Words are everywhere. They're floating around our newsfeeds, our emails, our texts. If there is one thing the internet hasn't seemingly ruined for our society, it is our ability to communicate with written words. If anything, it has strengthened this aspect of our humanity. Damaged the capacity we once had to verbally voice our opinions and feelings? Absolutely. Encouraged passiveness and diminished the need for a face-to-face interaction? Of course. But nonetheless, the art of writing, better worded as the need for our thoughts to be put into characters, has seemed to grow with our technological advances.

These words have had no trouble finding their home database here on this technology savvy planet. Be it long Facebook posts, blogs from Wordpress, articles from the Odyssey or BuzzFeed, or opinion pieces from any other news outlet, internet writers across the country can easily find places to sort their ideas and express their voice.

And, while this seems like such a glorious progression of writing and that the writers of our pastime would be so proud of the ability we have to share our knowledge, the danger lies in the time it takes to actually do this. Not very much. Accessing the internet is easy, and logging into an account to address the world is even easier. We as writers write what we feel, often while we feel it, and as many wise people before us have warned - feelings are temporary. So we spout out advice before we've even had time to see it's outcome. Before we even know the consequences of the actions.

So I'm here today to heed you a warning: don't do it because the article says so.

Don't validate your feelings or the way you want to act because of some beautiful strand of words that have been pieced together and polished with the touches of matured rhetoric and emotion. Don't get back together with your ex because some girl did and wrote about how glorious it was. Don't share the article bashing your old best friend because someone else had the gall to do so on the Internet. Don't blow your money on a last minute trip you can't afford because you should "live in the moment" and being "young and reckless" sounds fun. Don't "let go of your love" because some article gave you 10 sure fire signs that your flame had burnt out, and don't stay with someone because another article said you were destined for matrimony.

These articles are written to draw your attention- these articles are written to evoke your feelings. But, that doesn't mean they're always right. It doesn't mean it's always what's best for you. It doesn't even mean it was what was best for the person writing it.

Your situation is unique even if the way you feel about it isn't. Take the lowest tier English class or public speaking course, and you'll learn pretty quickly that, when it comes to opinions and statements, finding supporting evidence is easy. Finding credible evidence, on the other hand, is not. There will always be someone out there who agrees with you, but sometimes the best words come from those people that don't. They come from the people that challenge you to separate what you feel from the situation. They encourage you to act against your instinct.

So who's to say that these challenging words are more right than the other words that are telling you what you want to hear? I don't know, probably not me considering I've read plenty of the articles I'm talking about. I've shared them, I've rejoiced in them, and I've even written a few. I can say now, though, that I understand the difference between inspiration and reality. Those articles always made me feel good, but they didn't always know what was best. Those articles weren't there when I acted on the way I felt, and it went disastrously wrong. These articles are floating around the internet, which if you sit down and think about it, is some really weird place that is some how real but doesn't actually exist in a location. They don't know life. Sure, they were written by people that do, but who's to say that their life is in any way comparable to yours?

So make decisions based off of what YOU know and desire. Off of what YOU want. Do things because you've taken the time to think about them and their repercussions, not because some article got you in your feels.