Abstract

The rapid expansion of using internet and being available in online has raise the importance
of discussing various aspects of being online. Individuals and businesses are being online due
to exploit the maximum benefits by using it. Individual and businesses are collaborating their
activities through online which require less time and money. Therefore, the main aim of this
study is to discuss the both positive and negative impact of being online. Besides this, this
study provided some challenging aspects of being online along with the potential remedies
for avoiding the risks in online. Moreover, this repost also endeavors to discuss the role of
Blogs in communication including basic distinction between blogs and websites.

Table of Contents

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Introduction.........................................................................................................................................3
Comparison between positive and negative aspects of individual being online..............................3
Comparison between positive and negative aspects of businesses being online..............................5
Challenges and measures of security and privacy that individuals and business should take
when they go online.............................................................................................................................6
Challenges........................................................................................................................................6
Security measures............................................................................................................................7
How is blog different from websites...................................................................................................8
Different tools that are require to create a blog................................................................................9
Can blog be a communication tool?.................................................................................................10
Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................11
References..........................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
The current civilization is mostly shaped by the internet or digitalization. Now we are digital
being. The impact of digitalization in our life is pervasive. We are using digital technology in

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almost every aspects of our life. Internet is a part of digital technology. It has made our life
faster, cheaper, and comfortable. At present we are using internet in our personal,
professional and business life. However, the users of internet all over the world is rapidly
increasing due to its multifarious benefits. Currently 4.54 billion people are using internet
actively which represent the 59 percent of the total world population (www.statista.com,
2020). Besides our normal life we have created a virtual world with the help of internet.
People are now online or visible almost 24 hours in a day through the internet. Besides
personal life, internet has made transformed the business world. Traditional businesses are
now gradually shifted to the online platforms. Businesses man are performing their variety
activities through online such as sales, promotion, transaction, and advertising etc.

Comparison between positive and negative aspects of individual

being online
Our presence in online is now a common phenomenon and this situation is gradually
worsening with the introduction of different social networking sites which have made are
appearance easier in online. However, Individuals presence in online can has both the
positive and negative consequences.

Positive aspects of being online Negative aspects of being online

i. Improve connectivity: Individuals are i.
now online due to widespread use of
internet which help hem to connected
with each other’s. The various online
platforms such as social media and
blogs helping people in this regard.
The increasing users of internet and
different social networking sites ii.
improving the individual interaction
and connectivity among themselves
(Alam et al., 2014).
ii. Sharing of information: Internet
plays a very significant role in sharing
information. People now can share any
information with others in spite of iii.
having geographical distance. Online
Addiction: Research proved that, the
regular use of internet or being online
can turn individual into online
addiction. There is a evidence that
people who are always online cannot
lead a normal life and they feel
frustration in their life.
Degradation of personal life:
individuals being online have made
their personal life more vulnerable due
to heavy use of internet. They have lost
their quality of life. They are likely to
mix up their personal life and virtual
life.
Stress: Excessive use of internet or
being available in online can create

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 platforms have already minimized the heavy stress on individual life which
geographical distance. Now people can can significantly hamper their work
know the latest information if they are life and decrease the productivity.
being online. People now can surf the Besides this research found that
different news portals through online. individuals are regularly using internet
iii. Enhance learning: Individuals being are suffering from backbone problems
online have the greatest benefits of and other chronic diseases (Young,
learning. Internet has created 2004).
enormous of learning opportunity. iv. Anxiety and
People now can access to the vast of frustration/Psychological disorder:
knowledge and literature through Being online for long hour creates
online. besides this, individuals can anxiety and frustration among the
share their knowledge with others people especially to the young people.
which also foster learning through It can cause to psychological disorder
online. Moreover, different universities sometimes.
and educational institutions have
designed online curriculum which
significantly contributing to the
people’s life.
iv. Improve relationship: Online
platforms such as social media have
improved the relationship with each
other’s. It has brough many unknown
people to close each other’s.
v. Entertainment: Internet is a great
source of internet. After long working
hour people can take a break online
and can able to watch movies, listen
music and dramas.

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Comparison between positive and negative aspects of businesses
being online
The appearance of businesses in online is remarkable. The traditional brick and mortar shops
gradually been upgraded to online platforms because of its convenience and low-cost
operations. However, businesses being online can result in a numerous benefit at the same
time it can create plausible risks in online platforms.

