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A for and against essay about the internet

Look at the essay and do the exercises to improve your writing skills.

Instructions

Do the preparation exercise first. Then read the text and do the other exercises.

Preparation

Reading

Exam question

Your English class have been discussing the topic of young people using the internet. Your teacher has asked you to write an essay answering the following question:

Is the internet bad for young people?

Is the internet bad for young people?

It is now easier than ever to access the internet, whether you are using a computer, phone or tablet. There is no doubt that many young people are spending more and more time online, with both positive and negative consequences.

One advantage of the internet is that young people can do research for their schoolwork and homework. This often helps teenagers to widen their knowledge and improve their grades. Another positive aspect of the internet is that people can practise foreign languages by chatting to friends in other countries. This is also a good way of keeping in touch with friends and family around the world.

On the other hand, there are also negative consequences. Some young people become addicted to online gaming and this can mean that they waste too much time playing these games. This can have a negative effect on their schoolwork, the amount of exercise they get and their social lives. In addition, excessive internet use can mean that some young people hardly talk to their families because they are always on the computer.

To sum up, spending time on the internet can have a negative impact on young people, but it also has many advantages. Personally, I think the internet is an incredible tool and the benefits of internet access outweigh the dangers. However, we should be careful not to use the internet excessively.

Top Tips for writing

  1. Start by saying what the current situation is or introducing the debate.
  2. In the second paragraph talk about the advantages or reasons in favour. Use expressions like One advantage of X is … and Another advantage of X is …
  3. In the third paragraph give the disadvantages or reasons against. You can start this contrasting paragraph with On the other hand, …
  4. Finally, sum up the main arguments using To sum up, ... or To conclude, ... Give your opinion too, using expressions like Personally, … or In my opinion, …

Worksheets and downloads

A for and against essay about the internet - exercises592.59 KB
A for and against essay about the internet - answers136.91 KB
A for and against essay about the internet - essay511.93 KB
A for and against essay about the internet - writing practice522.94 KB
Discussion

What's your opinion? Do you think the internet is bad for young people?

Language level
B2 Upper intermediate
Topics
writing
internet
essay
Average: 3.6 (34 votes)
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Comments

Submitted by MrNovaBoy on Tue, 08/27/2024 - 15:56

The Internet is not bad for young people because they can learn and search for things they will only find on the Internet. Yes, because some of the animals are in danger of staying out of the zoos.

Submitted by kazeeye on Sun, 06/16/2024 - 13:06

In my opinion, the internet is a double-edged sword. We can gain many positive benefits from the internet when we use it for good purposes. However, it can also have negative consequences, such as wasting time and exposure to inappropriate content, especially for young people.

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Submitted by Leandro18_ on Thu, 02/29/2024 - 19:02

Without doubt, internet has been becoming one of the most common useful accesories that everybody can have easily, but there are many advantages and disadvantages for and against this important topic, specially for young people.

One advantage of the internet is that young people can do their homework and housework more effectively, they can search helpful information for their issues for their homework and useful videos for whatever they want. Another positive advantage is that they can distract themselves by watching funny videos and the most important thing, keeping in touch with their families and friends.

On the other hand, internet can be a really dangerous place for young people, they can meet " false people " who sometimes pretends be their friends or close relatives, all of this can occur on Facebook, Instagram or Twiteer, too.
In addition, video games might be addicted and has many disadvantages for them, such as, spend such long hours on the screem, waste lot of time insted of doing important things and even lose connection with their families.

To sum up, Internet can have good advantages for young peoplebut on other hand, dangerous disadvantages. Personally, I'm convinced that internet is a useful way to connect with the latest information and technology without doing any effort, but be careful ! You should analiye how you use it and what you are going to search because not everything is good.

Submitted by Dabs on Mon, 01/01/2024 - 10:05

Ever since coming into existence at the come of this century, the Internet has arguably been the most life- changing technology mankind has seen. However, it has been met with mixed reviews as people debate on whether it has had a net-positive impact on our society.
One of it's advantages is that Information has become widespread and people are able to access from almost any remote part of the world. It also helps students to communicate with their classmates outside the school, as they collaborate on the homework assigned to them.
On the other hand, the Internet has been abused, with children staring at their phones daily, preventing social interactions with the rest of their environment. Furthermore, it has given way to illegal acts being perpetrated as people engage in cyber attacks and other illegal activities, which results to the loss of personal wealth.
To conclude, the Internet has both it's positive and negative sides. Personally, I believe that with proper management and control the internet can become a net-positive for the society.

