The internet has been one of the most both positively and negatively impactful innovations the world has ever seen. The full impact of the internet and other related technology remains to be seen, but we can already notice some good and bad effects of our internet today.

Many traits can be both positive and negative at the same time, making it more difficult to isolate the benefits and drawbacks of our heavy internet use. We’re looking at three of the traits of our internet reliance and each one’s respective benefits and consequences.

Convenience & Accessibility

The rise of the web has allowed us to enjoy many conveniences, at any time and anywhere, that were completely unthinkable decades ago.

Take online casinos, for example. In the past, you’d have to find a physical casino to enjoy a game. And in the pre-internet era, you couldn’t just search for the closest one, either – you’d have to ask someone you knew or drive to a lively street and go scouting.

Today, spinning on a casino from your phone is incredibly easy. You can instantly look up a good casino, such as these sites similar to Bovada. Then you can sign up online, pay online with your favorite payment method, and get to playing – all within minutes and without moving from your spot on the couch.

While it might not be obvious at first glance, there are disadvantages to the level of convenience we enjoy today. For one thing, struggling is part of what makes gaining a certain thing feel meaningful. We enjoy working for what we want to some degree. Ordering takeout is nice, but preparing a good meal is much more rewarding.

On top of that, we lose friction that we don’t necessarily want to get rid of. Contactless delivery and online ticket purchases, for instance, might save us a few awkward or frustrating interactions, but could also prevent us from enjoying daily moments of connection with kind and interesting strangers.

An Abundance of Information

We now have more information at our fingertips than the world’s most expansive libraries have ever contained.

The advantages are obvious. With information about everything, we can learn about any era of history, get better at any skill, and easily get the answer to questions we might have never acquired without the internet.

But there’s also a dark side to all of this information. For one, there is so much information that one cannot possibly hope to get through all of it, not even on a small topic – leading to analysis paralysis for those who keep searching and searching instead of learning by doing. While being able to read about anything is incredible, it can’t replace real-world experience – yet, we often let it.

Then there’s credibility. How can we know what’s true and what isn’t? It’s easier than ever to share content on the net. We can easily get stuck on ideas or “facts” that sound right – especially if a study is referenced – without ever checking the reliability of the source.

Besides that, our brains aren’t wired to handle such large amounts of information. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and feel exhausted after a day of being bombarded with thousands of different messages. It gets harder to focus on knowing what matters when you can’t possibly hope to get a full overview of what’s out there.

Constant Connectedness

We’re constantly available, and we’re constantly entertained. This might initially sound like a great thing, but in practice, there are also cons to this constant connectivity.

The internet lets us connect with others from other parts of the world. We might get a perspective we otherwise wouldn’t, and discuss things with someone from another walk of life that we otherwise couldn’t have. We can join communities online and find out that there are people with many of the same interests and concerns as we have.

The constant connectedness gives us more spontaneity. We can text a friend when we’re in the city, book a hotel right before boarding a flight, and change plans spontaneously since we can stay updated and update others in real-time.

But when we’re always online, it’s also easy to miss out on the local community. We’re on a call, so we don’t stop to chat with neighbors. We can so easily find people who agree with us that we might not take the time to understand someone with a different perspective.

Use of the Internet Going Forward

Without even touching on things like privacy, data concerns, and security, a strong case can be made that the level of reliance individuals and society as a whole have on the internet has a clear negative side. Whether the negative effects outweigh or even can hold a candle to the positive effects, however, is not at all obvious.

What is clear is that people are suffering from the effects. High screen time has been connected to depression, anxiety and even struggles with concentration.

Yet, it’s important to see both sides. We need to remember that just as there is a tendency to embrace any new technological progress, there is also a countertendency to reject it. We as a society need to start finding the balance – evaluating new technology, and doing studies to find out about the effects, without making hasty judgments in either direction.