Neha Rajesh
19/UPHA/042
Congratulations everyone! Today we’ve gathered to celebrate our latest success as a species. Since the invention of the World Wide Web three decades ago, we have strived hard and fast, pulled out all the stops, exercised every bit of our brainpower and muscle, pushed heaven and earth together, connected almost 4.8 billion people on earth through the internet, made shopping for everything- from groceries to bitcoins- easily available online, created new jobs, made banking from home a reality, made business smooth and easy for a global consumer base, made filing petitions to correct social wrongs as easy as opening a link and clicking on a checkbox, created a platform for artists and influencers to interact with the public, made donation-funds and social issues reach a wider audience, brought out hot topics like animal rights and invisible exploitation to the public eye, made knowledge accessible to anyone who seeks it without geographical or social constraints coming in the way, and thus made research and surveys simpler.
Apart from this we’ve also disproved heliocentrism, tried to find a cure for corona-virus in ginger and garlic, argued that earth is flat, scammed gullible people by offering jackpots and luxury cars, spread fake news without checking sources, successfully targeted anyone who has opposed our opinions, bullied others for the slightest of mistake, used cancel culture to destroy people’s reputation instead of letting the law takes its course, found everyone who had a different view offensive and called them out passive-aggressively over Instagram stories...
Let me take a breather--
…let media houses exploit us for their ad currencies, let them spread propaganda packaged as news, accepted propaganda as news, used the news to spread further hate and misinformation, reached a point where there is no real distinction between news and propaganda, lamented about bringing change to some society thousands of miles away (Amazon fires, Black Lives Matter) while ignoring existing problems in our own society, put people into boxes for having particular viewpoints, separated those boxes such that no healthy debate can happen anymore, been worried about problems on social media instead of taming the fire in the real world, tried to find comfort in virtual spaces under a mask of anonymity instead of facing and solving problems in our real personal lives, literally divided people into morally right and immoral based on which side of political spectrum we stand on, forgotten that people can actually help society by volunteering instead of just rattling on about social issues over tweets and stories with no follow-up actions, made the virtual world so toxic that it hurts to even open our eyes to others’ perspectives, forgotten that everyone is ultimately human, and finally, made the concept of "privacy" go extinct- exposing people to hackers, viruses and terrorists.
Congratulations once again. Despite all the good things, we have managed to not only pollute the real world, but also cyberspace. If only humans were provided with more compassion and thinking capacity. I mean, going by the studies, aren’t we considered the most intelligent beings on the planet? But as history shows us, we always manage to outdo ourselves, be it technology, literature, toxicity...oops! If only we knew how to learn from the past and undo possible future mistakes.
Anyway, let me guess, is Mars next on our list?
Love this article! Cyber pollution is indeed real and threatening.