Negative effects of internet: 7 reasons digital age is damaging to humanity
We see the digital age as the best time ever. Thanks to it, we got unlimited access to any information and entertainment, we can communicate with people from different countries, work while lying on the beach. It is now easy to learn and receive medical advice from the comfort of your home.
But the digital age is not only beneficial; it can negatively affect people. Perhaps it is precise because of technology that humanity will cease to exist or degrade so much that medieval peasants will seem like geniuses compared to the future people. Here are some of the reasons the digital age is damaging to humanity.
Modern ways of storing information can throw humanity into the Middle Ages
More and more knowledge is stored digitally. Paper and other options are slowly disappearing. Yes, the same paper is more susceptible to aging and external influences, for example, temperature or humidity, but it has an undeniable advantage – non-volatility.
The main problem is that most technologies in the expanded form are available only in digital format. Suppose a catastrophe occurs with the destruction of all equipment, for example. In that case, a powerful solar flare or a supernova explosion near the solar system, all this knowledge will be lost forever.
Even if the information is stored on digital media, there will be no equipment to read it. This is a vicious circle: data about the construction of cars are stored on hard drives and flash drives, but to build devices that read this knowledge, you first need to access them. Therefore, you will have to re-invent all the technology, and before that, literally live in the Middle Ages.
The internet brings more hate to the world
The internet has done incredible: erased the borders between countries. They can communicate with each other without leaving the couch. Cultural differences are erased; we are all becoming one nation, born of the digital age.
But at the same time, the internet attracts marginalized people who live outside of society. They infect the digital world with hatred, lies, and other negativity, pit people against each other who previously did not feel any hostility towards each other. They and their actions have more and more fans who understand that no one will find them on the internet, which means that you can persecute others without fear, humiliate, and breed even more stupid delusions.
What is important is people’s belief in what is written on the internet. This is used by politicians, trolls, activists, and other characters, because of which information loses its value, and it becomes difficult to distinguish truth from lies. Society is gradually radicalizing, begins to hate those it does not know and generates even more evil.
Digitalization destroys long-term planning
It is unlikely that anyone would deny that people who have been surfing the internet since childhood have practically abandoned the feeling of delayed gratification. This is because you can find any entertainment on the internet as quickly as possible. Many people have already developed the habit of getting pleasure only here and now, and any expectation confuses anger and despair.
The problem is that this way of thinking leads to the consequences of actions not being taken into account. The propaganda of life here also facilitates this and now. As a result, the future person looks like a drug addict addicted to instant pleasure, who finds it difficult to concentrate on anything that takes more than a couple of clicks in time. This, in turn, leads to a misunderstanding of the concept of a long-term perspective and a reluctance to do anything that is not beneficial right now.
People lose important skills
Digital technologies have given us instant access to any information. Do you want to assemble a wardrobe? Watching the video tutorial. Want to cook a delicious dinner? There are thousands of recipes on YouTube. The main problem with this approach is that people will not need to learn anything except the most basic knowledge because the search engine
Humanity becomes more and more dependent on machines and forgets how to do anything without them. If a catastrophe scenario similar to the already described powerful solar flare occurs, most people will become completely defenseless in front of the new world because they know nothing. Even a collapse of the internet in the future can lead to the mass death of people simply because there is no one to ask: “Will I get poisoned if I eat an expired product?” But even without this, the World Wide Web quite strongly affects our perception of reality.
Humanity will turn into eternally sick and weak beings
New technologies have saved humanity from the need for hard work. Now in developed countries, most of the work takes place in the office, and the most challenging thing for employees to do is to type on the keyboard.
But this improvement led at the same time to a significant deterioration in the situation of humankind, at least in the future: to a sedentary lifestyle. Nature designed us as active creatures who are in motion for a large part of our lives. Now, at best, we walk a couple of thousand steps a day, and most of the time, we sit practically motionless in chairs.
Since evolution does not stop, gradually, people “glued” to their chairs and gadgets will lose many important functions. The spine, like the legs, will change, simplify as unnecessary, people will become weaker, immunity will worsen since sterile office premises do not predispose the body to fight infections.
If all these technologies, which allow us not to get up from the chair for days on end, collapse, humanity will find itself in a very unenviable position.
Technology makes humanity a beggar
When the problem of depriving many people of work due to technology is raised, modern statistics are presented, where digitalization does not greatly affect the labor market and population welfare. The argument is also made that when some professions disappear, others inevitably appear so that people who find themselves out of work due to progress move into another sphere.
But the problem is that statistics only consider a small proportion of people from rich countries, while most humanity is still engaged in primitive production. Large-scale unemployment will arise when progress comes to these countries, at least in the form that exists today in the First World countries. Even skilled workers will be out of work as robots, and artificial intelligence replaces them.
Yes, it will take a certain number of people to maintain the autonomous infrastructure, but it will not even be one-tenth of the entire population of the Earth. It is not known what the other billions of people will do in such an economy.
Acceleration of the rhythm burns the brain
The world is accelerating more and more. People perform several actions at the same time, switch from one task to another. Being single-tasked nowadays is outdated, unable to compete with others. In the future, the average person will be forced to perform even more tasks.
Many brag about their multitasking, present it as a great dignity. But scientists say our brains are tuned to one task at a time, and multitasking lowers intelligence and decreases brain density in the anterior cingulate cortex, an area responsible for empathy, cognitive and emotional control.
So people of the future, continuing to walk the road of digitalization, run the risk of becoming overgrown children who cannot perform complex actions.