Submitted by _wisehumanbeing_ on Tue, 01/10/2023 - 11:36

Nowadays, many teenagers use the Internet on a daily basis, yet it does not mean it affect them. Although, there are some individuals who reckon differently.
Firstly, using the web can be useful as adolescences may learn new stuff. Secondly, they can communicate with others thanks to the technology. For instance, when there was lockdown and no one could hang out with friends outside, they could talk together via the Internet.
On the contrary to this, there are a few downsides. First and foremost, teenagers can have worse state of eyes due to the fact that they will have vision deffect. Last but not least, young people may see in the Internet something about them what make them unhappy and miserable.
As far as I am concerned, the Internet has not atrocious impact on young generation because they are able to gain knowledge and maybe pick up their linguistucs skills like we are doing on this web.

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Submitted by Freshka on Thu, 08/11/2022 - 11:34

Is the internet bad for young people? Nowadays, It is much easier than ever to access the internet. Wherever you are, you can listen to your favourite music, read an article and things like that. There is no doubt that many young people spend hours online during their day. It has some cons, but also numerous drawbacks. One advantage of the internet is that young people can do research for their schoolwork. There are a lot of useful websites for students. This often helps teenagers to widen their knowledge and improve their grades. Another positive aspect of the internet is that people can practise foreign languages by chatting with their friends from other countries. This is also a good way of keeping in touch with friends and family around the world. Even when someone lives hundreds of kilometres from you can call each other. On the other hand, it could be very disruptive. People often tend to watch movies, and Netflix instead of studying when they need to. Young people become addicted to the internet, and It has an enormous impact on their health. They have problems with sleeping and focus. They are more likely to drop out of school. To sum up, spending time on the internet has pros and cons. It could help people expand their knowledge and keep in touch with people around the world. But it is easy to be addicted to the internet too. If you are, you waste your time and you don’t notice what is happening around you. Young people hardly talk to their families, because they choose to play games or watch movies for hours. In my opinion, the internet is an amazing tool. The benefits outweigh the downsides. However, we should be careful not to use the internet excessively.

Submitted by Rhylan on Tue, 04/12/2022 - 18:18

My opinion for the question whether the internet is bad for young people is No, internet isn't bad. I think so because we just should to know how to use right. For example if we use internet only for games or another kind of things for wasting time we of course will se drawback site to internet. But if we use for learn or improve our skills in main area we will se the advantages. Such as everything in this world and internet have bad and good things. The answear for question is How we use Internet.

Submitted by TheNewGuy on Thu, 07/15/2021 - 10:07

I think the Internet isn't nessecarily bad for young people, only that you have to be careful of where you go and what you say. A lot of young people become rude because they have unrestricted access to the Internet, and therefore can learn curse words and become racist, among other things. I don't think that all content should be made child-friendly, only that some specific parts should be.
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Submitted by JohnC103 on Fri, 06/25/2021 - 03:28

With me, I think the Internet is such a good thing for people in any age. Internet help us in work, study, watching film even keep in touch with your relatives. So that we can see Internet is a thing which is need in our life. Otherwise, some people spend too much time on their Internet so that can harm our health and eyes. So this makes bad effect on their work. To conclude, Internet is good when we use it too research, relax or playing after we done our work. So Internet is not bad for young people.
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Submitted by Kostantinus on Fri, 03/05/2021 - 09:48

We all know that nowadays people can't imagine their lives without the internet. We use it for different purposes. One advantage of the internet is that people can find a lot of useful materials for studying and working goals. Another advantage is we can have fun using internet and connect with people on the another side of the planet. But sometime the internet can have negative effect on your people, for example, playing excessively computer games and spending lots of time in social media. To conclude, I want to tell you my opinion about the subject of this topic. Whether the internet good or bad for young people depends on how people use it.

Submitted by Emily1 on Wed, 02/24/2021 - 08:40

In my opinion, the internet is just a tool. As so you can't classify a tool as good nor bad, you can only tag good or bad the use that is given to the tool by the user. For example: If you have a knife you can use it to harm others, that is bad. But you can also use it to cook a meal for your family, which is good. So the object has no-fault in anything, but the person using said object. With this, I conclude that young people should take responsibility for how they use the internet and use it most correctly. Of course, we are still young and have a lot to learn so that responsibility should be given along the time while being taught the dangers and the pros of the internet and how to use it well.
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Submitted by JoEditor on Thu, 02/25/2021 - 08:27

Hi Emily1,

I loved reading your comment. The example of using a knife for good or for bad is a great way of thinking about the issues around sensible internet usage! Thanks a lot! 

