John Angelo A.

Maminta ` November 3, 2023

202311199 GED_0011
The dark side of Web

Most people talk about the greatness of the web and how it made the world connected.
But little to none are talking about the dangers of the web. The web can indeed make your life
easier, but that doesn’t mean that it cannot destroy life. With this, I will focus on the negative
impacts of the web in our life and how it can destroy someone starting from social media, up to
how the web can sometimes be a handful.

On average, A Filipino spends more than 3 hours on social media (DataReportal, 2023).
And on average, almost all Pilipino aged 16 to 64 has a smart phone specifically on hand. This is
both reassuring and very alarming at the same time. With the influx of users, we should have
increased our knowledge and strengthened our law. As things are standing, there are still people
being swindled not just via social media itself, as well as through social engineering. Because of
this, a lot of hacking events have happened just this year alone. From the simple phishing attack
that made the company GCash Inc. lose a total of 37 million pesos. Up to the effectiveness of false
information that was used in social media. A wide example of this is the Dr. Farrah Agustin-Bunch
vs Dr. Adam Smith case where Doc Adam is filing a case where Doctor Farrah is spreading false
information AND advising wrong medicine using social media to promote her inventions. From
“Soursop leaves (Guyabano Leaves) can cure breast cancer sized of a marble” to her Boston C
(That was advised by the FDA) that can “cure cancer”. Because of this, Pilipino heavily bashed Doc
Adam because “he is an outsider” or “he is doing this for the clout”. And upon watching and
verifying his videos and blogs, all of it was on trusted websites like WebMD, and was backed up
by researchers from popular universities all over the world. This is what I meant by needing more
knowledge and strengthening the law. As another example, In Germany, the Network
Enforcement Act which is Germany’s answer to combat misinformation and hate speech was
passed and currently effective. With this, they can combat misinformation and try to help mitigate
the spread of misinformation.

The web is not just composed of social media and social media only. There are a lot of
things the web can offer to us. Like everything else, too much of something is not good for anyone.
Because of too much information, we became intellectually lazy. Meaning, what we see is what
we believe, and we do not challenge the ideas or the said information anymore which blocks
intellectual growth. Another worrying thing that we have is the average time spent using the
web. On average, Filipinos spend around 9 hours and 31minutes surfing the web (DataReportal,
2023). Which is pretty alarming when we don’t have proper precaution and media censorship.
With this, simple misinformation could be spread within seconds and rumors can become the
truth. And because of the ever-increasing time spent on the web, our attention span becomes
shorter and shorter. Have you once felt that when you heard your phone ding you simply get it
up and look at the notification? Yes, that is what I am talking about. And other companies are
abusing this fact which gives you useless notifications just to have them be used. The final thing
that is hard in the web is that it is so easy to use, but it is so difficult to master. A famous example
of this is when searching. When searching for something, you are not able to find what you are
looking for? Yes, this is because searching is a skill that could be honed overtime. Another one is
knowing which article is true and which is not. There are methods of knowing what is true and
what is not, just like cross-referencing. With this, it can help combat what can be true and what
is an opinion.

Overall, the web is not as safe or trustworthy as it seems. This is very alarming since the
following can have long-term consequences. From making a lie be the truth, to letting others
think for us and decide for us. Though I see that it may be too late for us to act now, it is still better
to act than to pretend that nothing is happening. If not for us, let us do the following counter
measures for our young ones that make up most of our population in our country. Would we
really sacrifice lady justice just to be lazy or do we stand and fight for the betterment and for the
hopes of a bright future of the next generation? The choice is yours.

References:
Kemp, S. (2023, February 8). Digital 2023: The Philippines - datareportal – global digital insights.
DataReportal. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2023-philippines

Food and Drug, A. (2017). FDA Advisory. https://www.fda.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/FDA-

Advisory-No.2022-1090.pdf