Before the internet, life was quite simple, though perhaps a bit less convenient. You’d keep in touch with your friends and family through letters in the mail or by calling them on your landline telephone. This technology alone revolutionized communication: being able to instantly communicate with someone hundreds or thousands of miles away with your voice—imagine that! If you needed news, you’d read a newspaper, or perhaps watch the TV. It was hard to imagine a more advanced society—just look at how old TV programs featuring “futuristic” settings portrayed the world! There was no way to foresee the advent of the internet.
Eventually, we invented computers. It became possible to play games or write papers or do accounting on a computer, saving countless hours. This was truly revolutionary. You may have thought to yourself, “How could it possibly get any better?” This was truly the future, the pinnacle of technology!
Until it wasn’t.
The internet was proved out in its infancy as a way for universities, companies, and the military to share their data. The entire internet and every device on it could be drawn on a single map. Eventually, however, it became a little more widespread. Now, if you had the money and the computer, you, too, could connect to the internet. As this progressed, soon everyone was on the internet. You could send your friends letters using electronic mail (or “e-mail” for short). It was just like real mail, only much faster! You could share files, images, and chat with other users—it was truly a revolutionary thing!
The internet has evolved into a massive wealth of knowledge and is used by billions of people every day[citation needed]. There is a website for everything. You can use Wikipedia to learn about anything you want or to share information with others. You can use YouTube to watch videos of cats. If you want to chat with other people or share your ideas, there are internet chat rooms and social media sites for that. We live in a truly wonderful age where everything is global and we can share our stories, experience other cultures, and make new friends all at the click of a button or the tap of a screen. In fact, there is a very good chance that you, the reader, are not from the same country as me, do not speak the same languages as I do, and you may not even know me personally at all!
While the internet certainly has evolved into an incredible way to share information and make friends, it has also opened new doors which are particularly harmful to humans. Previously, those with ugly, hateful views would be shunned and ignored. Now, those people can find each other, group up, and create a platform for themselves to spread hate wherever they go. It is also easy for users online to argue with each other and be far more toxic than they ever would in real life, all because they are anonymized by the internet. People can spread misinformation far easier than every before. The internet is truly a cesspit of hate, toxicity, and negativity.
However, I don’t think it’s too late to do something about this! I think we can all do our part to make the internet a great place to be. Services like GitHub, YouTube, Twitter, and Discord can be (and are!) used to spread positivity, share knowledge and information, and encourage creativity. The internet has also made it easier than ever to find, promote, and donate to charities to help those in need.
Next time you find yourself being drawn to an argument online or watching a negative video, consider clicking away or trying to remain positive rather than arguing. A positive attitude can be infectious! If we all start to do this more, the internet can become a truly wonderful place once again. Emailing your friends is a fun way to keep in touch with one another and feels much more “personal” than using a chat service, so consider giving that a try as well! There is so much more to the internet than the negativity we always see and hear around us. We should all work together to make the internet a better and more constructive place for everyone so that it can be the wonderful thing the creators and early users envisioned it being.
If you would like to make someone else’s day just a little brighter, consider donating to To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) or War Child! It’s now easier than ever before to donate to such wonderful causes, so if you have a few bucks to spare, consider giving it to those who need it. Every little bit helps!