Facebook. Twitter. Google. The internet. All these things have shaped what society is today. The internet has done some pretty decent things. It’s how we communicate with each other. It’s where we go when we’re bored. When we need to do research, where do we go? The internet. When we need to get the latest scoop of what’s going on, where do we go? The internet. We can find anything and everything with just a click of a button. Although, there’s about a million and one things that are good about the internet, there’s also negative aspects of the internet as well. People are misinformed because information from media is not true or opinionated. In our democracy people’s voices are often misrepresented.
When the media tends to write about events that are currently happening around the world, we end up believing it. We are at a point that if we see or read anything on the internet, that it’s automatically true. Social media has made it possible for like minded individuals to discuss important topics, widen their personal knowledge and discover things they never knew before. However, when people don’t know both sides of certain topic that is being discussed then that’s when it gets bad. Today, people believe in anything without even thinking if that’s true or not. Although, you might think that’s harmless, it actually hurts people when it comes down to a debate or the fact that it’s not true and those people end up looking bad upon what’s being said about it. Don’t get me wrong, but social media has had a major impact on several religions, most importantly the Islamic religion. Lately, there’s a lot of fuss going on about fights and wrong things that shouldn’t be happening, however social media has a way of exaggerating and writing out whatever they think should be written, especially when it’s against another religion. It ends up making that whole race look bad and that is not fair.
Social media ends up dominating what Americans think. Journalists now share everything and anything on the internet. “Nearly 50 percent of Internet users surveyed said they regularly or occasionally heard about a breaking story on social media before it broke on mainstream sources.” Just because it broke out on the internet, does it mean that it is true? I honestly hope not. An issue with our democracy with the internet is that everyone has voice, you can share whatever you please, but sometimes the wrong the voices end up being heard faster than the right ones. More Americans are being close minded when it comes to news blogs and that’s what can really damage everyone as a whole. “At the same time PR professionals believe that news is becoming less reliable as journalists do less fact-checking.” People are so quick to write about something that they know nothing about and get people to think that what they’re writing is factual when in reality everything is opinionated.
We all have a voice however, it’s not being used in the right manner when it comes to the internet. There’s so much inequality when it comes to news articles. CNN and FOX news grab people’s attention with over exaggerated titles making Americans fear of what’s going on in other places in the world. And when Americans click on that link and read what’s on there it really makes them think that it’s all true. Majority of what goes around about African Americans and Muslims on news articles makes people more feared of them and makes them think that each person is the same because of what they incorporated from the internet. I like to think that this is not the case with Americans and that they all should tell what’s right and what’s wrong, but it gets way out of hand when there’s always news circling a religion or a whole race.
The internet is probably the thing we can’t live without. We realized that social media has made up what our democracy is today. Social media helps politicians, but also helps us decide who we want to run for president or governor. In our democracy, the internet is a place where we can share what we feel, but it should not be the place where we criticize other people. Also, our democracy should be where everyone is equal and have the right to be free. To make a change here in our democracy, everyone should be equal, whether it’s in person or the internet, we must all take care of each other.