The Internet's Negative Uses

In one of my marketing classes today, a discussion of the Internet was brought up. This discussion was concerning the negative impacts it can bring. More specifically we approached these three topics: 1. What are the other negative behaviors consumers/people engage in when using this new medium? 2.What makes people behave differently when they are on the net?
3. Should marketers be concerned about these negative behaviors, and if so, and how can they neutralize them.

Negative behavioral patterns different from those of one’s real life can certainly be present when engaging in some form of communication on the Net. One behavior in particular is saying you are someone other than who you really are. For instance, in some type of chat room/social media who really knows who the person truly is across the communication line?! So often we here about predators online who have faked their identities, making one believe they are someone else. This can be something as simple as lying about an age, location, or hair/eye color; or as complex as lying about the relationship to which the predator claims they know their chat ‘buddy.’ Brad Paisley’s “Cooler Online” hit sums up what bad behaviors can take place on a chat/social media outlet. Click on the “cooler online” link to view this video.

I think the sense of freedom and thought that nobody will find out makes people behave differently when they are involved in some kind of activity on the net. Referring back to the chat example, who is actually going to find out that you were lying about your age or eye color? In the video I linked to this post it states that the guy is so much cooler online. The phrase ‘I grow another foot and I lose a bunch of weight, every time that I log in,” shows that people will engage in this activity and lie about statistics concerning oneself.

If the behavior is something small such as faking what someone looks like is nothing to for marketers to be concerned about. However, lying about the success and image of one’s company is a huge no-no! A way to neutralize that would be to really research that company and find out information for yourself, not just what the company website or a few opinion sites have said about that particular company. Though the Internet has brought us so many great channels of communication and ease, we still need to protect ourselves by being careful and checking up on what someone or something might tell you.

Continuing with my editorial topic from last week, I came across an article concerning eating disorder websites and the negative affects of them. Often times people with eating disorders turn to websites where others who are suffering from the same disorder can join in on conversations. This can be a good and bad thing. Individuals with an eating disorder find it difficult to talk to other about their problem, when they know others are dealing with the same issues it makes it much easier to talk about it. On the other hand, some look at websites for eating disorders as a source of motivation to continue starving oneself. This definitely is a result of a negative use of the Internet.