Today’s platforms for learning and socializing have become internet-based. The web has become a faster and more effective medium for learning than face-to-face communication. We present and define ourselves by posting information related to ourselves through different social media. Similarly we can browse other people’s information and find people related to ourselves. Not only we can exchange and discuss the differences and similarities with people in our own field, we can also explore and discover people in other fields. The Internet eliminates the limitations of distance and time, allowing us to see further away from the different people and things in this world to learn more.
For people on professional fields, such as the medical field networks can help them define their identity and professionalism. And find a sense of identity and belonging. For example, as mentioned in the article, medical students are encouraged to use the internet to communicate and learn. Jawed, Mahboob &Yasmeen(2019) found “Students heavily rely on the Internet for gathering information and discussions as it is quick and saves time and energy”. In addition to that, the Internet can have bad effects. If we are exposed to bad information that is perceived as correct, we can easily be misled. The Internet is a very fast source of information, and most of it is unfiltered and unverified. Then we often have no way to determine what kind of information is helpful, or what is correct and what is wrong.
Overall there are good and bad sides to the Internet. The good thing is that in our daily lives we may sometimes find it difficult to find more specialized people and knowledge to broaden our learning, but the Internet is a very efficient way to achieve this. The downside is that most of the information here is unfiltered and unfiltered, so we can be very easily misled.