STUDENTS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INTERNET

The Internet has become a standard fixture in the lives of many people, with communication being one of its most popular uses. Several mediums-such as electronic mail (e-mail), group mailing forums, interactive games, and real-time chatting-provide users with communication opportunities. Through extended communication on the Internet, many users have formed relationships with others online. Several aspects of the Internet medium interact to make the course of relationship development online differ from offline development. The Internet is still a rather uncharted area in terms of psychological research, especially in the field of online relationship development. This research examined college students' Internet use, relationship formation, and personality characteristics. No differences were found between participants who did and did not form new relationships online. However, differences were present within the group that formed online relationships, such as ease at finding similar others online as well as differences in social skills and loneliness scores. This calls for a reexamination of previous hypotheses regarding individuals who form relationships online.

As you probably know, internet is such a knife which has two different sides (positive and negative effects). You might often see and listen to news both offline and online that tell you that there are many negative effects of internet especially for students who often utilize internet to play online games or browse either negative pictures or videos. Despite having negative effects, actually internet also brings positive effects for students, such as:

Improve students’ motivation in studying. Students possibly will feel bored if they only study from textbook day by day. That’s why internet can be good alternative media to improve students’ motivation in studying. By using internet as a learning media, students can see relevant pictures or animations which are related to lesson. Based on some reliable researches, students’ motivation in studying can increase fast if teachers or lecturers use pictures or animations in explaining lesson. Besides, students can understand lesson rapidly.

Get both updated and out-of-date information fast. By using internet to support teaching and learning process, students don’t need to look for pages of books which are related to lesson anymore. They can access search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, type relevant keyword, and then get relevant information that they need fast. Can you imagine how busy you are when you should look for information in some text books at library? This surely will waste your time.

Generally text books provide hundred pages of information which sometimes is incomplete. By using internet to support students’ learning activity, they can get more information and comprehend their lesson deeply. Technically, they can find out lesson examples, additional information, relevant pictures and videos on internet which can make them have unlimited knowledge.