Education in an Ever-Changing World by Jaida
Jaida's entry into Varsity Tutor's March 2022 scholarship contest
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Education in an Ever-Changing World by Jaida - March 2022 Scholarship Essay
Arguably one of the most important aspects of human life is the practice of education and being educated. After all, Winston Churchill’s iconic quote, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” did not stem from nowhere. Without education, there would be no progression or advancement, no new inventions or social change, and the world would be stuck in a perpetual state of ignorance. It is clear, then, that it is, and always has been, vital to give each new generation the necessary tools to leave the world a better place than when they found it. It must also be vital to find new ways to educate as the world does advance. One of these new forms is social media, which has greatly impacted my personal education journey, and has had both positive and negative effects on education as a whole.
I received my first smart phone when I was in the fourth grade. At first, I mostly used the device to play games, but it was not long before I was downloading various social media applications. One of the first things I noticed about social media is that it is very diverse, as anyone with a Wi-Fi signal can use it. So, for the first time in my life, I was being exposed to ideas and opinions that were different from a majority of the people in my community. When I was able to see both sides of arguments, it made it easier for me to form my own opinions and discover what I believed was right and wrong in this world. Next, I noticed that social media moves very fast, with information being delivered at the speed of light, and then even more information coming in a second later. This led to a subconscious expectation in my brain for news to be delivered in short and concise snippets, which I think has negatively affected my attention span by making it much shorter. Social media helps as much as it hurts.
Social media has no shortage of problems regarding education. For starters, there is an astronomical amount of misinformation online. I cannot stress how many times I heard the phrase, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet,” growing up and that was for good reason. When it comes to learning from social media, it is crucial to make sure you are getting your information from credible sources, which is something a lot of people fail to do. I fell victim to this often when I first joined social media, and I am still unlearning some of the things I thought to be fact that were actually just lies. Going hand in hand with misinformation, social media is very prone to giving harmful individuals large platforms where they can easily spread dangerous rhetoric and propaganda. Finally, social media has led to an overall desensitization towards very serious issues, because of people’s tendencies to make light of these situations using jokes and “memes”. This severely undermines learning about them in the first place, as they will no longer be categorized as important information in people's brains. More steps need to be taken to make the internet a safer place to learn.
Despite its shortcomings, there are a lot of ways social media has also enhanced education. Firstly, as mentioned before, social media is extremely varied in its users, not only with what they look like, but also in their thoughts and feelings. Personally, I think it is important for people to see that there is an entire world outside of their city limits and have the chance to learn firsthand from the people of it. Social media gives people a chance to learn about different cultures and ways of life, directly from the people that are a part of them. Next, social media allows education to be much more accessible, especially when it comes to those that are low income and those that have learning difficulties. It is no longer necessary to attend college to learn about niche and complicated topics, such as neuroscience or penguin migration patterns. Furthermore, while the internet's fast-moving pace may have hurt me, it can help a lot of people by keeping them up to date on current world events and presenting it to them in a way that is easy to understand, as long as it is coming from a reliable source. Making the world a more knowledgeable and accessible place should always be a priority.
Education makes the world turn, and that is evidenced by the fact it has adapted time and time again. One major way it has developed is through social media, which has its highs and its lows. For me personally, I was able to find myself and form new ideas and opinions through social media, but I also lost a part of myself in the bustle of its constant movement. Overall, social media provides a variety of ways to learn and people to learn from, regardless of social status or IQ. However, the internet is also home to an abundance of lies and it can be hard to separate fact from fiction, so it is important to be careful in the content you choose to consume and who you consume it from. Social media is not going anywhere, anytime soon, so either we embrace it, or we get left in the dust.