Negative Effects of New Media
New Media
• Provides unreliable information o Citizen Journalists
• Not formally trained, hence do not know where to source information.
• Isn’t any fact checking and editing to ensure reliability of information. o Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, etc.)
• Doesn’t evaluate reliability or quality of sites that show up in searches.
• Gives priority to sites, which are associated with sponsors of the search engine or those that are the most popular and highly searched for.
• Search engines like Wikipedia, doesn’t have any editorial staff to ensure the reliability of information.
• Can be manipulated and rigged
• By simply linking a large amount of web pages to a certain site to increase its popularity.
(“Google Bombing”)
• Social networking sites can have negative implications on relationships o Causes superficial (lack of intimacy) relationships
• Under the illusion of intimacy
• We are being kept in the loop with what our friends and family are up to, so we wouldn’t have to regularly call them up or go out of our way to catch up with them.
• Intimacy isn’t measured by the amount of friends a person has but by the depth of the relationship. o Emotional and Social isolation
• “The Lonely Society” by The Mental Health Foundation.
• 58% of people aged between 18 and 34 had felt depressed due to isolation as compared to 32% of people aged 55 and above.
• Emotional and Social isolation could be due to social networking sites, as a third of young people said that they had spent more time communicating online rather than in person.
• Condones criminal activities o Terrorist groups (E.g. Al Qaeda)
• Recruit, train and launder money
• Exploit alienated people’s vulnerabilities through “narrowcasting” their messages to make them feel special.
• Free online games such as “Night of Bush”. o Illegal file-sharing
• Music industry is facing a major crisis.
• Illegal torrent sites are used 3 times more than legal ones.
• Lack of
• Provides unreliable information o Citizen Journalists
• Not formally trained, hence do not know where to source information.
• Isn’t any fact checking and editing to ensure reliability of information. o Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, etc.)
• Doesn’t evaluate reliability or quality of sites that show up in searches.
• Gives priority to sites, which are associated with sponsors of the search engine or those that are the most popular and highly searched for.
• Search engines like Wikipedia, doesn’t have any editorial staff to ensure the reliability of information.
• Can be manipulated and rigged
• By simply linking a large amount of web pages to a certain site to increase its popularity.
(“Google Bombing”)
• Social networking sites can have negative implications on relationships o Causes superficial (lack of intimacy) relationships
• Under the illusion of intimacy
• We are being kept in the loop with what our friends and family are up to, so we wouldn’t have to regularly call them up or go out of our way to catch up with them.
• Intimacy isn’t measured by the amount of friends a person has but by the depth of the relationship. o Emotional and Social isolation
• “The Lonely Society” by The Mental Health Foundation.
• 58% of people aged between 18 and 34 had felt depressed due to isolation as compared to 32% of people aged 55 and above.
• Emotional and Social isolation could be due to social networking sites, as a third of young people said that they had spent more time communicating online rather than in person.
• Condones criminal activities o Terrorist groups (E.g. Al Qaeda)
• Recruit, train and launder money
• Exploit alienated people’s vulnerabilities through “narrowcasting” their messages to make them feel special.
• Free online games such as “Night of Bush”. o Illegal file-sharing
• Music industry is facing a major crisis.
• Illegal torrent sites are used 3 times more than legal ones.
• Lack of