Final Draft of Writing Prompt 3

The Internet as a Tool for Students

Students are the future of society, and it is important that we provide them with the right tools to make the future great. Children have amazing imaginations and are able to put their dreams into actions with the help of the internet and new technology. The internet is a fast and efficient way for students and children to put their plans into motion. They are able to search for any topic or research project on a vast variety of databases and learn about whatever interests them. Students are also able to communicate with many different sources instantly through text, email, and video chat. The internet also gives students a way to make their new ideas known. They are able to start from scratch with a small idea and make that idea grow larger with the help of the internet. Students are able to pursue whatever they please if they focus their mind on making the world a better place. The internet provides students with a tool for learning and pursuing their life purpose.

The internet can essentially help people create something out of nothing and get students started on pursuing their purposes. Students are able to generate new ideas, connect and synthesize those ideas, and then use those ideas to make the world better. If a student has an idea they can use the internet to research that idea, communicate with others about that idea, and then create a following behind that idea. In Wasik’s article, “My Crowd Experiment: The Mob Project,” he comes up with an idea and implements it and it grows immensely because of the internet and digital technology. Wasik states, “I could use e-mail to gather an audience for a show … the e-mail would be straightforward about exactly what people would see, namely nothing but themselves, coming together for no reason at all … a promise to create something out of nothing.” (475-476). He gathered a large group of people and was able to create an event and a following out of nothing. Every single invention or perspective starts somewhere and the internet makes the process faster. Students can use this idea to gain confidence that anything is possible when using the internet as a tool. Even the smallest idea can grow into something huge. Scientist and philosophers were able to come up with new ideas and make them well known before the internet came to be, but now that we have the internet we should use it to our advantage. In Sam Anderson’s article, “In Defense of Distraction,”, he touches on how people from a time before the internet would be doing even more amazing things now. “If Einstein and Lennon were growing up today. Their natural genius might be so pumped up on the possibilities of the new technology they’d be doing even more dazzling things… the Beatles would make the best viral videos of all time.” (12). Students should use the internet to their advantage and know that it is possible to create great ideas by starting from scratch with technology as an aid.

Students are able to explore and learn more when provided with instant accessibility to information through the use of the internet. Sugata Mitra talks about the benefits of technology when used in safe environments in his article, “The Internet Can Harm, but Can Also be a Child’s Best Tool for Learning.” Mitra states “Groups of children can learn almost anything by themselves, using the internet. Children who access the internet from such safe, self-organized learning environments gain immensely over ones who don’t.” (1) Students are allowed to explore their interests online instantly by just typing into a search bar or asking a device a question. If we teach children how to use the seemingly unlimited archived information on the internet correctly then they will be able to learn as much as possible. Children’s brains are like sponges and will absorb much of the information given to them. The internet provides them with a tool to explore so much documented information and learn as much as possible. As long as adults and educators are able to monitor and teach children the correct way to use the internet, for research and leisure, children will be able to “learn to read sooner and better, gain in self-confidence and retain what they have researched for much longer than that gained through traditional rote learning.” (Mitra 1). Students benefit from the internet when used as a tool to learn and are able to gain information from credible sources.  

One of the many ways the internet can be used as a tool for students learning is by enabling them to communicate and spread their ideas. With so many different ways to share information, students can share their ideas with a much larger audience. All they have to do is post a link to a website or send an email that explains their experiment, project, or new idea and all of their followers will then have access to it. In Bill Wasik’s article he explains how he used the internet to get hundreds of people to show up at an event by sending an email. Some of those people didn’t even know him personally, but he was still able to reach out to many people with a click of a button. Wasik explains how the internet can be used to communicate by stating, “Yes, the Internet allows us to communicate instantaneously with others around the world … [and] allows us to find others with similar interests and chat among ourselves.” (480). Students are able to use this to their advantage to learn more about an interesting topic or tell people about their own research or experiment. Students can talk to people who have done something similar to what they’re interested in. They can tell their peers about their opinions or ideas so that they can learn. They can also receive feedback from others who have experienced the event they are conducting. Overall, the internet is a great tool for communicating with others and spreading ideas.

The internet gives people an easy way to gain followers and create a bandwagon effect, which influences how students are able to spread their ideas and learn from other students. The bandwagon effect happens when people choose to follow an idea or an act because they don’t want to miss out or feel left behind. Wasik describes it as “the instinctive tendency of the human animal to rely on the actions of others in choosing its own course of action.” (482) The idea of the bandwagon effect can help students gain momentum on spreading their ideas about pursuing their life’s purpose. Students can use the internet to make their ideas well known and the more people that know about those ideas the more they will spread. If something is of interest to a group of people, those people will tell others to join their course of action or their “bandwagon”. Students can learn about things from people across the globe that they might not otherwise be able to without the use of the internet. The internet shows its users the most popular topic at the time and students can use this to their advantage to spread their ideas and do good in society. If students are able to make their ideas heard it will become popular and then they could eventually create a bandwagon effect. Through the bandwagon effect other students could learn about these student’s ideas and ways to make the world a better place.

Many adults say the internet is more of a distraction to young people and students rather than a tool they can use to learn. Technology can make it harder for people to focus their attention with all of the crawlers on television screens and notifications popping up on cell phones. Sam Anderson talks about the many ways that attention can be averted in his article, “In Defense of Distraction.” He researches multitasking and attention by talking to some experts on the topics, but also mentions how he becomes distracted during these conversations. “As Meyer and I talk, the universe tests us with a small battery of distractions. A maximum-volume fleet of emergency vehicles passes… my phone chirps to tell us that my mother is calling… then beeps again…” (3) Some of these distractions are related to technology while some are not, but it proves that humans are easily distracted. Anderson mentions a conversation with Winifred Gallagher, who enjoys focusing on a task and feels that focusing can be used in a muscular way, “It made her realize, she says, that attention was ‘not just a latent ability, it was something you could marshal and use as a tool.’” (6) If students are able to think about focus in this way and use this tool along with the internet they will become more productive and be able to learn faster. Students, and adults as well, can learn to use their attention and focus as a muscle and will become less easily distracted.

The benefits for students using technology and the internet as a tool can outweigh the negative effects if they are able to combat distractions effectively. Students benefit from the use of the internet by having access to a variety of archived information, having the ability to communicate with anyone in the world, and by being able to spread their ideas to create a bandwagon effect. To overcome being distracted by all the possibilities of the internet and technology students can learn to use meditation to become more focused. Winifred Gallagher, in Anderson’s article, talks about how Buddhist monks have been shown to have great attentional discipline and be able to handle more information that those who do not practice meditation. “Meditation can make your attention less ‘sticky,’ able to notice images flashing by in such quick succession that regular brains would miss them.” (6) Students and adults should practice meditation to combat distractions to get the most out of using technology for their benefit of pursuing their purpose in life. Meditating can also make people happier which makes them more attentive. Meditation is just one of the ways students should practice combating distractions, along with learning how to use the internet effectively, students can use the internet as a tool to benefit their learning and pursuing life purpose.