The Internet:
How has the internet impacted society?

Rob Ash

ENGL 393

Professor April Walters

April 5th , 2016

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Table of Contents
Summary of the Internet……………………………………………………………………………………………3
Are children smarter or more socialized because of internet?......................................3
Should the federal gov’t be allowed to regulate info on internet?................................5
How has the music industry been effected by the internet?.........................................6
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9
Works cited…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10

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Summary
The internet plays a huge part of our everyday lives. As far as giving a typical definition it’s kind of difficult to give the internet one meaning. Unlike any other technology, the internet can be whatever we can make it. We can shape it however we may choose and the best part is how affective it’s used to connect to people, communities and countries all over the world. In the early days when the internet was still considered new, most people just used the internet to search for information. Most traditional communications media, including telephone and television, are being reshaped or redefined by the Internet, giving birth to new services such as Internet telephone and Internet television. Newspaper, book, and other print publishing are adapting to website technology, or are reshaped into blogging and web feeds. Today the internet is constantly altering itself to better provide more amazing varieties of information for others to share and also providing new was to interact and connect with people and content. I chose to discuss these topics about the internet because these topics were the repetitive theme of different research methods conducted overtime. Each topic has been a part of some kind of experiment and similar questions have also been asked frequently about the effects of the internet in general.
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Are children smarter or more socialized because of internet?
With the increased role of home computers in children’s lives has become an increased concern about how children may be affected. The amount of time children spend on computers may start to displace other activities such as physical activity and learning how to interact with others without being behind a computer screen. When children use computers instead of participating in social activities, it raises questions on the child’s physical and mental well-being. “For example a survey showed that children between the ages of two and seventeen were spending about one hour and thirty seven minutes per day using the computer and/or playing video games.” (Kaveri Subrahmanyam) Even though parents may not approve with the amount of time kids may spend on the computer, the internet has access to provide for educational opportunities for their children. The internet has proven to improve reading, writing and information processing skills (Dr. Kausar Suhail). Besides that the internet has also helped young adults. For example the internet can be used as a helpful tool to improve work performance and increase possibilities of worldwide communication.
Children as well as young adults have some form of internet addiction. Internet addiction has an impact on interpersonal relationships, individuals might face behavioral problems and may experience some physical problems due to long use of internet. “Some physical problems are migraine or headaches and disruption in sleep pattern.” (Jeon) Not only does internet addiction affect individuals physically but also psychologically. Some individuals are unable to control their emotions and their thought process due to long hours of internet use. These affects can not only impact the individual but also the people around them. For example a child who might have a serious internet addiction will go to school and have difficulties working together with his or her classmates or focusing on the tasks at hand, which would lead us to understand the impact of an interpersonal problem. Interpersonal problems are difficulties being able to relate to others (Locke). Besides a formal definition for it, one may argue that interpersonal problems are the differences in reaction in a given situation from an individual with an interpersonal problem compared to a person who doesn’t have that problem. According to Li and Chung those who use the internet for long periods of time might experience compulsive use of internet, withdrawal from social activities, increased depression and decreases self-esteem. (Shin-Ming Li)
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Should Federal gov’t be allowed to regulate information on internet?
Most people would disagree with the idea of the government having the power to regulate the internet because it can potentially affect the “freedom” people have on the internet. “The Net has been open since it was privatized by the Clinton administration and since then, it grew from a mere 88,000 users in the late 1980s, to more than 3 billion today.”(McDowell) Government control over the internet can possibly threaten the recent success of the almost rule free internet that we have today. State manipulation would not only affect the economic aspect but also social and the media.
The government had broadcast regulations during the mid-20th century. More government control would mean strict regulation over airwaves and whatever information may be displayed over company websites. In today’s society that would never be tolerated because of the competitive and digitized markets. If the government had more control like the mid-20th century that would mean everyone would have to adhere to strict rules dictating speech and if the rules are not followed then one would risk losing their licenses.
Broadcast regulations have also controlled political speech. The most infamous Federal Communications Commission effort to exert “oversight over the political process was known as the Fairness Doctrine.” (McDowell) “This allowed the government to censor political speech by justifying its purpose as balancing competing points of view in the name of “diversity,” serving the “public interest” and, most cynically, protecting freedom of expression.” (McDowell) In other words this meant the state muted some political voices while amplifying others. The Reagan era was able to correctly dispose of the Fairness Doctrine. The Reagan era allowed us to see early political speech controls and would also help us avoid new kinds of controls.
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How has the music industry been affected?
The internet has made music more accessible to the public and more difficult for the music artist to make a profit. The internet can also be a really useful tool for independent artists to make money and find a global audience to help get signed by a major label. The internet has affected the music industry both positively and negatively.
Many people in society, especially the young people such as teens and young adults in their twenties love the easy access of music in this internet era that we currently live in. The internet era is making it easier and cheaper to obtain or steal music off the internet. The down side is that music is struggling to make enough revenue because of new technology. Most artists that are making a record are paid in royalties and whenever music is being downloaded without buying it, those royalties can’t be paid which is why there has been an increased effort to reduce music piracy in recent years.
The benefits of the role the internet plays on the music industry is that it can be an artist best tool. As I mentioned above, an independent artist can use the internet to allow them to connect with people all over the world. This lets unknown musicians find their audience without any kind of aid from a major label and can be “discovered” by talent scouts and possibly get attention from major labels. The internet allows the artists to market and sell their own music to their audience without needing a major label deal. For example there have been plenty of musical stars that have been discovered through YouTube. The audience might not be as big as the artist might have wanted but artists don’t have to worry about sharing profits with major labels.
Researchers tested the relationship between social media and the marketing of a musical event such as a music festival. For example the Bonnaroo festival in the U.S used radio frequency identification technology to get the people who attended the festival engaged. The festival also used Foursquare to reward fans by encouraging them to converse with one another and tag themselves in a picture where they were at during the festival. The researchers of this experiment had tested their hypothesis by using a model that shows relationship between social media use, emotions, brand relationship quality and behavioral outcome of customers.

