The Lurking Danger of Internet

The advent of internet has brought about both positives and negatives for humanity. One would safely say internet is a blessing to humanity.
With a click of a button, one is able to access information on almost any subject from almost anywhere in the World. Vital information can easily be accessed via the website using simple gadgets like smartphones and tablets. It is so convenient a tool in as far as sharing and receiving information between users. For those in the academia, research has been made simple as one can easily surf through the web and may not necessarily buy or carry any physical books all the time. For the business world, trade is simplified, you can talk of online shopping and banking that have come with technological advancement. The list can go on and on.

But amidst the so many advantages, there lurks what you would call the evil side of internet. It is one huge threat to the new generation of Christians especially the youth. With its anonymity, immediacy and chances for bullying and cybercrime, the internet has a huge potential for causing real harm to people.

One major problem of internet is its ease access by young people to pornographic stuff. Many youths are finding comfort in going to porn sites and are addicted to the vice. Instead of understanding sexual intercourse, watching porn at an early age tends to create wrong impression of it in the young minds as they are not able to value its purity as God intended. This leads to premature relationships and results to emotional abuse and early unwanted pregnancies.

Further more people will find access to sites that are not useful in any way but throw one into the pit of negativity. Exposure to violence and crime are a way of shifting your mind towards self-hate and condemnation. In no time the young will find ways of making dangerous tools, regard life valueless and end committing suicide. No wonder research has shown a strong link between social media surge and suicide cases, that currently stand at 800 000 deaths per year according the World Health Organization. Suicide is said to be the second leading cause of death among the youth aged 15-29 years globally. Recent teen suicides have been blamed on cyberbullying.

Other people have fallen into traps of false publicity and end up into traps of fake advertisements for fake jobs that claim to pay huge sums of money. Remember, it is highly advisable to stay away from such offers. A lot of people have become victims of cybercrime in which they have lost money. Despite this, people continue to engage in long but worthless chats online with friends and worse so with strangers, at the expense of productive work. And how much value would such time add to one’s life had it been spent prudently.

One has to be mindful that the internet is a product of an imperfect human being, and so the creation itself can never be perfect. Can we say we go back to the time we lived without the internet? Certainly not. The platform itself brings a whole lot of great opportunities. And the power to use it lies in our hand, either to build us or destroy us forever. And so enjoy the internet but be always conscious of the risks as doing so will help you stay safe in this connected world.
But this calls for great care when surfing on the website. Young ones need not to be shy to consult responsible adults on which sites are safe. Parents ought to ensure that children are using electronic gadgets in a safe manner, so that no time is wasted on worthless things, but to the edification of God’s work and betterment of humanity. For time is of essence. In the book ‘Christ Objects Lessons’ on the subject ‘Talents,’ based on Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells us that time is a talent or gift that God wants us to use wisely. By spending long hours on unproductive things on the internet, we are wasting that precious time, and a moment of reckoning before God is coming. Time is said to be beyond computation and so Christ regarded every moment as precious and it is thus that we should regard it.

As we live in the last days with danger all around us, there is need for individuals and Christian families to spent time in earnest prayer at the altar of God on a daily basis and seek His guidance. Parents and guardians need to play a pivotal role in helping children make informed decisions on which online sites to visit or else we are raising a lost generation, a time bomb. With so many evils around us, there remains standing His own people somewhere. Our prayer is to be counted among the upright. And that will happen not by chance, but by allowing Him to work in us.