How the Internet is Secretly Sabotaging Our Lives

In the early 20th century, radio and music were blamed for corrupting the youth. In the latter half, television took the heat. Now, it’s the internet’s turn. But this isn’t just another case of older generations grumbling about the younger ones. The internet, despite its undeniable utility and multifunctionality, is indeed subtly sabotaging our lives, altering our consciousness, and creating obstacles. However, by avoiding certain ‘dangerous factors,’ we can still harness its benefits.

Let’s delve into some statistics from independent social studies conducted in the USA. While the numbers might differ in Russia, they’re likely to be higher due to the internet’s widespread availability, lower cost, and higher number of users.

Decreased Productivity

Many companies block access to social media or even most of the internet for their employees. This isn’t surprising, as research shows that constant internet access indeed reduces work productivity. Many of our actions online are unconscious, like checking our news feed or emails. Another risk is getting sidetracked by the abundance of links, starting from a page about a business project for residential construction and ending up on a site about feeding giraffes or ancient Russian dances.

On average, human attention span decreases by 1-2%. This might not seem like much, but it’s enough to not only waste time but also make it difficult to return to a productive workflow. Constantly switching between tasks hinders our ability to concentrate passively.

Internet Addiction

We must acknowledge that internet addiction exists to varying degrees in almost every young person, especially with the widespread availability of gadgets. Mobile internet in Russia is one of the cheapest in the world, making the state of ‘constant connectivity’ quite common.

Even in its mildest form, internet addiction affects the body. Using the internet releases dopamine, which brings a sense of comfort. When the connection is lost, the addicted person feels anxiety and discomfort, as if they’re constantly missing out on something.

Reading Ability

A few decades ago, a person’s reading ability didn’t change over time. They could comprehend literary and scientific texts well in their youth and continue to do so into old age, barring any illness affecting their attention span. However, after 5-10 years of constant internet use, our perception of printed text changes. It becomes increasingly difficult to read long, detailed texts, especially those without visual elements (pictures, inserts, etc.). Long novels and scientific literature lose their significance, giving way to short articles on specific topics. People deeply connected to the internet struggle to comprehend entire books and may feel discomfort or a constant urge to get distracted.

Escapism

The internet allows us to escape from unpleasant conversations, news, or information at any moment. ‘Don’t like it? Don’t read it’ or ‘Don’t like it? Don’t argue.’ Therefore, many avid internet users unlearn how to deal with real problems and continue to escape from them in real life. But what works in the virtual world doesn’t always translate to real life.

Internet users hide in a fictional world where a single click can shield them from any unpleasantness. The next stage is when people escape to the internet even from arguments with loved ones or work problems because it’s calm there. Needless to say, escaping from problems doesn’t lead to anything good. While you shouldn’t go looking for trouble online, you’ll have to face challenges in real life eventually, or they’ll only get worse.

Social Behavior

The peculiarities of internet communication and social networks make people unlearn how to communicate in the traditional sense. Many people behave differently online than in real life, feeling discomfort and inhibition in personal communication. The internet is a more open and free space where users can always leave, and no emotional barriers or shame hold them back. Real life is less forgiving of human weaknesses.

Social media communication leads people to misread and misrepresent emotions (no emojis), constantly crave approval (likes), and try to appear as someone they’re not. Some individuals even bring internet communication techniques into real life, but fortunately, this is quite rare.

Decreased Concentration

We’ve saved the most destructive effect of the internet for last. People affected by this probably didn’t read up to this point or skipped the middle. Statistics show that people spend no more than a couple of minutes on each page, even if it’s filled with text. 17% of active internet users spend only 4-10 seconds to gather all the information they want. Moreover, in any block of text, users read only about 49% of the words on average, as if scanning the text diagonally. And this is still a good indicator, as this number decreases every year.

The internet imposes a ‘clip thinking’ mindset, where we constantly need to get distracted by something bright, switch to a new block of text or topic, jump from one thing to another. Concentration doesn’t have time to develop, and its lack gradually seeps from the virtual world into reality. This is why internet use is recommended to be limited for children and adolescents—if the habit of chaotic concentration takes root at a young age, it’s almost impossible to correct later.

For further reading, consider exploring articles on related topics such as understanding feelings of alienation among family.