Really think for a moment; in your hands you not only have the power to find all of the information ever recorded, but also the power to communicate with any person, see any place, and do pretty much anything.
In case you didn't realize yet, these are just the broad ideas of the things you can and have been able to do with the internet, with social media, for almost decades now. You don't really stop and think about how inexplicably astounding it is to be able to instantly message someone halfway around the world, or how insane it is that we can look up a person from history, and have their whole life story laid out in front of us in a matter of seconds.
You'd think this would make every individual a genius, but it doesn't. You'd also think that it would make some sort of world peace, but it doesn't. Nor does it extinguish poverty, cure cancer, or fix the environment. It should, but it doesn't.
Instead, we live in a time where we have the tools to do everything, and yet, many days we use them to do nothing.
We are more inclined towards giving a like or retweet to a cause we "support" rather than actually do anything to support said cause. We talk about people we disagree with without even putting in the work to find out why that person thinks the way they do. We blindly accept the news as it is presented to us online or offline, and then wonder later why we didn't hear about something important happening in the world.
We have become numb to the immense capabilities of technology, and in this numbness, it can be easy to feel powerless. Although we have the means to obtain all the information in the world, to communicate with every person at any time of day, it is incredibly easy to feel overwhelmed by all the possibilities.
We see all the information we do not know, and we feel stupid. We see all the people doing better than us, and we feel worthless. We see the places we haven't been, the things we haven't done, and suddenly a world of opportunity becomes an ever present reminder of everything we're missing.
Discouraged, we disappear into the anonymity and comfort of mere surface level interactions with these tools we have to do everything.
We like profile pictures, we look up how to spell "definitely," for the sixth time. We retweet our friend's jokes and opinions, we order clothes and message family. All important things, but in the infinite possibilities of what our technology could bring us- we do practically nothing.
And we continue to do nothing, simply because we have been convinced that we're supposed to do everything, and as such, we don't even try to do something.
Like any art form, the art of doing nothing must be carefully practiced in order to reach perfection. But also like any art form, you have the choice of whether or not you want to practice it in the first place.
While you have the tools to do anything, it is impossible to do everything. But that doesn't mean you can't do something, and it certainly doesn't mean you should do nothing. Start that project, really support that cause. Do the thing you've always wanted to do.
It is incredibly easy to become overwhelmed, and so we all need a reminder that everyone can do something to better ourselves, the people we love, the world around us, because we live in a time where we have the tools to do everything, and there is no excuse to be doing nothing.
