I sat on of my favorite couch very comfortably. I stared at the TV screen right in front of me.  It was 1 pm and watching “Amigos X Siempre” was always the best way to blow off some steam after studying at school. it’s one of my favorite telenovelas and I think the show was beloved not only me but also by many people back then. It was very delightful. Finally, I could have some fun watching the show. Once the TV series finished, my friends shouted my name very loud. They were outside my house but I could hear them very clearly. I came to them, and they invited me to play hide and seek. We played at the front yard. We really enjoyed our time until we didn’t realize it got dark already. Those things describe my typical days when I was a kid. The day before internet become so pervasive. The day before smartphone and social media. It’s simpler, slower, and calmer but I feel I was definitely happier.   

As I grow up, internet truly revolutionize almost every aspect in my life. The way internet quickly connect people across the globe virtually is a tremendous invention.  In the year of 2000s, I remembered my neighbors normally wrote a handwritten letter for their family who worked far away. It was quite a slow process. We needed to take the letter to the post office, bought a stamp for it and dropped it in the mail. Compared with what we do know, we can easily have conversation with other person no matter how far we are and we can receive the reply instantly.  In addition, The way internet allows us to access the information thru our fingertips is such a magical transformation. When I was in college, I often went to the library every time I looked for the information, the data, or study references. It turned out selecting right books and skimming stack of books to get the information that we need are quite time-consuming. Nowadays, Thanks we have google, i think google is the most valuable invention ever. with google information we try to look for will show up in matter of seconds. The other revolutions done by internet are virtual working, virtual learning, online business, social media, ah you name it. Overall, if I compare my life now and when I was a child is actually way too different. However, despite all the positive significant impacts, internet also brings disadvantages on the table. The risks have already been felt in massive scale in society which making it highly concerning. 

The downside of the internet I believe already become public secret. Everybody knows it has some risks and threats but internet’s benefits seem outweigh all of that. The internet’s adverse effects is affected to many people especially for young generation. The internet addiction becomes major cause. Endless web surfing, online gaming, mindless scrolling at social media are typical activities that cause the addiction. Yeah we can blame to the dopamine production every time we keep our eye staring on the screen and we can criticize to all software or AI engineers behind who already made such algorithm that successfully making our eyes us glued on the screen for hours. Adolescents and young adults are among those who severely effected. Their academic grade plunges and they are prone to get sick easier. It’s no wonder internet addiction triggers a sedentary lifestyle. Several health problems arise such physical problems (headache, backache, dry eyes, neck pain, insomnia), psychological (increased of depression, anxiety, stress) and social isolation. Second of All, cyberbullying effect is frightening. Any type of bullying basically can have physical and psychological effects on people. Anxiety, fear, depression, low self-esteem, behavioral issues and academic struggles are just of the few challenges kids may experiences of they are targets. Unlike traditional bullying – which is often limited to school and known bullies. Cyberbullying can occur at any time, day or night and be perpetrated by anonymous sources. This makes cyberbullying more relentless. 

With regards to the internet’s effect to adult. Based on my personal experience, it causes harmful effects as concerning as the impact on young people particularly for our thinking ability and mental health. I have used internet particularly social media mainly since I was in college. I vividly remember that time, almost everybody created Friendster and Facebook account. My friends seemingly were racing to get “Friendster” and “Facebook” friends as many as they could. Once I graduated me and my classmates started to have a career. We were accepted in many kinds of companies or were accepted in university for master degree. Posting their achievements, colorful adventures, relationship milestones, wedding celebration, etc became normal and viral. comparation seemed never end. I was 25 years old back then, my active involvement in social media actually exacerbated my quarter life crisis.  With the internet speed gets faster, many kind of social media arises, phone was getting smarter, more phone apps tempting to be installed, more notifications pop up, I feel like the exessive use of the internet destroyed my focus and hindered my thinking ability to analyse, to memorize, to comprehend certain information.  My brain was kind of forced to only know things superficially without having an in-depth understanding. After long contemplation I decided to quit from several social media, and continue using other social media such as Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube in moderation. I’ve set time limit reminder on my phone to help me control my screen time whenever I’m using those social media. I’ve made it. I’m no longer become a social media addict. This is my own case. I believe I’m not alone. Many people out there have experience the same things. I was always wondering how to cope with this. I came to realize that the key was having self-awareness. Maintaining or even strengthening self-awareness would be able to help me to stay sane.

Self-awareness helps me to have a better self-control. it eases me to set boundaries or limits whenever I use any kind of technology such as internet or social media. Beside the reminder I’ve set on my phone, I think the more we self-aware then it’s easier for me to switch to different task. By this way, I  would still be able to check off my to-do list and stay productive. For me focusing on living my best live offline matters more than being active online since it’s much more fulfilling and giving me long-lasting happiness.  Having quality time with family, meeting up with friends and be silly with them, sharing laugh with our loved ones, are typical things that can bring me true happiness whenever things get rough. The essence of this true happiness reminisce me to the happiest moment when I was kid when life is full of joys of spring.