Internet pros and cons

The Internet has the potential to make life easy for some people and at the same time it has the power to create problems as well. It tends to bridge distances to bring people together and provides a new arena for increased economic cooperation, entertainment sociability. The Internet can be compared as a means of communication and can be regarded as having three distinct features:

The global scope of communication
Anonymity
Reproducible 

Internet  pros and cons Global scope:
 internet communication has a much broader scope and reach. With little a user can reach hundreds and thousands of individuals around the globe. The ability to reach many people quickly and easily is not exactly new or unique compared to radio or television communication. But the significant difference between the internet and television is that in the case of radio and television it is in most cases one way whereas in the case of the internet it is interactive. It is this interactivity that is the unique characteristic of the internet which provides many individuals who are geographically distinct the power to communicate easily and quickly.

Internet  pros and cons

Internet  pros and cons of Anonymity:
The second important features of the internet are that it provides a certain kind of anonymity. It is a silent feature of this type of communication that people can deliberately avoid seeing or hearing one another directly. On the internet, individuals can create a different person ensuring that information about themselves cannot be traced while in communication with the other on the internet. This kind of anonymity makes accountability for one’s action difficult to achieve tends to diminish trust in the information that is being exchanged. The feature of anonymity has also facilitated the development of “virtual information”. The open and anonymous nature of communications on the web, a species of software has been developed and employed with stealth to gather information intelligently. An inference is made from information gathered without our knowledge or consent, which is termed as “virtual information”. This type of information adds information to a person’s profile and tends to redefine a person’s digital persona. This is an invasion of one’s “virtual privacy”.

Internet  pros and cons Reproducibility:
 This third important feature is not just a feature of the internet, but of information technology in general. Electronic information exists in the form that makes it easy to make a copy without any loss of originality or value in the process of reproduction. Copied data or software is perfectly usable. Copied data or software leaves no evidence behind it being copied and the creator/owner of the data or software could remain unaware of their work being copied. Reproducibility facilitates anonymity. The traditional notion of a person’s properties is that the person is in the control of the property over which he claims ownership. Reproducibility goes counter to this traditional notion wherein the scope of anonymity gives rise to serious questions regarding the integrity of the information.

These three features of communication lead directly or indirectly to a wide range of ethical issues. The global scope of the internet do things to one another demonstrates the great amount of power when connected to the internet. The global scope enables individuals apart from fraternizing with one another also to disrupts, steal, damage, snoop, harass, stalk, and defame from great distances. Anonymity available on the internet gives individuals a sense if the individual that allows them to engage in behavior that they might not otherwise engage in. The positive aspect of anonymity is that it might allow individuals to get a free and equal treatment irrespective of their race, color, or creed. It might also enable their participation in activities where individuals might otherwise be reluctant. But anonymity leads to serious problems for accountability and integrity of information. Reproducibility exacerbates the problem arising from global reach and anonymity. It also adds to the problems of accountability exacerbates and integrity of information arising out of anonymity.

Internet  pros and cons types of Problematic Behavior:

With this background of the special features of the internet and the scope of ethical issues involved, different types of problematic behavior can identify.
One type of problematic behavior involves individuals engaged in illegal behavior that disrupts the smooth functioning of the internet. The behavior is destructive and it undermines the reliability and security of the internet. It involves actions such as gaining unauthorized access to computer systems, releasing viruses, taking control of web sites, etc. These actions are broadly referred to as “hacking”. Earlier during the initial attempts to unauthorized access the systems, hacking was considered to be more of an academic problem. The hackers were usually young men who had acquired a good knowledge of the computers and were involved in testing the limits of their knowledge by attempting to breach the protection devices of a system. Only over a period of time did the activity of hacking becomes branded as an illegal activity as attempts to break into systems were directed towards illegal actions including stealing software. It also included intentionally sending viruses or worms on the net that damage the computer systems and also taking unauthorized control of a web site. Hacking causes harm, it violates legitimate privacy and property rights and it often deprives users of access to their own computer systems. Thus hacking is unethical and has rightly been made illegal.
The other category of problematic behavior is criminal actions involving theft and extortion. In these cases, the internet facilitates such behavior falling in the scope of criminal actions include stealing of electronic funds, cyberstalking, slander, fraud, harassment, solicitation of minors, etc.
The third category of problematic behavior involves issues whether specific laws need to be framed to make such behavior illegal. Such laws framed to counter such behavior forms a part of netiquette or in other words the type of actions that are acceptable or informal conventions regarding how to behave on the net. Netiquette is defined as the “do’s and don’ts of online communication” or as “informal rules of the net” or as “common courtesy online”. Violations of netiquette are considered unethical. Being polite, being patient, and not breaking any laws are considered the important features of netiquette. Acts of “spamming” I.e. sending unsolicited bulk e-mail and sending inflammatory or insulting messages called “flaming” are an example of violations of netiquette. Thus for the smooth functioning of the internet, laws have been framed and human behavior has in many cases caused inconvenience and harm to others. Netiquette promotes ethical behavior thus is an important tool for shaping the behavior on the net.

