no internet, the only way for students to learn was by using books, now it has changed completely. Although many people think that with the modern technology there are good opportunities for students because they could use virtual libraries to read books, reading on laptop, PC, or phone.
Dr. Christopher Starr, an associate professor of ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York stated that “Some of us are using these things for up to nine hours a day. Your eye muscles have to focus at that near range and that can be fatiguing,” Most digital screens are backlit and emit blue light, or high-energy visible (HEV) light wavelengths, which the group said can cause irritation and possibly long-term damage to the retina. Blue light is also known to suppress the sleep hormone melatonin, causing an artificial feeling of wakefulness and disrupting sleep patterns, which can add to eye strain. While reading books there is no need to be worried about damaging eyes, but the time limit when reading on the internet is essential for keeping the eyes healthy.
There is now a wealth of research which shows that using the internet for video games can be put to educational and therapeutic uses, as well as many studies which reveal how playing video games can improve reaction times and hand-eye coordination. For example, research has shown that spatial visualization ability, such as mentally rotating and manipulating two- and three-dimensional objects, improves with video game playing. However, addiction from the internet is now one of the most important issues to worry about. For an addicted person, the internet is like a “drug” that cannot live without it. A new study from the University of Hong Kong is conducted. According to the study, which we first saw on Motherboard, researchers estimate that 6% of the world’s population is addicted to the internet.
The world’s population is roughly 7 billion people, so that makes for about 420 million people addicted to the internet. Importantly, not everyone in the world even has access to the internet. In fact, only 39% of the world does. According to the authors of the study, which was published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, internet addiction is “generally regarded as a disorder of concern because the neural abnormalities (e.g.
, atrophies in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and cognitive dysfunctions (e.g., impaired working memory) associated with IA mimic those related to substance and behavioral addiction. Moreover, IA is often comorbid with mental disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression.”(Cheng Cecilia and Li Angel Yee-lam Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking December 2014).Thus, they should be careful and not being enticed a lot from all kind of things that are offered from the internet because it could be bad for their health in general.
