The Whole World in Our Hands

Whether online or in real life, the talk of the internet always seems to be about young people and The Evils of Social Media. News stories are painting teens as helpless and lazy, we are controlled by this invisible infinite space made from 0’s and 1’s, we are drones of this new age of technology. I always feel like yelling, “Ugh they don’t understand!” and slamming an imaginary door. Although there are countless times when I can find myself scrolling through my Instagram feed thinking, "why does this celebrity’s mirror selfie of her butt make me feel weird about myself?? Maybe I should be studying instead of stalking @hotdudesreading…. "Social media has been a big positive force in my life. It’s where I’ve met so many amazing friends whom which I share so many interests when I felt isolated to the people in my offline world.

It has helped me develop my own opinions and made me so much more aware of the world around me. If I were not another teen obsessed with the internet, this article would have never been written. I feel like I learn more from the internet and social media than I do in school. The education system rarely touches in concepts like feminism, racial discrimination, cultural appropriation and more. I live in Bangkok, Thailand in a community which is predominantly, Asian. Some of my closest friends are from other places, but other than that, I’ve never had much exposure to other races,religion, and lifestyles. There are people I know who ace every exam and get the best results, but yet they know hardly anything about what happens in the outside world. They know only what school has taught them and what the people who raised them think they need to know. Because of the internet, I have access an immense amount of knowledge instantaneously at my fingertips; I can easily read about important, pressing matters that aren’t discussed in the classroom and see what other people have to say. I was born in 2001 so all my life, I’ve relied on the internet and I can’t imagine how I’d be without it. I wouldn’t be able to live with not being able to search up lyrics from that rap song, find the actress in that movie I can never remember the name of or Google someone I’ve just met and stalk all their social media accounts. This isn’t a good thing. Now I expect access to everything,24/7, and I get frustrated when I can’t have it. Almost everything in my life relies on the internet. I can’t do my homework without it, all the songs I listen to on my phone are MP3s I’ve gotten from Youtube, my purse was bought online, so was my dresser and my dress I’m wearing right now. The internet is a tool that can abused but that is of course, the user’s choice. Ultimately, I’ve benefited more from the opportunities, friendships and knowledge that I’ve gained from the internet than if I was complete free from it. With any device and an internet connection, the whole world in is the palm of your hands.