Some Thinking of the World Around Me

Today, we live in a fast-changing and unprecedented world that is bursting with ideas, new technologies, medias, etc. The entire globe is connected in an unimagined vast web and everybody is linked with each other. But this modern world has its own problems, it has its own limitations, and its own crises. 

Picture Citation:“互联网”blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_15e11e1640102w9go.html. Accessed on Sep 18th, 2019.

Firstly, I will like to address that the internet can be a real issue. Since the invention of this new concept in 1991, internet technology has developed quickly in a few decades. Yet, as this technology developed, we are ignoring some of the most fundamental things about humanity and about ourselves. One particular aspect is communicating with each other. In the past, without modern amenities, we are more likely to communicate face to face with our family members, our friends, and other people related or unrelated to us. This is good quality communication, we are conveying our thoughts to them, and they are conveying their thoughts to us. We can see each other's expressions, feel their emotions, and to really engage in the experience of face-to-face talks. However, today, we are more likely to communicate with each other on the internet. Sending a text on WeChat or through emailing is indeed faster than before. But we are ignoring the “quality time” that belongs to all of us. If we send what we want to voice our opinions on a matter through social medias, then how can others really hear what we are talking about? How can they hear our strong emotions, how can they view our gestures, how can they really perceive what we really want to say? In a family, if one family members is obsessed with the internet, then how can another member communicate with him or her when he or she is facing a problem? How can children get a chance to tell their adult parents what they really want? If we really crave good quality talks, then I believe we should put down our electronic devices for a moment and talk to them directly. 

Picture Citation:“快节奏”http://tuchong.com/359478/12808851/#image27085413. Accessed on Sep 18th, 2019.

Secondly, I think that this world is just spinning too fast, too fast to even slow it down. Let’s address the problem of today’s children. In the past, I believe that children and teenagers have more time to enjoy life than now. In the past, they had plenty of time to play in the wild, to chat with other peers, and to enjoy life to the fullest. Today, at least in China as I observe, nearly all children and teenagers will study 7 hours a day at the least. The purpose of this crazy studying is to gear up for fiercer competitions in the workplace. But, many parents, schools, and corporations are too focused on learning or competing, and forget that we come to this world not only to study, but also to enjoy life. Life is composed not only of studying and competing, it is also for playing in the mud in a hot summer morning, it is also for laughing together with your friends, it is also for enjoying the smell of flowers blossoming in spring. If we ignore the other facets of life except for studying, then I think we lose most of the principle of life. If we lose the principle of life, what is the exact meaning to live?

Finally, we are putting too much strain on this very world. Since the Industrial and Scientific Revolution, humanity has begun to quickly exploit the resources on this world. Many people worry about the shortages of resources in the future, but that is not the chief concern tome. My biggest worry is that all of the chemical wastes, pollutions, and trashes that we have created will pay us back in a tragic outcome. We are never content; we always want more. Look at the number of factories working in this world. Look at our GDP and see how many things we create each year. It is a lot and we are increasing the number, but we are constantly unaware that we are damaging the ecosystem around us, we are damaging our atmosphere, we are damaging our world. In this regard we can count ourselves selfish, and if we continue to let our selfishness ravage havoc, then we will unfortunately have to either leave this world that we inhabit for millions of years or to face extinction our own. We do not have the power to contend with nature yet, a single enormous earthquake can destroy an entire city, a sudden volcanic eruption of Yellowstone National Park will obliterate parts of the U.S. If we don’t stop our actions now, something far more catastrophic will occur and we might face a dead end.

 To conclude, these are just three thoughts that I have on this world. If we really want to solve the problems of the internet, of the speed that our world is currently spinning, and of the survival of this fragile Earth, then we need to look inside into the depth of humanity and look outside to the world around us.