The Internet Has Made Me a Better Person

ArticlesEditorialOpinion

Written by: Gavriel Feria

By R. J. Beytup
Talent Management

People can be complicated. How is it that every time I go on TikTok I can’t avoid some random content creator who I’ve never heard of selling clothes from a pyramid scheme? It makes me so glad that there’s a community who makes it a hobby to pick out the horrible people in the world and make posts about why you shouldn’t associate with them. It’s like crowdfunding morality! And you get to know that you’re doing good in the world. I don’t understand what people are calling it though, “virtue signaling”? Don’t you want to show that you’re virtuous? They’re probably just inherently bad people. And it gives you so much confidence online too! My favorite time to browse is when I’m in the shower, violently tapping my phone to prove somebody wrong about an argument. It’s not like they’re not also doing that too!

Not only have I become a much better person from surfing the ’net, I’ve also improved my mental health so much from where I used to be. I’ve been bounced around so many therapists, but I just found out that it’s a lot easier to deal with deep feelings of social inadequacy by venting on Discord channels and talking to ChatGPT. Discord is great because those strangers understand so much of how I feel, they really validate my thoughts. ChatGPT, for what it’s worth, is great too — it told me that I should get rid of my problems by going to the gym and lifting weights. Why didn’t my therapists ever just tell me to do that? It’s like every ten pounds I add to my PB is as good as ten minutes of talking to a therapist. A short-lived ego boost is just as good as having actual self-esteem and a stable body image.

Browsing on the internet also built up my thick skin, especially in the days when someone could show you a link that totally, unsuspiciously used Cyrillic letters, but sent you to an audio clip playing an inaudible frequency that would irrevocably remove your ability to distinguish half of the colors in the rainbow. I’m actually quite sad that the kids growing up on iPads watching Cocomelon won’t have this experience — they just won’t be strong enough to live after even looking at a single slightly uncanny image. But I hope when they get older they’ll be able to use the same tips that I’ve used to be more socially conscious of a YouTube commentary channel’s topic of the week.

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