Best wishes, Jo (LearnEnglish Teens team) 

Submitted by MatildePace on Mon, 01/25/2021 - 18:08

Today, internet is a easy medium for everyone to use. It is obvious that use more time online are the young people, with both positive and negative consequences. The main advantage of internet is that enables to learn more things easily, for instance a language. Another advantage of this topic is that everyone is connected to each other. The most serious disadvantage of internet is the no security, because there isn't privacy and you don't know the person behind the screen, so it can be whoever. Another negative aspect of this argument is the waste of time, because we spend a lot of time for unnecessary things. In my opinion internet is a good things for young people however we shouldn't use them too much and badly.

Submitted by gattifederica on Sat, 01/23/2021 - 17:51

I think that Internet has a positive and negative points. It’s very useful because you can search information and buy everything online. In addiction you can maintain contacts with your friends or relatives or know new people. On the other hand many people spend much time online and become addicted to it, so many parents are worried about their children. Moreover we often hear about cyberbulling and some people insult and make fun other people. Personally I think the Internet is very useful but we have to use it in a correct and responsible way.

Submitted by Msharymnn on Tue, 12/01/2020 - 20:04

the internet is not bad the pepole who use it make it bad the internet is not dangerous for pepole that want to learn that want to communicate meet other pepole it is dangerous for the pepole that are looking for something dangerous that's the truth about the internet the parents think that the internet is the fault no the pepole who use it is the fault the internet just done his work

Submitted by Msharymnn on Fri, 10/23/2020 - 15:41

the internet is not bad the pepole who use it make it bad the internet is not dangerous for pepole that want to learn that want to communicate meet other pepole it is dangerous for the pepole that are looking for something dangerous that's the truth about the internet the parents think that the internet is the fault no the pepole who use it is the fault the internet just done his work

Submitted by Stasiia_Ukr on Wed, 10/21/2020 - 06:53

In my opinion, useing the internet can be dangerous for some young people 'cause they can share their own information and then their "pen-friends" use it. On the other hand, internet is grete way to became more comunicative and to improve your skills like at learning foreign languages or finding out new information. So, please, be attantive!

Submitted by bloomybloom on Tue, 06/30/2020 - 10:27

The internet has become an essential thing in our live, It allows us to do some incredibly things just in a few moments, for example; we can learn anything we want just by a simple click , we can talk to our families in Austarlia even if we are in England , we can make new friendships with other people and know their culture..... etc . On the other hand, the internet have some cons , and it is very dangerous for children to use it , so it is the responsability of parents to controle their children and teach them the right way to use it . In general the advantages of the internet overweigh the dangers , personally, I can't imagine my live without internet :)

Submitted by santoso1234567 on Fri, 05/29/2020 - 10:21

I think that the internet has some advantages and disadvantages nowadays. The advantages of the internet are people can search a lot of information on the internet now and kids can play games on the internet. I still think there are some disadvantages on the internet today. Sometimes, there are websites that we can't trust and kids can accidentally click on a website that is not meant for their age. In my opinion, the internet is a very great invention that was made. I hope that the internet will improve over the time and be more usable for all ages.
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Submitted by Giovannichoi on Thu, 04/09/2020 - 09:30

I think excessive using of the internet is bad for young people, just like this article. I have seen some people who are addicted to the internet, You tube, Social Media and games. I think everyone who I can see in the subway always looking their smartphones, even IPads and laptops. They are always listening to musics, watching movies, playing games and reading articles. So maybe the benefits of the internet is you can find the information on the internet easily and quickly. Also, people can have fun using it and it is very reasonable. But, the other hand, you should depend on the internet secretly and your ability of make decisions. And also there are bad videos and fake news in the internet, aren't those? So personally, I agree with the topic text: it is bad for the young people. I think we should make limits of using the internets for them.

Submitted by Makam on Wed, 02/19/2020 - 16:50

No, I think it is not bad for young people.

Submitted by Elife on Mon, 02/10/2020 - 23:20

In my opinion, the internet is very important because we are use the internet in several ways to satisfy different needs, for example to the students in the schools are online; for that reason I believe that it's an indispensable tool for learning.

