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Jorge Verduzco

Professor Rodrick

English 115

21 September 2019

Impacts of Technology on a Person

Technology and the use of the internet has allowed people to do things that could not

have been possible without it. People use technology in everyday life, whether it is used in the

scientific field or simply used to browse social media. It can be seen as an essential source for

today's way of living. However, technology and social media can harmful in some ways. There

are people who abuse and misuse the power that the internet and social media brings to us. Social

media users can have their privacy abused through the use of trolling, the use of cyberbullying

and cyber attacks is one of the problems for social media users too, and having the ability to

remain anonymous online can also have a negative downside to it.

With the advancements of the internet, various opportunities such as education and

entertainment have flourished with it. With these new discoveries, it has also become a

playground for those who find enjoyment while conducting the act of trolling. Trolling occurs

when one individual, the troller, has a goal to annoy its victim continuously. Trolling can happen

over text, videos, and even voice chats. According to Bacarrella et al., “The motivation for

trolling is not to stimulate thought-provoking discussions but to sow discord on the Internet and

get a rise out of people simply for the amusement of the troll” (435). These internet trolls are

now using the anonymity that the internet provides in order to form this new persona. This new

persona can be viewed as a comedic side. Having a laugh and enjoyment out of wasting other's
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time and continuously annoying them is something that these trolls would not be able to get

away with in real life. Not only does technology help create this trolling online persona but it

effects does who are victims of trolling in various ways. Bacarrella et al., continues to explain

that “... trolls find entertainment in wasting organizational resources by taking up the time of

customer support representatives, for instance in pointless Twitter exchanges or in lengthy,

off-topic LiveChat conversations”(435). Although trolling does not affect a person on a personal

or very serious level it is still one of the ways in which the use of the internet and anonymity can

be abused.

A way in which the internet can cause attacks from one individual or group of people to

another is through cyberbullying. Cyberattacks is a step above trolling in that it is more personal

and can be seen as hate speech. A way in which I have personally seen cyberbullying is when

one user who has a profile image of themselves up on social media gets attacked by his/her looks

by an individual who tends to use an avatar rather than a real picture of themselves as their

profile picture. Attacks such as these cause emotional and mental breakdowns for people.

According to Laer, “...an 18-year-old student at a U.S. university committed suicide after

discovering his roommate electronically spied on him and gossiped about him on Twitter”(85).

This abuse of using social media by one affects others, in this case, the online abuse by someone

else ultimately affected the victim in real life. Not everyone has a thick skin and people do take

cyberattacks to an extreme resulting in the suffering, self-harm, and even death of the victim.

Laer argues that network providers are aware of cyberattacks and sites such as Facebook and

other social media have a report system (85). While I do agree that this a fix towards reporting

and stopping users from attacking others, I argue that this is only a temporary fix. This is because
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when a user gets reported and ultimately banned off a social media site, it is usually the account

and email associated with it that gets banned. This does not stop the user from creating an

alternative account and continuing the cyber harassments. This would make the victim believe

that there is no option in which they can escape the constant attack and seeing this onslaught of

threats can affect them personally.

Being anonymous online is a pathway for people to attack others but also for individuals

to express themselves differently. Expressing themselves differently in a way that is not so

healthy. According to Adler Patricia and Adler Peter, “In the early 2000s, the Internet offered a

way for self-injurers to express hidden sides of themselves they could not share with friends or

family members”(60). People who have gone through different experiences in life and feel the

need to harm their bodies know that others do not understand the reason on why they are doing

it. Being afraid that these people whom they know will question them and judge them for their

self-harm allows them to become anonymous over the internet and post what they want without

the fear of someone near to them finding out. Alder Patricia and Alder Peter, continue to explain

that these groups who practice self-injury as a lifestyle compare “self-injuring to other coping

mechanisms, such as the consumption of alcohol or drugs, but considered self-injury preferable

to addictive and medically damaging consequences”(61). While I do not believe injuring oneself

is the answer to problems, this shows how that internet is able to bring strangers together with an

idea that self-injury is a way of life. Since online groups tend to be all anonymous no one will

know how exactly these individuals are who are harming themselves. By being with these groups

significantly shapes the way they think, leading towards the possibility that they will probably be

stuck in an endless loop of self-harm.

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The idea that the advancement of technology has helped humanity overcome obstacles is

true but there are negative side effects that come with it. As technology and the internet

continues to expand their will always be those who misuse it. Misusing it in ways where people

create a different persona of who they are and use it to troll others. Using it in ways to attack

people and the victims take it out on themselves for being targeted. Does who find the pleasure

of staying anonymous and creating the idea the harming oneself is the only answer. The internet

and social media does bring the world together, but there will always be individuals and groups

who change the way they act and think when they are online compared when they are offline

facing the real world.

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Works Cited

Adler, Patricia A, and Adler, Peter. “Self-Injury in Cyberworld.” Contexts, vol. 11, no. 1, 2012,

pp. 59–61. SAGE Premiere 2014. DOI 10.1177/1536504212436501. 21 Sep. 2019.

Baccarella, et al. “Social Media? It's Serious! Understanding the Dark Side of Social Media.”

European Management Journal, vol. 36, no. 4, 2018, pp. 431–438. ScienceDirect

Journals. DOI 10.1016/j.emj.2018.07.002. 21 Sep. 2019.

Laer, Tom. “The Means to Justify the End: Combating Cyber Harassment in Social Media.”

Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 123, no. 1, 2014, pp. 85–98. SpringerLink Journals. DOI

10.1007/s10551-013-1806-z. 21 Sep. 2019.