The Internet. A fountain of pure, refreshing, up-to-date knowledge. Who believes that anymore? There are two complementary “services” that have an extremely corrupt history: the Internet and social media. However, my opinion is that social media and the Internet bring people together because they are used across the world, have diverse communities, and encourage sharing knowledge and experiences. Although some people may criticize the open-source, corruptible nature of the Internet, this is why it can universally bring people together. People contribute, access other works, and meet others, all through the Internet and social media.
Social media and the Internet are used across the world. Here’s an example: Facebook is the most popular social media platform, with 2.498 billion total users. Only 2 countries: China and Iran, have banned the platform. This means that although 7.75 billion people across the world have access to the Internet, only 2 countries out of the countless that use social media have banned it. According to a school survey that a group of students at my school conducted, over ⅞ of the 1200 student population of my school uses social media. That’s 1050 students! Moreover, all but one of my friends have phones, and all but one of those who have one have one or more social media apps on them! To extend on this vast scale, GlobalWebIndex reports that the average person spends 2 hours and 24 minutes per day on social media.
Social Media and the Internet have diverse communities. YouTube, a video streaming network, is the most visited site on the Internet. It has users from every region of the world. Perhaps more applicable to some users is Wikipedia. Wikipedia, often the first resource on the results page when you search a question, is often contributed to by people of all different backgrounds, ethnicities, and citizenships. To give a more personal example, many of my friends who use social media have friends across the world, and several of them have friends in countries where things are different cultures. This bridges cultural gaps and increases friendly relationships. I myself often browse YouTube, and I have found myself enjoying content created by people who live on the opposite side of the Equator, and people who live differently from me.
Social Media and the Internet encourage sharing knowledge and experiences. A platform like Wikipedia, which allows people to describe or define experiences or concepts in any way, could be very easily corrupted. Due to the nature of the platform, my teachers never allow us to use Wikipedia, since they believe that information could be false. However, to this day, despite the mistrust surrounding Wikipedia, most of the facts on the encyclopedic site remain true and pure. For those who don’t agree with me on Wikipedia, you might at least reach a consensus with my opinion when it comes to visual digital content. There are multiple sites that stream this type of content, but two of them are: Youtube and Tiktok. Sites like Youtube and TikTok encourage users to upload videos of their experiences or activities. Any user can share their life with someone else, and many people enjoy this! 3 of my friends upload YouTube videos weekly, and I even have a channel that allows me to share a bit of my life with others. My friends do this because they like sharing with others.
Although the social media and the Internet have a history of scams, illegal sites, and bad actors, they are still amazing platforms for bringing people together. Social media and the Internet bring people together because of three reasons: they are used across the world, they have diverse communities, and they encourage sharing knowledge and experience. If you do not see the good in Internet, you should see that the Internet is this great resource, this great platform. The Internet is a bridge between all worlds, a connector for all pieces, a tool for all people. Try seeing the good over the bad in this amazing platform.
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