There is no question in my mind that the internet has both increased and decreased the personal freedoms and changed the behaviors of almost everyone in the world.

To me, the real issue is getting people to understand that with any technology there are benefits/conveniences, and there are costs/risks. It is really easy to see the benefits of technologies such as the Internet and its myriad of killer apps (email, web pages, search, SNS, etc etc etc), all the more so because that is what the marketers and champions of those technologies want us to see. But just like driving a car, we have to realize that with the convenience comes a risk. As the classic saying goes, the only completely safe computer is one that is in a locked room, disconnected from the Internet, and turned off...

That is not to say of course that we should let the fear of the risks prevent us from adopting the conveniences! The important thing is awareness - that connecting to the Internet does expose us to the possibility of being attacked, that using email means getting spam from time to time, that using e-commerce means sacrificing some privacy and increasing the possibility of identify theft.

As for me personally, I would definitely say that the Internet has made me a bit more careful about what I do or say in 'real life'. Sure, in the days before the Internet, people could spread the damaging rumors in any number of ways, but the Internet has made it possible to do on a much larger scale and much faster. But I think that the main dangers to our safety and our reputations are not so much changed from the days of pre-internet. In the end it is about awareness, and understanding the implications of giving away personal information or making a derogatory comment about someone by name, whether it be to a possible con-artist on the street or to a possibly malicious SNS on the internet.
Source(s):
I taught a class on "computer literacy" for several years where I tried to convey the message of "convenience versus risk" of computers and the internet to the students.

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