Submitted by Aaron on Mon, 12/09/2019 - 07:05

Networks or internet is the modern technology of people today, with both positive and negative that have a significant impact on development on human civilization. Nowadays, people are using the networks for a lot of purpose. For instance, Rearch information on the internet, playing game, or reading newspapers,... all of is using the internet. Students can do research information for their schoolwork or learning something available helps to wide us knowledge and improve another skills. On the other hand, there are also ecildoing. Some people take advantage of the useful social net works to do bad things. Such as the hacker steals person's personal information. And several teeagers addicted to waste too much times to play online game. Finally, in my opinion, we have to learn how can you be more intentional about how you are spending your time? And using social media effcetively.

Submitted by buzonete on Mon, 09/02/2019 - 15:14

Undoubtedly, internet is a technology that is here to stay, with their pros and cons. Nowadays, people are using the internet in several ways to satisfy different needs such as finding a job, communicating with others or accessing education. On the other hand, internet also allows another kind of misbehavior: crime, bullying, spying, ... Another drawback is the capacity of internet to produce addition in some people, whom waste hours and hours connected to it. To sum up, internet has its advantages but also their dangers. Personally I think that we can use internet but everybody should be careful of how to use it.

Submitted by Thu on Fri, 08/09/2019 - 07:57

Internet sometimes is helpful but sometimes is harmful. It's useful for students, like me. If I want to know something, so I need help from the Internet. But on the other hand, from someone who doesn't have the care of parents, they will do whatever they want. In general, this is a question with no exact answer. : )

Submitted by Luna11 on Mon, 01/28/2019 - 09:19

In this modern world, it's hard to imagine things without the internet. There are over 7billion people on this planet, still using the internet daily, making money with it, and some of them made checking their phone into their daily routine. In my own perspective, it's not completely bad for us. It's the 21st century that people are meeting one another by the internet from distance. Secondly, it provides teenagers with tons of information from all sides. And finally, of course, our beloved social media which helps us to communicate, to meet people of different kinds, and the worse-gossip. While there are many good sides, there are also its downsides. For example, the life we had before, the one we had happiness, the one we had opportunities to fall in love at first sight, the world where we would live without stress, bad things has gone completely. We don't know what will happen in the further times, but we do know that we shouldn't overuse it.
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Submitted by Youjiro on Mon, 01/21/2019 - 13:26

Internet is useful for a students .Usage of Internet is search something and find out what is the problem . Advantage of using internet is fast and eazy . I use internet when I forget something and search homework problems . It is most eaziest way. Disadvantage is that some web site is poor information and not correct information. Some web site is personality site ,witch site is sometime not true . To sum up ,Using internet is fast option searching knowledge or problems . Google show me answer . I use internet learning English like this web site . Some web site is good to learn English .

Submitted by ovej321 (not verified) on Thu, 09/20/2018 - 10:02

It would really be too naive whether we expect the young generations not to use the Internet. On the one hand, this tool can help youngsters find answers to many questions or improve their skills in any field they choose. Nonetheless, a filter must be set to thwart them from sensitive web content or facilities to try plagiarism. In the end, parents and tutors ought to insist on a conscious education with everything related to virtual information access.

Submitted by Edi16082002 on Wed, 05/30/2018 - 15:13

Personally, I think that "internet" is necessary for doing some schoolwork or homework because, we need to add more information, it must be from different points of view and in this way, we will be able to make a perfect homework . However there're disadvantages, For example : The addiction to some video games could be bad for the students teenagers.
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Submitted by Nionn07 on Tue, 05/29/2018 - 15:53

06 According to the text, it can be said that internet is a form for informate about all happening around the world. Although it have many benefits, also have a disadvantages like the addiction to online game, it is affecting about all to the young of this generation. This is a big problem and I agree that in the text mentioned this points. But internet is very important for my life >:U...

Submitted by MelanyHA on Tue, 05/29/2018 - 15:46

The Internet is a very important tool for society, since it helps us in parallel in communication and learning. Nowadays, all the activities that are given for example to the students in the schools are online; for that reason I believe that it's an indispensable tool for learning. Similarly, I consider that each person is aware of their actions and it's depend of each teenager if they will use this resource to study or play. Personally I consider the internet isn't bad for teenagers, you just have to know how to use it and take advantage of its facilities to the fullest. :)
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