Using the Internet for Good
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how the internet has changed the world. It has changed our human existence in many ways, both good and bad. Today, I thought I’d focus on the good.
With the internet, we have never been able to share more information with each other so quickly before. We can share our knowledge, successes, failures, what’s working, what isn’t. The “world-wide-web” as it was often called in the beginning is indeed a complex web of human knowledge. We can share and inspire each other to do better, to be better. Together we can learn better ways to grow food more sustainably, and how to garden with nature in mind with native plants in a more hands-off way to let nature do what she does best. We can learn to reuse our waste just as mother nature does, recycling it eternally in the perfect circle of life.
We already know how to build passive-solar structures and climate battery-powered buildings so that we can rely less on the polluting and expensive fossil fuels to heat our homes, so why aren’t we doing it? I suppose I need to be patient, as change takes time.
But I keep thinking… Can we preserve and conserve the historic, well-built homes and buildings that were already built? Can we start to limit our population boom, and focus on taking care of all the children and adults that are already here so we don’t HAVE to build more housing and grow so much more food? Can we spread the word to women that you can be happy without having kids, that it is completely ok NOT to have children? Can we adopt or foster all of the kids in need, and help educate and get everyone in our overcrowded, struggling cities on their feet?
We can spread news about anything and everything in just minutes. The internet has created a hive of human knowledge. So the question is, how can we use it to spread knowledge and good? How can we make our world a better place?
Can we build better, longer-lasting products and machines? One question I have is why we were able to build better car batteries and furnaces back in the 60s-80s that would last longer than those built today? Why do our car batteries only last 2-3 years now on average, compared to the 5-7 year average we were used to just a couple decades ago?
Why do we accept and support companies building things that are not built to last? Why do we not use our combined knowledge now to build a furnace to last a 50+ years, or build longer-lasting car batteries? Money is often the answer, as we are building everything more cheaply, using lesser quality materials to cut down on the cost. But isn’t it more costly to the consumers and the environment in the long run when we constantly have to throw away and replace everything? Can we use the internet to spread the word that we want quality, well-built products that will last? Can we stop our non-stop consumerism and focus taking care of what we already have, using online videos to learn how to fix things, such as fixing a broken dishwasher door handle instead of buying a new one?
Can we use the internet to reduce commuting so that more people can live and work from home? The pandemic has certainly reshaped our views of commuting to jobs that could easily be done from home.
Can we share more through services like tool libraries (like a book library, but with tools), so that we don’t all have to have our own set? Can we protect our green spaces, and save some of the earth to allow mother nature to be in her full, untouched glory? Can we farm more sustainably to build our soils instead of depleting them?
Can we use probiotics instead of antibiotics to treat our ailments with life? Can we stop worshipping money as the end-all, be-all reason, and instead turn our energy to making the world better?
With the internet, we can.
I think we’re on a brink of a new era of information and knowledge. For now, it seems daunting, and of course, along with the good, a lot of bad information or misinformation is spread via the internet, and there is a LOT of distraction. But, we can keep working and using the internet for good to keep sharing our knowledge and improving the world as we know it. Time will reveal how wonderful this hive of human knowledge can become. Now maybe we just need a queen bee to lead the way. 😉
