August 23, 2016 marked the 27th anniversary of the launch of the world wide web. Both information and technology have been exponentially growing ever since and with it, a great power that is being used by the masses. We are connected to each other and to the world through devices most of us carry in our pockets and purses. This access to knowledge and information is unprecedented in the history of humanity and it's growing so fast that we lose sight of its power and what we can do with it. Ignorance and silence have been deliberate tools of powerful and corrupt people; oppression and injustice are much more difficult to achieve when those that are being oppressed are aware of it, talking about it and joining forces with others who seek to stop it. This is the power of the internet: it allows us to connect to each other and to spread knowledge and truth so that action can be taken.
Before the internet, education and access to information were only reserved for the privileged. While the internet is still not available to everyone, it is a source of connection and information available to a large majority of people in our country: 84.2% of Americans use the internet. A majority of our people can have a voice that is shared and access to information so that we may learn regardless of our circumstances. Power and oppression work through silence, complicity, ignorance, and control. The Internet has provided us with a way to break the silence through sharing our stories, it gives us the resources so that we know how to take action and it has made available information through which we can educate and empower ourselves and each other.
The amount of negativity and violence that appear in our news feed on a daily basis is overwhelming and depressing. Much of us would rather spend our time reading feel-good stories and seeing funny videos rather than focus on the problems of everyone else. Reading about and understanding that these problems exist creates fear and uncertainty because, when the world isn't working like we believe it should, we lose our sense of safety and control. We become scared because when we know about how much bad is out there, but the truth is, the bad has always been there. It's difficult to believe that we live in comparatively safer times when we see violent crimes scroll past our newsfeed, but violent crimes are much lower in our country than they were in the 80s when the internet was born — we just only knew of them when they were sensational enough to make the nightly news, now they are instantly shared with the tap of a button.
We need to be aware of this power and know to not be overwhelmed by the information it brings us. While it is exhausting watching countless tragedies unfold, it is more exhausting to endure them. The first step in helping solve problems and preventing tragedy is to understand that they exist which allows us to learn how to fix them. It's easier to keep scrolling and ignore negativity, but being willfully ignorant helps negativity and oppression thrive because they cannot be removed without the awareness that they exist. Things are not getting worse, they are simply getting revealed. Now that we are receiving information alongside the knowledge of the problems our world faces, we are also receiving the power to solve them.
