As I sat in my room, in complete silence, I realized that the concept of willingly sitting in silence is not a new at all. For generations, we didn’t have the necessary means for stimulating our brains for hours on end at the level that we do now. Some people meditated to pass time, while some others literally stared at walls. Today, we have screens to keep us distracted and help pass time. Some might say that the way we indulge ourselves in this technology is unhealthy and a waste of time, but I don’t think that tells the full story. The technology we have at our disposal is truly a luxury, but I don’t think many people realize the full extent of how beneficial it has been, and could potentially be.

Technology and the internet has allowed us to grow closer together as a species and it’s really exciting that we are the first generation to experience this. Although there seems to be a lot of division in today’s society, for the first time in the history of human civilization, we have societies and communities that aren’t bound by geographical borders or climates. That in itself is a really amazing accomplishment—one that wouldn’t have been thought of as possible just a few decades ago. The internet has helped create a sort of global community and I believe that this is one of the greatest advancements we’ve had.

This is an amazing power we have in our hands; we can instantaneously spread ideas, necessary news and alerts, and we can also express ourselves through these powerful tools. As a result, we’ve seen a technological and artistic explosion over the past couple decades. I believe that we are heading in the right direction with this technology, but we also need to remember that we can’t take it for granted and we can’t become too indulged in it. We are humans, not machines.