Internet culture is creating and amalgamating human interaction on a virtual platform. The bane of existence for some and a haven for others. Today I am going to talk about internet culture from my point of view, a graduating senior high school student who was born with the internet.
To start the internet brings out horrible sides of people, it allows those without the courage to speak their minds and gives people with extreme viewpoints a platform to find other people with the same views and create an echo chamber. Echo chambers lead to even more radicalized ideas, which then lead to extremists. The internet creates an ideal habitat for radicalization and crazed ideas. It is an ongoing problem that many people are well aware of, a common example of it would be the website 4chan, known for its crazy groupies and radical clicks.
On the other hand, the internet can be a place of scrutiny and hatred, you can judge someone way easier on the internet for the same reason you can find crazy ideas on the internet. It gives courage to speak however you want, thus causing a lot of malice from usually nice people. Anyone can say anything and anyone can post anything. This is a bad combo in my opinion and leads to a lot of tragic stories of bullying and sometimes even self-harm and suicide. There are two very big points you have to look at when looking at internet culture as a whole because many only want to focus on the positives of the internet. This is what I am going to talk about next, but make sure to internalize what I have just said as many don’t.
Now to talk about the positives of internet culture. The things I am most used to as someone on the internet are friends, community and knowledge. The amazing and awful things i have learned on the internet, the friends I have made from the internet, and the sense of community I feel with these people. The internet serves as a great place socially. All the reasons I gave as to why the internet is bad are the same reasons I would give to argue the internet is good. The friends with similar viewpoints, the cool friendly people saying positive things, and the intuitive websites that help you meet people like you. I have met a lot of friends online, learned a lot of lessons and gained a lot of joy from the internet. It serves as a port of communication that erases distance and differences. It also serves as the perfect medium for people to socialize and have a good time.
These are some reasons why I believe the internet is both an amazing yet scary place. The culture that surrounds it is like a jungle, full of many different things good and evil, but coexisting all the same. Take it how you will but to me, the internet is what you make of it, and the culture is what you make of it. It is a malleable medium to express yourself and find other opposites or the same. At the end of the day, if you have a good time then maybe it’s for you, and if you don’t, there is always the real world, which is just as amazing.