We Can Change the World

I have been thinking a lot about the internet the past couple days.

By the past couple days, I mean weeks.

By weeks I mean months.

Look at what this internet has turned us into. A comedian once quipped “that we have access to all the knowledge in the world, and we go online to look at a satellite picture of our house.” A tweet I saw a few weeks ago stated something like, “I have a device in my pocket that is more powerful than the computer humans landed on the moon with. I use it to throw animated birds at green pigs hiding in houses.”

And as this New Yorker article states, we continue to develop new, unique ways of looking at the world. A more powerful cell phone, a set of glasses that can access the entirety of the internet in the blink of an eye. Our memory is no longer in our heads, it is in a device.

The news we receive comes through Twitter or Facebook links to longer articles that a friend interested in this or that posts – mostly focusing on one subject at a time. This week our focus is Kony, next week it is Chik-Fil-A, the week after it is a shooting. And we focus all of our energy on these few things for a couple days, changing our Facebook pictures, our statuses, the image of what we are putting out. Because this issue is important.

And it is. We live in a world burdened with issues, and discussion, and awareness. And our slacktivism goes on and on. Next week it will be blogs about the latest news story that changes the world.

I want to pose a question.

What if we actually did something about this?

I mean, besides change our Facebook cover photo and slap a sticker on our water bottle. Those things are effective, but what if we walked the walk. What if, instead of a world where we post a blog by our favorite author, we went to the homeless shelter and served a meal? What if we donated those nice shirts we have not worn in a month and a half to a place that will give them to people who can use them?

What if we stopped saying what we believe, and started living what we believe

Sure, there will be critics and people who are certain that it will not make a difference, but one person who took action is the only thing that has ever made a difference in the world (or so says Margaret Mead).

As time moves on, my generation – and those after me – become increasingly responsible for taking care of the world we live in. Because it is our world, and the decisions we make with our time and money shape the world we live in.

What kind of world do you want to live in?