Positive aspects of being online Negative aspects of being online

i. Easy and low-cost advertisement: i. Unfair competition: Businesses who
The most important aspects of conducts their business activities
businesses being online is low cost online can create unfair competition.
advertisement. With the help of online The cost of operating business
businesses can promote its products a physically and operating business
service by using social media, blogs, through online are not same. Thus, the
video reviews, and online businesses who are being online can
advertisement etc. sell their products at a low cost
ii. Increase sales: Businesses can compare to traditional brick and mortar
increase their sales by appearing in shop.
online. It is already found that, the ii. Impersonality: Businesses being
sales of businesses are relatively high online are less likely to communicate
those who have online operations with customers physically. They
besides physical operations because at dealings with customers through online
present customers prefer to buy which is called impersonality. This
through online as it is more situation can degrade the customer
convenient. relationship. Customers sometimes
iii. Enhanced business communication: think that businesses are less caring
There are lot of communication tools about the customers problems and
have been developed based on the needs.
internet which enables the businesses iii. Lack of security: Businesses being
to communicate with various internal online are suffering from lack of
and external parties. It is now very security due to the risk of cyber
easy to conduct business meeting terrorism, hacking, and other malware
through online. Moreover, online problems. Many confidential
platforms help businesses to information such as credit card
collaborate with suppliers, and identity, transaction record etc. may be
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 customer very easily (Naouel). lost due to using online.
iv. Telecommuting: Businesses being
online enables them to conduct
business activities through online.
Telecommuting is the process by
which business organization allows
their employees to do official work
from home because it saves time and
money.

Challenges and measures of security and privacy that individuals

and business should take when they go online.

Challenges
Using internet for both personal and business purposes is a challenging as there are different
types of risks involved with using internet. This risk may sometimes bring severe damage to
both individual and businesses. However, sometimes risks arise due to individual negligence
or lack of consciousness. The most common forms of risks that a person or businesses may
face are narrated below.

i. Cyberterrorism: The threat of Cyberterrorism is gradually increasing with the rapid

expansion of online activities. It is crime which is used to damage the computer
system of personal or businesses. In cyber terrorism terrorist used computer resources
to access into the computer system of others in order to ascertain confidential
information (Gordon and Ford, 2002).
ii. Challenges of privacy: Managing individual privacy in online is now a challenging
issue. Privacy means individual right to protect personal information. In online it is
very difficult to manage privacy of individual and businesses as online is an open
platform where different types of people interacting with each other’s. They can
easily access to others personal information. For instance, in social networking sites
people can view the information of others very easily.
iii. Malware: Malware is a kind of software which is called malicious software,
particularly designed to destroy or damage the computer system (Loudon et al., 2004).
Malware are ranges from severe to normal. Some malware is developed to interrupt

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 the operating systems while others are designed to cause serious damage. Some
common forms of malware are stated below.
 Virus: Virus is a program which can spread automatically and copy himself as
much as possible and transmitted along with others file and program.
 Spyware: Spyware is a special type of malware which spying or secretly
detecting the activities of others. For example, in online spyware collects or
spying the keystrokes of individual users.
 Bots: Bots are special kinds of software program that are designed to perform
activities automatically.
 Cookies: Cookies are small text file that are attached with webpage to detect
the user’s movement. Cookies are intentionally given to the webpages by the
host or client.

Security measures
Risks of using internet is a common phenomenon. Therefore, individuals and businesses
should adopt appropriate security measure so that the risks or challenges involved in online
will be minimized. The different security measure for individual and businesses are discussed
below.

i. Up to date privacy setting: individual users have the control to set their privacy
policy by own. Generally individual users mostly sue social networking sites, blogs,
and websites which require strong privacy setting. It will be difficult for the unknown
people to access into the personal information if the users strictly customized his or
her privacy.
ii. Use strong and unique password: Both the businesses and individuals should use
strong password in their accounts. Individual should use strong password in their
social media and other personal account. Businesses should use strong and unique
password in their financial transactions or accounts. Sometimes various business
transactions are happened through credit or master card. It is necessary to keep the
password or PIN number secret.
iii. Use malware protection: There are different types of undated software have been
developed to safeguard against different malware such as viruses and spyware etc.
Both the businesses and the individual users should use this malware protection
software to create roadblocks to the different malware. Common malware protection
software include antivirus, antispyware etc.

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 iv. Use strong firewall: Firewall give protection from unwanted access to the system.
Firewall provide signals about the traffic or if anyone trying or breaking the system. It
is precautionary measures (Mahmoud et al., 2015).
v. Use backup for business related information: Businesses should take a back up of
their different financial or non-financial information. There are a lot of services
available in the world who are providing cloud storage facility to the individual and
business users. These storages are very useful particularly if the system is destroyed
or data being lost.
vi. Physical security measure: Besides the above-mentioned security measure there are
some other physical security measures also give protection to the individual users
(Phoha, 2002). These includes followings.
 Keep the computer system in secured place.
 Prevent unauthorized use.
 Ensure that right person using the computer system.
 Regular maintenance.
 Using Updated operating system. Etc.

How is blog different from websites

Blogs and websites are almost similar but they differ with each in different aspects. Blog is a
term which is originated from ‘weblog’. Blog started its journey at the beginning of 90s.
however, blog actually work as an individual diary. Similar to diary, in blog individual can
write whatever he wishes. Basically, people write blogs to share their ideas, thoughts and
feelings etc. The core differences between these two are presented below.

Blogs Websites
In a blog data are presented in reversal Websites is different in terms of data
format such as new data comes first. presentation. Websites do not maintain the
sequence of data.
Data in blogs are regularly updated because Websites also updated its information but
bloggers always provide updated content. not in the manner blogs. Websites
particularly updated when update is
necessary.
Blogs generally enables the reader to Websites rarely give chance to the visitors
participate in discussions. to participate in discussion and criticism.
Blogs are generally managed by an Websites are hosted by corporate,
individual or group of people. organizations or even a person.

