Essay Contest Winner Joselyn Miller

Our second annual essay contest awards were given out on Tuesday evening, April 19 at the downtown library in the Auditorium. Our 3 winners were very excited to be honored and our guest speaker Dr. Khalid Griffin gave us points to think about in regards to the topic of, “Can the world live without the internet?”

We will feature the essays from our 3 winners who received certificates of achievement and a cash prize in our next 3 papers. Today's essay is from our first place winner! Thank you to all who attended and supported these young writers and thank you to our sponsors: Allen County Public Library, Susan Baier, Keith Byers, Anthony Juliano, & C. Henry Steel. Cupcakes by Malila Smiley of Dreamie Pastries.

Can the world live without the internet?

by Joselyn Miller

9th Grade

Northrop High School

Can the world live without the internet? This is a question that can be very hard to answer because most things are done online. During the process of this essay, I will give my opinion stating that the world could live without the internet, but everything is now run on the internet and what the benefits would be if you disconnect a few hours a day. Many people cannot imagine life without the internet, Netflix, and cell phones but I feel as if it would be nothing but beneficial to us.

The world wide web is only 30 years old. Most of our parents lived without the internet until they reached their teenage years. The average millennial person spends about 3 hours daily on social media which is powered by the internet. We spend so much time there getting addicted to the new drama between famous rappers and social media influencers that most times we don’t realize how long we have been there. Many studies have shown that most people check their phones within the first 15 minutes of waking up. The more time we spend on our phones checking social media, filming a Tik Tok, or snapping our friends we become more disconnected with the people around us, our family, friends, and many other things. We begin to neglect our health. We become less active, afraid to “miss something” . We become so connected to the internet we pay no attention to the things that matter most!

Unplugging yourself from the internet can save you money, improve your communication skills and make you more aware of things around you. Please understand, sometimes it's nice to sit and watch Tik Tok after a long day of school or work or whatever it is that caused your day to be stressful, but how much time are you spending on there? Visit and reconnect with old friends instead of texting them on Facebook, Instagram, snapchat. I'm not saying get rid of your phone completely but reduce your screen time. Some of you might choose to disconnect completely which would be amazing but in reality, most work is now run on the internet, and stored on computers, so the world could live without the internet, but it would complicate things much more. So, what if disconnecting for a minute allows your phone to die every so often it would only be benefiting you and your family. Enforce rules about cell phones, maybe put a rule stating no cell phone at the dinner table this allows conversation to flow between you and your family. Set a certain time for your family to take breaks and maybe have a family game night. Instead of getting on Facebook to check the latest news, turn on the local news channel, they will most likely have the most accurate version of that story than Facebook bloggers would. I encourage this upon everyone who reads this.

The world could live without the internet but is it ideal?

Works cited: (statistics) https://outandbeyond.com/living-without-internet-at-home/