The Internet has been very useful to humanity in the learning and development aspect of research. At the time, this essay emphasizes the details of the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet in relation to research work.

Advantages of Using the Internet in Research

Ease of communication

The Internet facilitates communication to researchers; as it serves as a guide and original source of information. It is very easy to access and at the same time saves time, allowing a person to better and effectively manage their resources. In addition, the Internet is very convenient because an individual can easily perform research work at home with great comfort and convenience. The Internet is a valuable search tool and has been informative for academic research, as it significantly helps improve research skills, and makes learning visual and easy to follow.

Comparatively cheap and fast dispersal of information

The Internet creates a comparatively economical avenue for the dissemination of information and articles. Thus, various organizations and individuals can circulate information among millions of users. For example, in due course, researchers can evaluate and make use of this information and articles circulating for their work, thus giving them a broader idea and knowledge in their work.

In addition, there is a spontaneous dispersion of information to several Internet users when such information is added to a website. In this sense, millions of users, including researchers, browse this information and use it for their work. Hence, the web is considered as a means of disseminating information par excellence, since it eliminates the loss of time between the publication of the contents and their availability to users.

Wealth of information

In addition, the Internet is a wealth of information and very advantageous for several reasons; students go on the Internet to gather a lot of academic information very useful for research; and the information contained on the Internet may be useful for academic research. It is a potential research tool and opens up a new and broad source of information.

According to Bachman et al (2006), information is probably the greatest advantage that the Internet offers users. The Internet is an apparent treasure trove of information. Any kind of information on any subject under the sun is available on the Internet.

Sending e-mail messages and receiving feedback

According to Coomber (2007), with the help of the Internet, the user can send e-mail messages to colleagues, friends, co-workers, etc., either to obtain more information from them or to transmit the acquired information to them. In view of this, the Internet could be considered a powerful tool for publishing content, since there are some computer applications integrated into the Internet that allow such transmission and transfer of information from one user to another. Consequently, these applications will allow and help the researcher to develop content for the World Wide Web simply by saving it as an HTML file.

Disadvantages of using the Internet in Research

You have to be careful with information

Once we’ve talked about the advantages of the Internet for academic research, it’s worth mentioning some of its disadvantages. One of the disadvantages of the Internet is that it provides a large amount of information, which causes information overload. In due course, one can easily be confused with this infinite amount of titles, texts and abstracts. And because of the overwhelming information available on the Internet, you have to be cautious with the information obtained.

An access provider with much less emphasis on specific content and services, retaining customers will be more difficult and this will negatively affect the usefulness of the system to another.

Large Amount of Information Available

There are no rules, that is, no process for checking information accurately. Most of the information on the Internet does not go through a review process. Anyone can publish on the net, without the content going through a publisher. The pages may be written by an expert on the subject, or even by a child, or by a disgruntled collaborator. Therefore, getting information from a book or other sources printed in the library can ensure that it is high-level and peer-reviewed.

In addition, it is observed that with the large amount of information freely available on the Internet, theft of personal information and misuse of this information abound. In this sense, from time to time people use someone’s information and research materials and pass them off as their own work. Also, spamming, which is the process of mass sending spam or junk emails, which do not provide any purpose and, consequently, hinder the entire system.

This, at the time, is considered an illegal activity that results in people’s frustration. In this sense, a researcher can consult your email to obtain material for your work, but is disappointed to find that it is spam. The problem of spamming extends to commercial advertising, often of dubious products, to get rich or of semi-legal services. Over time, spamming costs the sender less but the recipient more. In any case, spam can be prevented or stopped by installing spam filtering programs such as Mailwasher, McAfee’s anti-spam software, as well as a firewall.

Virus Threats

Another disadvantage of the Internet is the threat of viruses. In this sense, viruses are programs that interrupt the normal functioning of computer systems. Computers that are connected to the Internet are more likely to be attacked by viruses. In due course, this attack could cause the hard drive to crash, thus causing a major disaster on the computer. On the other hand, according to Comley (2006), some unscrupulous individuals have managed to create viruses and links that, once clicked, can automatically transmit personal email addresses and other data to certain parties, and even the person’s bank account data in some extreme cases.

Formats used

Another disadvantage of the Internet for academic research is that it is not system-ordered and index-formatted. Information on the Internet is not organized; for example, there are too many web pages for a single directory service and fees are often charged to access specialized information.

Therefore, focus strictly on access controls, either through strict limitations on the number of users or by imposing “access” fees that could effectively exclude the majority of users, for example students who cannot afford it, without taking into account the purposes of education and research.

Conclusions

In conclusion, regardless of the fact that the Internet has some disadvantages, it can be understood that it is still very useful for humanity, as it helps in medical research works and in later inventions, as well as produces some good interactive and multimedia entertainments. Therefore, man needs the Internet to continue living.

Man claims that, the Internet is seen not simply as a technological tool, but as an entirely new environment built with its own codes of practice.

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Bibliographic References

Bachman, E. , J. Elfrink , and G. Vazzana . 2006. Tracking the progress of e-mail vs. snail-mail. Marketing Research 8:31–35.

Comley, P. 2006. Internet surveys. The use of the Internet as a data collection method. ESOMAR/EMAC: Research Methodologies for “The New Marketing,” Symposium ESOMAR Publication Services, vol. 204:335–346.

Coomber, R. 2007. Using the Internet for survey research. Sociological Research Online 2:14–23.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Using the Internet in Research

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using the Internet in Research. Photo: Unsplash. Credits: Jose Vazquez @jess33mx

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