Internet  pros and cons (Internet and Moral Values)
Internet  pros and cons of Fundamental Moral Values

    Traditionally two fundamentally different and mutually exclusive conceptions of the moral evaluation of individual actions stand out in the history of moral philosophy. One is to examine an issue under independently justified principles of what one considers being right. The idea here is to follow the principles that articulate what is morally right irrespective of the consequences. This is referred to as the “gerontological” approach-where one starts out which one or more moral principles and sees how they apply to particular cases. The other is to look for the course of action that maximizes the good. This approach involves determining which action yields the best consequences measured in some standard of the good. This approach is referred to as the “technological” approach involves framing what is good for users, and spell out what is wrong with actions that interfere with attempts to get it. What is good could be conceived of in terms of happiness, basic needs, shares of primary goods, desires, etc. Both of these approaches represent overly simplistic accounts of moral deliberation and decision-making and need to be supplemented or enriched to be adequate as an ethical framework for the moral evaluation of individual cases and actions.
    These different types of values reflect the value that human beings can take different perspectives and can switch between them. One can think of a problem or situation from a self-interested and personal stance, but also from the point of view of humanity or from the point of view of use as social beings with roles and position in a social network or relations. Some of the fundamental values are outcome-oriented (utility). Some are abstract from the consequences of action (obligation and duty), and some of them are personal and self-centered and others impersonal. (Van den Hover, 1999).

Internet  pros and cons of Moral rules on the Internet

    Moral rules can incorporate, express, or serve the fundamental moral values. Moral rules can be distinguished into two types of governing online behavior.
The first type of moral rules identifies our moral obligations online. Examples of such rules are netiquette rules and codes of conduct examples which are “be polite in e-mail correspondence”, “always tell the client the truth”, “and make yourself look good online”.
    The second type of morals rules or ‘recognition rules’ allows us to identify what is moral and what is not. A recognition rule enables us to recognize the perspectives in an action or decision that we have a reason to endorse (Hart, 1961). Examples of recognition’s rules are “read the signs”, “follow the instructions”, “and familiarize yourself with netiquette”.
On netiquette, that is the recommended ways to behave properly online, Virginia Shea (1999) lists one such rule:
Internet  pros and cons Remember the human,
1. Adhere to the same standards online that you follow in real life,
2. Know where you are in cyberspace,
3. Respect other people’s time and bandwidth,
4. Make yourself look good online,
5. Share expert knowledge,
6. Help keep flame wars under control,
7. Respect other people’s privacy,
8. Don’t abuse your power,
9. Be forgiving of other people’s mistakes.

   Most of these rules are connected with two things, first respect for human beings (1,2,3,8,10), and second respectively for information resources (3,4,6,9). Of common concern to both parts is the ease with which e-mail is sent, wrong attachments are appended, and effects on the individual are forgotten because of the technological mediation and absence of a real human interlocutor, they also draw attention towards maintaining a good relationship. Neglect of these factors can lead to flame wars that are episodes of escalating, rude e-mail correspondence. Flame wars add injuries to insult since in addition to insults that are made, disrespect is shown for things like time, attention, resources that are scarce, and valuable to others.