Previous research proposed that customers respond more positively to content shared through social media and customers don’t pay much attention to other kinds of advertisement. Therefore researchers created five hypothesis’ to see if the model above can be proven true. * H1: Emotional attachment will be greater for customers who engage with brands using social media. * H2: Brand Relationship will be greater for customers who have a higher level attachment. * H3: Brand Relationship will be lower for customers who have a lower level of emotional attachment. * H4: Word of mouth will be greater for customers with greater brand relationship. * H5: Word of mouth will be lower for customers with lower emotional attachment.
Four of the five hypotheses were supported by the model. Social media interactions can lead to high levels of emotional engagement and that emotional engagement plays a role in social media marketing.
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Conclusion
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During my research I have learned that the internet has many positive and negative effects on society. Society in general will need to learn how to adapt to the current problems we face with the internet and some of its content. Also learning about the role internet addiction plays will help us understand the psychological, physical, interpersonal and behavioral aspects of some problems faced upon young adults. The purpose of gathering information on internet addiction is to learn the difference between a child or young adult using the internet as a stress reliever for leisure or just to pass time compared to serious addiction such as excessive amounts of time on the internet and obsessive web surfing.
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The government’s current role on regulation of content that goes on the internet should be maintained. Maintaining the current role would mean that the government can crack down on those who try to break our current laws about uploading and downloading certain things on the internet without society feeling like they are being restricted of their freedom. Small intervention such as not allowing many people to record movies in a movie theatre and then upload it onto a social media site for others to see it would not only affect potential earnings of the movie theatre but the actual movie itself. Also the current laws the government has made about illegal downloading of music and the increased effort of stopping music piracy can benefit the music industry. The internet has changed the music industry greatly in the recent years which had both positive and negative effects. The music industry will eventually adapt to this internet era that we live in and current issues will eventually work themselves out. Overtime the music industry will see that it does more good than harm.
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Works Cited
Dr. Kausar Suhail, Zobia Bargees. CyberPsychology & Behavior (2006): 297-307.
Jeon. The effect of extent internet use and social supports for adolescent depresion and self-esteem. 2005.
Kaveri Subrahmanyam, Robert E. Kraut, Patricia M. Greenfield, Elisheva F. Gross. "The Impact of Home Computer Use on Children's Activities and Development ." The Future of Children . Princeton University, 2000. 123-144.
Locke, Kenneth D. "Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology." Interpersonal Problems and Interpersonal Expectations in Everyday Life (2005): 915-931.
McDowell, Robert M. "The Washington Post." This is why the government should never control the internet (2014).
Shin-Ming Li, Teng-Ming Chung. "Computers in Human Behavior." Internet function and Internet addictive behavior (2006).