Do we abuse the internet and blame it?

While the digital facility enabled by the internet has significantly impacted social and life dynamics globally, it has also come with its own setbacks. Many of these go unnoticed by those who have never lived without the internet, particularly Gen Zs, Gen Alpha, and Gen Beta, the latter making its debut in 2025.

Abuse of the internet can be in a diverse spectrum, diversified into consumption as well as feeding of the internet with materials. In terms of consumption, it can be considered an abuse of the internet when its potentials are not put to full use or are redirected into the opposite of the good it can achieve.

For example, using the internet to polish one’s criminal behaviour is an abuse of a good resource that can be used to sharpen one’s understanding of positive things. This is classified as an abusive consumption. Alongside it is the use of the internet to spread violent materials, pornography, targeting, harassing people, and cyberstalking.

It is also considered abusive consumption to expose oneself to deep cycles of fake news, misinformation, extremist ideologies, and conspiracies, which can negatively influence people, especially the youth, as it feeds one’s ignorance, ignites it even more, and triggers fear and social unrest.

On the other hand, each of us may unknowingly contribute to the internet in harmful ways. Of course, some people do this intentionally, as they profit from it. However, as regular users, we can learn how to minimise our negative impact on the internet.

Using the internet to deliberately spread falsehoods and fake news, manipulate public opinion, promote hate and divisive agendas, and fuel violence and discrimination are all forms of abuse that, in turn, cause panic, unrest, and instability. Phishing, scams, fraud, and other cybercrimes also represent harmful aspects of the internet’s capabilities.

The creation of unethical and sexual content is a crucial matter of concern in this regard, as people devise newer ways of making and distributing pornography and obscene pictures in an unimaginable variety. The trend is growing locally, the verbalisation of which is as well normalised as days go by. The chain reaction, of course, continues; pornography is not an end in itself but a prostitution marketplace. Eventually, these circles become epicentres of sexually transmitted diseases and infections, especially in our cities.

At the end of all these, we discover that though the internet can achieve all these, it was not meant for such use. There are consequences to these decisions to consume from or feed abusively to the internet.

There is a rise today in physical and mental health issues, especially among young people, which arise from or are groomed by abusive consumption of the internet and social media. To mention a few: depression, anxiety, psychological distress, poor quality sleep, emotional vulnerabilities, as well as suicidal tendencies. Many young people have already developed an attachment to the internet such that regular life is punctuated by unregulated peeking into the internet and social media, regardless of the seriousness of the business at hand.

Think of people who peek at social media in classrooms, workplaces, places of worship, etc., just because they feel left behind in their internet usage and social media presence for the moment they spend doing those serious things. We can say they are affected by the ‘Fear of Missing Out’ (FOMO), using the conceptualisation of Patrick McGinnis (2004).

Think of young people who have made social media their world, lifestyle, and an escape far removed from the here-and-now reality. They mindlessly scroll uncontrollably—without intention or thought—even during shared meals, family time, or conversations, turning the internet into a social hindrance to productive communication. To remedy this reality, we must acknowledge it as a problem.

The impact of these abuses of the internet is far-reaching and has an impact on everyone. It is predictable, based on current exposure, that a good portion of society in a decade ahead will be extremely misinformed; many adults will be extremely deformed morally, socially, and psychologically because of addictions, unrealistic desires and thinking frameworks, and normalised harmful consumption, which, with time, kills one’s sense of ethics, values, and shame.

Young people who are supposed to be at their best in using the internet to learn and for studies are damaged by its addictive use and end up having low attention spans. The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), though objectively good, adds salt to the wound, as it has become a saviour of lazy and purposeless students who would rather earn grades than knowledge.

In turn, despite these weaknesses, the ‘system’ is unfairly blamed for producing misfits, distorted fits, or an ill-suited and completely mismatched workforce whose learning is substandard or incongruent with the demands of the services offered by institutions. While the education system has its own areas to improve, it is not completely bad or poor; part of the problem is the holistic formation of the beneficiaries themselves.

It is time we woke up and learnt to turn the internet into a force for good. It is hard to imagine how education was 100 years ago when every book had to be accessed in hard copy, every word checked in a dictionary, and every class attended physically. It is a sign of gratitude and respect when young people use these modern developments for good and for the common good. Nonetheless, we need more digital literacy empowerment for our young people, continually exposing them to its positive aspects and motivating them to maximise its potential for good.

Shimbo Pastory is a Tanzanian advocate for positive social transformation. He is a student of Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, Manila, Philippines. Website: www.shimbopastory.com