No doubt all those of us who have accessed the internet could think of a reason why this technology has changed our lives for the better – to help you with the idea, here are a few reasons why the internet is good for everyone.
Many of us are almost completely dependent on the internet; we do everything online and can spend 24 hours a day online based anywhere thanks to mobile devices. The internet can be used for learning, for entertainment, for working, for meeting new people and for trying to change the world, and even for complaining about whatever is bothering us.
If you are one of the people on the planet who has the privilege of being able to access the network of networks, you must know that you have access to a tool that can bring about a great improvement in your life; indeed, there are studies and statistics that demonstrate that the internet is good for us. That is, of course, as long as we apply common sense when using it.
The internet is good for your health
People, and especially teenagers, can get a lot of information about subjects that they feel uncomfortable talking about. Although there is a lot of incorrect information online, there are also reliable sites that offer a great deal of help, free of charge, about health, depression and sexuality, and a lot more.
In one study it was demonstrated that people over 60 years old who spend most time online are more likely to be more mentally active and to suffer less depression.
According to that study, social networks can enable people of any age to make decisions about their health, once they have gathered enough relevant information. In a survey, 42% said that they used social networks to find descriptions related to health services, 40% said that the information they got from social networks would help them to deal better with the effects of a chronic illness, while 45% said that depending on what they read on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, they might consider seeking a second opinion from another doctor.
The internet is good for learning
Access to the internet can increase the number of graduates at all universities. It has been proven that students with broadband access are 8% more likely to complete their courses than those who do not have access to the internet at home.
The large number of courses available online, whether free or requiring payment, offer many possibilities for study to all kinds of people whether they can only study via distance learning or if the degree they want to study for does not exist where they live.
In the last five years, the number of students taking online courses has shot up 96%.
According to research in Canada, «internet slang» – where words are abbreviated oddly and spelling is destroyed in terrible ways – really does not hurt children and adolescents; rather it makes them concentrate better and pay more attention when they have to translate the slang back to the original language. LOL.
The internet is good for the economy
The internet contributes an average of 3.4% to gross domestic product (GDP) in at least 13 countries worldwide, including the US, the UK, Canada and Spain. Money production through the internet is so high that it is the same as the amount in GDP produced by Canada each year and more than that produced by Australia; and the research only covered 13 countries, not the whole world.
The internet creates jobs and for each job created in the technology industry, five more are created in other branches, jobs that are needed to support an entire company.
Crowdfunding platforms raised more than $2.7 billion in 2013, providing enough money for over one million campaigns created by ordinary people with big ideas.
Some 95% of the companies in countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are present online, which increases their sales and improves the customer-seller relationship.
The internet has made many things change, and in the search for a formula to reduce piracy, the «Netflix» effect has come about, something so simple whereby if people have a legal place where they can pay to watch movies, view series and listen to music, piracy will fall. According to one study, 40% of people download less pirate copies if they can use a service such as Netflix and similar sites.
The internet is good for communication
In the past 10 years, Skype has connected more than 300 million people with each other worldwide. Overall, these people have talked for around 2.6 million years with other people, regardless of the distance between them.
It is also a good place to meet your next partner and, in fact, this aspect has increased so much that between 2005 and 2012, 35% of the couples marrying in the US had met online. Likewise, divorces and separations are lower for those people who met their spouse through the internet.
In the end, there aren’t exactly one million, but I would bet that almost anyone in the world can find their own reason why the internet is good for us, and those are very high figures.
