When I grew up, there wasn't an internet. Today we have millions of kids growing up with access to what the internet provides.

The internet can be many things. It can convey both facts and lies. It can be used to help and to hurt.

But how is the internet influencing societies? What effect does it have on the children growing in the world today?

What do you think?

Good: Finding information about anything. Much easier than an encyclopedia, with graphics and picture to help. (Since my family didn't have an encyclopedia, I had to go to the library as did my kids)

Bad: Finding the correct information is not always that easy. Kids may not be able to discern whether an article is from a reputable source or from some hack site.

The Ugly: Social media where anything goes, bullying is rampant and can be harmful.

Just one example for each "category" that I can think of right away. The best defense against the bad and ugly is parental vigilance and guidance.

I love it and I hate it. I can learn about anything at any time, and be misinformed about everything all the time.

The Internet has become every kook's megaphone, and so kookdom is growing by leaps and bounds. Every paranoid propagandist can have a national audience, rather than just annoying and worrying his or her neighborhood. And it has made politics a national blood sport like European soccer. On balance, I can't see it's been a positive development.

I think it can be both good and bad but it is definitely a game changer. On the good side it frees up so much information and allows for such free flow of opinion and though that it is difficult for repressive, controlling regimes to hold their power. The whole "Arab Spring" thing was a result of social media and the internet. On the other hand, ISIS would only be a shadow of itself if it wasn't for the internet.

At a more individual level, it allows families and friends to communicate at a level unimaginable before. My wife's family, for instance constantly chatter with each other on "What's App" throughout the day although they are all over the world and Viber let's them pick up a phone and talk as though they were in the next town. In groups like this I've met and exchanged views with people in places and cultures I never would have been able to before the net. Some have even become close friends that I will never meet. Some I have met because of the internet.....heck, I got married twice because of it.

Like all things massive and pervading, it has its good and its bad and I don't think you will ever be able to say definitively whether it falls more into one camp or the other.

This is an interesting question and I'm still thinking about both the good and the bad ~ there's no simple answer for either the effects on society as a whole or on children specifically ~

We teach computer basics at a very young age at our school, mostly because we accept the fact that technology is being widely used everywhere ~ we have 2 full computer labs, and laptops on carts that can be rolled into any classroom ~ interesting to me is that even in this underprivileged ward location, almost all kidlets have computers at home ~ the kidlets LOVE computer time ~ and many are very adept at researching various topics ~ we also use educational electronic games, which are a big hit ~ what concerns me about kidlets and electronics is that some of the core learning is lost ~ for example, why improve paper/pencil math skills when there's a calculator handy? ~ why improve spelling with spell-check so easy to turn on?

As for society as a whole, I see technology as allowing great strides in too many fields to count ~ think of the recent medical advances ~ and the scientific break-throughs ~ and the ability to accurately forecast how A affects B ~ the downside, of course, is that there will always be trolls ~ hackers do immeasurable damage every day ~ my local news last night had a segment on Google HIRING hackers to search for holes/weaknesses in its programs/systems so that Google can stay a step ahead of hackers ~ so far, it's [allegedly] working ~

Bottom line for me personally: nothing is 100% good or 100% bad ~

Sooz

Like any tool it depends on how it's used.

As for society at large, here is the harm. Young(er) people have grown up with technology. Wifi, internet, smart phones and tablets.

There was a recent story about a couple who left there two very young (toddler and infant, I think) in their car while they spent an hour at a wine tasting. Their car was parked a football field length away from the restaurant. They said "we could see them on our phones"..which I suppose was from a camera inside the car.

Really? How long does it take for a thief to take off with your car, children inside? How long does it take a small child to choke to death when your eyes were not on them, while appearing to be only asleep when you to take the time to glance?

More importantly, the children could have been taken into the restaurant. Seems these "parents" wanted a child-free evening. As an aside, they were planning on DRIVING after this one hour wine tasting?

Electronics cannot take the place of active parenting but is being used more and more as a "babysitter".

All of us old folk lamenting how things are different from when we grew up and how much better it was...

All technology does is move us forward with newer and faster tools. The same problems exist just expressed differently. Poor parenting occurred in the same room in front of our eyes before it occurred with baby monitors and now webcams or whatever. A kid can swallow a bottle of poison, fall out a window, drown in a bathtub, run out an unlocked door all without the assistance of the internet.

Bullying has existed forever. Is it easier and less human? Everything gets easier and less human across the centuries of invention and technology. Kids living their lives on public media- we are all living our lives on public media- have you looked around for the number of cameras recording you throughout your day? Every store, restaurant, office building, and even all over the public sidewalk there are security cameras thanks to 9/11 homeland security grants. We love them when we think they keep us safe but we sure turn on them when we think our kids are desensitized to having their images captured and displayed publicly for eternity. We consume the reality tv shows but condemn our own reality being on display. We have what we created. Technology will march on, improve, speed up and our grandchildren's world will be facing brand new challenges, but the same old problems. Just faster.