What are the bad effects or electronic media such as television/internet/radio etc?

Answer 1

No bad effects, the media is biased as you know, but you have the choice to either listen or watched or not.♦

Answer 2

There are good reasons to worry that the Internet might have a *negative* impact.

* The Daily Me: The primary theory is espoused by Cass Sunstein in his well-regarded book Republic.com. Prof. Sunstein, who teaches at the University of Chicago Law School, fears the growth of what he calls the "Daily Me" – that, rather than exposing ourselves to new ideas, we will simply tailor our environment to hear our own views reinforced over and over again. In Sunstein's words:

"My principal claim here has been that a well-functioning democracy depends on far more than restraints on official censorship of controversial ideas and opinions. It also depends on some kind of public sphere, in which a wide range of speakers have access to a diverse public – and also to particular institutions, and practices, against which they seek to launch objections.

"Emerging technologies, including the Internet, are hardly an enemy here. They hold out far more promise than risk, especially because they allow people to widen their horizons. But to the extent that they weaken the power of general interest intermediaries and increase people's ability to wall themselves off from topics and opinions that they would prefer to avoid, they create serious dangers. And if we believe that a system of free expression calls for unrestricted choices by individual consumers, we will not even understand the dangers as such. Whether such dangers will materialize will ultimately depend on the aspirations, for freedom and democracy alike, by whose light we evaluate our practices. What I have sought to establish here is that in a free republic, citizens aspire to a system that provides a wide range of experiences – with people, topics, and ideas – that would not have been selected in advance."

But Sunstein’s fears may not be realized. This year, the Pew Internet & American Life Project undertook a study with the University of Michigan School of Information to examine the ways in which people use the Internet to get political information. Released on October 27, 2004, their report found that the Internet contributed to a wider awareness of political views during this year’s campaign season; indeed, they found that wired Americans are more aware than non-Internet users of all kinds of arguments, even those that challenge their preferred candidates and issue positions. One-fifth of Americans (18%) said their prefer media sources that are biased and challenge their views, rather than reinforce them.

* Disillusionment: Another potentially negative effect is that the Internet may attract people into the political process (based on a cool-factor, say), but then a lack of follow-up by candidates or elected officials or peers will result in disillusionment. Because of the inexpensiveness of the initial contact, there may be some tendency to overextend the “jazz” beyond the candidate’s ability to substantiate that Internet contact with “classical” attention. Newly recruited participants in politics might be turned off by this experience, and be less likely to engage in political action, whether through the Internet or otherwise.

* Censorship and Surveillance: Internet technologies are used by some countries and private parties, such as ISPs, as the Open Net Initiative is seeking to demonstrate, to block access to the web and to drop packets. Likewise, the Internet might be used by governments to spy on citizens (or non-citizens) – for good or for ill – and to punish them for their political views or activities. There are many of examples of this phenomenon, from governments imprisoning dissidents for political web-postings and requiring monitoring of cybercafé users to instant messaging software blocking keywords, in regions all across the world. As more and more of our political life moves online, the stakes may be raised if surveillance and censorship of online activity become the norm.

My roommate has just purchased a new laptop computer. Was she excited! Before she bought the laptop computer, she used to work on her old desktop that had a pretty slow Internet connection. With the new laptop computer, however, along came Wi-Fi high-speed wireless Internet.

I wouldn't even have noticed that her computer had arrived, but all of sudden there was this unusual silence. Before, when we came home at the end of the day, we would talk about everything until we went to bed. Then I realized that her laptop has finally arrived and that she was on it all the time, surfing the net and talking to people on AIM.

This has made me think of how this new form of media and technology has become so closely integrated into our daily lives. I myself spend more time talking to friends online than face-to-face, in my case mainly because many of my close friends are on the West coast. The technology has changed our patterns of communications so much that there have been many researches to study the effects of this new technology on our communications and social interactions.

Some say it has made communications convenient and more effective, while others argue that it may inhibit the development of deeper, more sincere relationships, as online communications are mostly quick and impersonal. It is true that online communications tend to be superficial and you have the screen to hide behind, but sometimes it can also provide the opportunity to be yourself who you might otherwise fear to be. I'm not sure which side to take, but I do know this: while I cannot give up the convenience of electronic and instant communications, they cannot possibly take the place of old media such as real letters. I love getting emails from my friends and family, but nothing compares to finding an envelope with a stamp in my mailbox.

all the best