Does the Internet Damage Social Connections?

In my Technology and Ethics class that I just finished, this was a major topic of discussion. Some argued that the Internet is weakening social connections between people because of the impersonal way the Internet causes us to be most of the time.

However, I disagree. The Internet can greatly strengthen social connections between people. Before social networking sites like Facebook came into existence did anyone keep in touch with high school friends, college fraternity brothers, or former co-workers like they do now? No.

One of the arguments about the Internet weakening social connections is that these people are afraid that the face-to-face meeting or phone conversation is going by the wayside. But I say that this argument is hugely flawed. I'm sure, when the telephone started being used on a wide scale, people were afraid that no one would ever speak face-to-face anymore, and as we can see, this did not happen.

The Internet allows being to be social and communicate in a new medium just like the telephone did for teenagers in the 1950s and 60s. While the Internet is less personal and allows for people to stay indoors for days at a time and successfully avoid human contact indefinitely, this happened even before the Internet. Its just these people were called hermits.

Overall, the good that the Internet has done for the world has greatly outweighed the bad. The instant sharing of knowledge around the world has most definitely helped this student out. The instant access I have to the Internet allows my research to be more in depth and complete since I do not have to spend hours looking and copying books from the library (Something I still do however).