Internet

internet

Introduction The advent of Internet communication technology is in and of

itself, a positive move toward overall global advancement, but the costly

social impact is what concerns Lebanese families and sociologists alike. This

fear is further amplified by the anticipated social disintegration that may result.

The positive aspects of the Internet: As a result of the Internet there is almost

nothing that cannot be accomplished from the comfort of one's own home;

grocery shopping, buying merchandise, paying bill, researching for term

papers and even striking up relationships with people half way across the

world. Communication, which once consisted of putting pen to paper, has

now been reduced to a few key strokes and a click of a mouse; indeed,

people are able to correspond via E-mail faster and easier than traditional

mail services could ever hope to offer. The positive aspects of the Internet

are immeasurable and go without saying; this paper's focus is on the negative

effects of the Internet. The social impact: A. Alienation: Alienation from

institutions such as the family, education and places of work may result from

the following factors: Lack of face-to-face socialisation is turning into a

considerable problem for those who have locked themselves inside the

anonymity of their computers. Indeed studies have shown the tendency for

people to become significantly stressed, depressed and lonely with each hour

spent in the obscure world of Internet chatting. Because there is proof to

substantiate the claim that the longer people spend chatting on the Internet the

less sociable they become, a considerable amount of further research must be

done to determine the extent of damage this has on society. It is clear that

even though Internet chat rooms provide much the same interactive approach

to socialisation, the social implication is that it gravely lacks the in-person

connection required in order for people to develop acceptable social skills.

This will also affect negatively the way young teenagers socialise with family

members, friends and strangers in society. The reason of this concern is the

closely-knit society that we live in; Arab society dictates strong interpersonal

relationships whether be it with family members or friends. So as we can see,

lack of face to face interaction will result in a fair amount of stress on the

fragile Lebanese society, which a large part of it is based on an emotional

relationship with each other, and as Patai wrote "the Arab nation as an Arab

family". B. Loss of own culture: In a critical time where social integration is

high on the agenda in post war Lebanon, the Lebanese society is finding itself

competing not only with the existing forces of disintegration, but also with a

new unanticipated one. The Internet introduces an invasion of western

cultures into the homes of unsuspecting parents, which may lead to a loss of

one's own culture and adopting a new foreign one. The adoption of a new

culture will cause the general public to resist this change, thus the

consequences will lead the youth to feel rejected and further amplify the

already existing social problem of alienation from society as a whole. This

alienation from the Arab culture will lead the youth to strongly get attached to

the new culture that they have adopted, which will again translate into a