By Missy Spady (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: February 8, 2012
I want to know when it became so “un-hip” to care about things. We, as the future, are an amalgamation of people who have the entire world at our fingertips and instead of taking that opportunity to do some good, are choosing to shrug our shoulders and say “whatev.” We are smart individuals born out of the technology and information age. We implicitly know how to work electronics and have a natural curiosity to be in the know. So why are we spending so much time and effort making it look like we just don’t give a damn about anything?
The world is in chaos whether you like to admit it or not. We are at a huge turning point in history where things could either crumble to the vicious grip of capitalism and consumerism, or (my favourite choice) we can open our eyes to the possibility of a better world. I don’t mean to say that every waking moment of our lives needs to be dedicated to a cause, but if we spent a little less time making sure our hair looks perfectly tousled and a little more time even just thinking or talking about the state of affairs I believe we could make a difference.
I already hear the old standby, “What can I do? I’m just one person!” I’d like to remind everyone about how smart we really are: Canada is one of the top three most educated places in the entire world. That’s right: think about the statement “entire world.” We are privileged to be born here and experience this kind of life, but so many of us are wasting it like it’s the crumbled chip particles at the bottom of the bag. It pains me to think that people still seem to believe that just because they are one person, they can’t make a difference. Anyone heard of the domino effect? Anyone?!
You know all that time you spend looking at cat videos on the Internet? Why don’t you take five minutes from that and start signing some online petitions? There are tons of websites out there (http://www.avaaz.org/en/ for example) that not only have, but continue to make changes all over the world by having singular people like you sign their names saying that you simply don’t agree with what’s being done. Was that so hard? No, and it took only a few precious moments of your glorious internet time. How about sharing it on a social media site? Click, you’re done. All of your friends will now see that you care about something (the horror) enough to put it up for others to see. That’s how it works, just one click and all 568 of your closest friends and family will now see your link. We have the ability to transfer information to hundreds (nay, thousands!) of people at once and you’re still using your Facebook and Twitter to constantly complain about how no boys like you, or how you don’t own the new Call of Duty game that everyone’s playing and it isn’t fair. I want you all to think about that for a moment.
If you still seem to think that you’re too cool to care about anything because “it doesn’t affect you” then I’m going to give you something to care about. This pertains to everyone reading this because I know that nearly every single one of you is surfing the web daily; www.openmedia.ca is “is a non-profit organization that safeguards the possibilities of the open and affordable Internet. We work towards informed & participatory digital policy.” (I just took that straight from the “about us” section. This info isn’t hard to find.) Essentially, they’re working hard without monetary benefit to make sure that you, yes you, and other people like you can still have the ability to freely access whatever the Internet has to offer without being monitored by big brother, charged a ridiculous amount of money, or convicted of piracy to possibly serve jail time.
Are you still too cool to care?
