First, let us unplug. Roughly 125,000 years ago our ancestors made the first use of one of nature’s most catastrophic but yet practical element, fire. This life saving discovery kept them warm at night, defended them from the deadly prehistoric creatures and gave their food better taste and health. It helped us survive and gave light to new inventions. The list of inventions and innovations goes on and on, spanning from the centuries with countless celebrations for the human spirit and its resourceful mind. And just 45 years ago, September 2, 1969 we were gifted with probably the most catastrophic, yet practical creation of human potential and ambition– the internet.

This invention has granted us with powers beyond our comprehension with both drawbacks and unimaginable abilities. Encyclopedias and dictionaries are now stuck in bookshelves getting dusty and unused. Information that was once in a library is a mere search on google as millions of results pop up. Social interaction has changed as one’s social life revolves around sticking their face on a phone for 12 hours a day. The internet has changed society in so many ways, for better and for worse.

But let’s get started with the positives. Since the same words have been reiterated countless times by a respectable number of TV personalities and other “experts”, I’ll attempt to present the same positive aspects of internet with blatant reasoning. Firstly, take a moment to appreciate the fact that you are reading this article while it was shot up in space and got sent down to your device by a satellite! Secondly, back in the day teens did not have YouTube, nor Netflix and definitely not Vine to spend their free time on. They watched a horse’s ass moving side to side for four hours and then quickly loaded up wood logs on their cart before nightfall and rode back home before the wolves ate them. You might say that I’m referring to a century old example, but even if it is a little extreme just think that some of your parents graduated high school without using Google.

The ungratefulness of people who complain on how the Instagram server broke down today and go nuts because they are unable to post a picture of their “#omg#caramelmacchiato#starbusckscoffee <3”  is insulting to humanity. And just in case you have complained in any level about the internet and posted a heartbreaking and tragic complaint on any social media, just remember that the only invention that allows you to swear the internet on the internet, is the internet. It is amazing how we take today’s technology for granted. How would we be able to quickly send our friend the homework that is due tomorrow whilst being in our house? Mail it to them via pigeon? Additionally, let’s see how good our grades would be without being able to check them daily on School Loop.

Regardless of our personal first world problems, on the big picture internet is truly a life saver. Yes, it did give birth to illegal online surveillance, movie and music piracy and sketchy perverted websites but the positives outweigh the negatives.  Just think of how slow technology would evolve if scientist had to mail all their research to other scientists. It would take weeks or even months! Now I can literally take a selfie and send it to my aunt in Australia in less than a minute. Also, I’m pretty sure you remember the 9 fires that were scorching our San Diego County. Just how many notifications from CNN, ABC or Fox did you get informing you with statuses of which neighborhoods are being evacuated, reports on which roads you should take to avoid traffic and whether or not you can sleep peacefully at night without fearing for your life?

On the bottom line, even with all the lives that have been privately disgraced through the social media, and even with the slothfulness that will probably make us look like the humans from Wall-E, the Internet has indulged us into a new era of enlightenment and progress. But some regard it as a mistake because it deprived us from most of our natural instincts and makes our lives dangerously easier. Well, the same people who say that should go live in the African savanna among the lions and rhinos since that is where we use all of our human instincts and where we ‘naturally’ belong. If the internet isn’t progress and it is an artificial poison that slowly corrupts and destroys the human ethos so is the video game you’re playing, but you don’t look so eager to give that one up.  Plus, if you were to judge the internet and the current state of technology, please have the courtesy of doing it away from modern conveniences such as electricity, Facebook and houses with central heating. Technology is a privilege, not a right.