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 Blogs encouraged participation. Websites are prepared particularly to
present the organization.
Blogs relatively contains more information The content of websites is fewer than blogs.
then websites.
All blogs are websites But all websites are not blog.
Examples of blogs include ‘BuzzFeed’ and The examples of websites include Amazon,
‘TechCrunch’ etc. Alibaba, Facebook etc.

Different tools that are require to create a blog

Relatively, Blogs are easy to start in comparison with website. One can create a blog in spite
of having zero knowledge about programing. Blogs can be either hosted by an individual
himself or through others. However, in this section we will demonstrate the complete guide
of creating a blog including exactly what tools are required. (Schäferhoff, 2020)

Specify blog topic

Required a blog platform

Need to set up blogs through web hosting

Configuring blogs

Choosing theme

Using logo, color, and layout

Write posts

 Topic: the first tools of a blog is topic. Topic is an idea or concept which will be
discussed on the blogs. The posts of a blog generally related to the topic. Therefore, a
blogger has to choose a topic first.

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  Blog platforms: At the second stage, blogger need to choose a platform from which
he or she can host the blogs. There are so many free blogging platforms such as
WordPress, blogger.com, Tumblr etc. An individual can host his own blogs by
purchasing own domain.
 Hosting blogs: In order to launch a blog, it need to be hosted through a particular
domain. In this stage a blogger needs to choose a hosting company
 Configuring Blogs: After hosting the blogs blogger require to configure the whole
blogs. It is actually a customization process where blogger set his preferred settings.
 Setting theme: Setting theme actually is also a customization. If you are hosting your
blog from WordPress then you can choose your preferred theme from the list of free
themes.
 Logo, color and structure: blogger can easily customize its appearances. The
appearances include the logo of the blogs, its color and layout.
 Writing post: finally, bloggers can write the post if the previous stages are ok.
Writing post means bloggers can write the content in his own way but must be
relevant with topic which is already chosen at the first stage.

Can blog be a communication tool?

Yes. Blog is communication tools.

I think blog is a communication tools because it is platforms which share individuals’ ideas,
opinions, and thoughts and we know that communication is the exchange of ideas, opinions
and feelings. However, the justification of my answer is given below.

 First of all, Blog is a communication tools because it facilitates exchange of

information among the two or more persons.
 Secondly, we know that communication conveys meaning and information. So here,
blogs actually convey meaning or information regarding a particular topic.
 Blogs is a medium through which one person can communicated with unlimited
people (Xin, 2009).
 Visitors can read the posts which contain the readers ideas and information.
 A complete message for the mass people can be sent through message.
 Blogs also enables the visitors or readers to provide their opinion which ensure to way
communication.

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  Blogs encourage readers to take participation in the discussion through valuable
comments which is actually a communication among the mass people.

Conclusion
The appearance of businesses and individual in online are drastically increasing because of its
enormous of benefits. Business now can reach to the large number of customers and suppliers
through online whereas, individual can make contact and interaction among the different
peoples located dispersed areas. Understanding the pros and cons of being online will help
both the individual and user to take decision regarding using online. knowledge about the
potential risks and the appropriate security measures will definitely conducive to the
individual user and business user to maximize the best of it.

References

1. Alam, S. S., Hashim, N. M. H. N., Ahmad, M., Wel, C. A. C., Nor, S. M. & Omar, N.
A. (2014). Negative And Positive Impact Of Internet Addiction On Young Adults:
Empericial Study In Malaysia. Intangible Capital, 10, 619-638.

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2. Gordon, S. & Ford, R. (2002). Cyberterrorism? Computers & Security, 21, 636-647.
3. Loudon, K. C., Loudon, J. P. & Dass, R. (2004). Management Information Systems.
Prentice-Hall, Pearson.
4. Mahmoud, R., Yousuf, T., Aloul, F. & Zualkernan, I. Internet Of Things (Iot)
Security: Current Status, Challenges And Prospective Measures. (2015) 10th
International Conference For Internet Technology And Secured Transactions (Icitst),
2015. Ieee, 336-341.
5. Naouel, M. (2010). The Impact Of Internet Use On Buyer-Supplier Relationship
Atmosphere.
6. Phoha, V. V. (2002). Internet Security Dictionary, Taylor & Francis.
7. Schäferhoff, N. (2020). How To Start A Blog: Step-By-Step Guide For Setting Up
Your Own Blog [Online]. Available: https://websitesetup.org/how-to-start-a-blog-
guide/ [Accessed 7 April 2020].
8. www.statista.com. (2020). Global Digital Population As Of January 2020 [Online].
Available: https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/
[Accessed 5 April 2020].
9. Xin, C. Blog As A Communication Tool. (2009) Second International Conference On
Future Information Technology And Management Engineering, 2009. Ieee, 584-587.
10. Young, K. S. (2004). Internet Addiction: A New Clinical Phenomenon And Its
Consequences. American Behavioral Scientist, 48, 402-415.

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