Nowadays, more people are choosing to socialise online rather than face to face. Is this a positive or negative development?

An increasing number of people are moving away from meeting people physically, they are now more tuned towards connecting through the internet. In my opinion,

this

is a negative development because it can cause harmful situations later in life.

Firstly

,

this

can impact adversely on the youths as they meet with all sorts of people without knowing their backgrounds. They are able to communicate with different individuals whom they do not know their history or family life and

this

can pose danger for them.

For example

, someone in Australia is able to speak freely with another human from Nigeria, who they have never met physically. They tell them everything about their lives, forgetting they cannot vouch for them.

Secondly

, they end up spending the time that could have been used for more effective things talking to their friends on the net. Interacting with new individuals, especially from the same age group can be intriguing, fun and interesting as well.

This

tends to make them lose focus because they spend a majority of the day chatting or making video calls.

For instance

, a school student can easily be distracted during examinations by Whatsapp voice call, Skype or Instagram.

Finally

, online applications save media, which are in the form of photos and videos and when these are shared, it can be used against them in the future. Despite being acquaintances, situations happen and someone may decide to start blackmailing the other person with a photo or video that was sent years ago. In conclusion, meeting online is an unfavourable development and the government should place some restrictions on certain age category as regards online socialising, while the parents has the responsibility of sensitising their wards on the pros and cons of meeting people on the internet.