Boredom to Meaning
Meaning and purpose can be found as a byproduct of using the internet. You can use the internet to find out about events, clubs, authors, bands, gatherings, all things that you would have never known about otherwise allowing you to expand your cultural experience. The advantage to having a short attention span is finding things that interest you quickly, and if a certain thing holds your attention longer than usual it could possibly be something worth investing in. The key to staying entertained and avoiding boredom is creating excitement out of the usual day to day activities, making doing the dishes or fighting with a stuck drawer into an adventure.
The internet is a tool that can be used to create and expand cultural exchanges, inserting itself into people’s lives in a necessary and healthy way. People can create, search, and build with people all over the world instantly by simply pressing a button. By taking part in this we can create meaning and purpose for ourselves. The internet itself has created its own culture that involves “creat[ing] a new viral culture.. [creating] trillions of communications]”(Wasik 480). The Internet has connected people from all over, for example in Wasik’s experiment people were emailing him from Rome interested in creating their own sub-branch of the mob experiment. (insert Quote).
Having distractions allow us to stumble on to names, events, videos, etc, we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. In my personal experiences, I have found this to be especially true considering I found one of my favorite authors while stumbling aimlessly through the internet. I discovered Friedrich Nietzsche while looking up philosophy books and philosophers, his ideas and pieces of work have changed the way I think about the world and how I think about events in my own life. Discovering him actually drove me away from the internet, but without it I would have never found his work and I’d still be neck deep in the internet. By using my own experiences, the internet is a useful means to an end, but eventually you don’t even need it once you find a certain purpose or meaning.
Life has its ups and downs, sometimes becoming mundane when everyday seems the same and only way you know it’s a different day is the number on the calendar and when the sun goes down and comes up. These moments of mundane and creating an opportunity for people to become bored and comfortable with their current position. The key to finding meaning is to put yourself in uncomfortable situations and making an adventure of everyday life. Think of washing the dishes as the only way you’re going to eat that night and if you don’t get it done you could potentially die. If your silverware drawer is stuck act as if you’re wrestling with a supernatural force, I know this seems silly but it will give your life meaning without you even knowing.
The internet is simply a vessel, a means to an end when finding your meaning on this earth. Once you find what you think your meaning is, run with it till the string runs out, because inspiration is fleeting. Nothing is forever as it is certain in this world, that’s the only thing we know for certain.
Mitch,
This is a good start to the paper I would just look back at your thesis statement and try to make a more clear statement and position. It is confusing as to what you are trying to argue for. When you talk about the internet being used in a necessary way I think this is a really good idea that you can expand on. Make sure you are looking back at the readings too. Try and write down what the connections to each reading you can find are and work from that. Also it is important that you relate each topic to your overall thesis so the reader can understand what your main claim and position are. Try and make sure that you are using evidence and quotes from each reading and the essay that you found to support your main claim and position. It might help to write all of your ideas down on a piece of paper then try and see how you can organize it so it flows properly. Good Luck!
Shae Martel
