I’ve learned a lot over the past several years. I can spend the rest of my life learning several new things every day and still not be anywhere near close to knowing everything. Fortunately I’ve been able to greatly increase the amount of things I can learn through the internet.
The internet offers an incredible amount of information on a wide range of subjects. I can listen to online lectures (YouTube is great for this as I can increase the speed and listen to more videos in the same span of time), read one article after another without issue, access databases full of information, and quickly find all of these and other resources for little to no money. There are plenty of online resources and tutorials available that cover just about anything I want to learn; when I want to learn more about something, the internet is one of the first places I go, and most of the time it gives me what I’m looking for. If I want to dive deeper into a subject than the internet allows me to do, I can still use it to find relevant resources. I learned about many of the beneficial books I’ve read through the internet; sometimes a friend pointed me toward them, other times I found them myself, and still others were recommended by people I found interesting. I’ve bought most of my books in physical stores but I’ve also ordered several from different websites.
One of the features I most appreciate about the internet is how it allows for a wide range of input and perspectives. Instead of being limited to a few sides of a subject, it offers the ability to examine every side of just about any position. Even pages dedicated to one particular perspective often contain opposing perspectives in the comments. This gives everyone on the internet the chance to learn as much as they can about a given subject and decide for themselves what to think about it instead of being forced to accept one of the few allowed opinions. It’s possible for someone on the internet to focus only on the things with which they already agree and so get into an “echo chamber”, but that can also happen elsewhere in life. If someone is stuck in an echo chamber at their school, workplace, or other place they frequent, they can use the internet to seek out other perspectives and benefit from hearing things there that they won’t hear from the people around them.
I’ve gotten pretty good at learning things through the internet. Some of the things it’s helped me learn or get better at include coding, juggling, interacting with other people, self-improvement, fixing things, playing sports, and writing. I still find it helpful to have someone in person guiding me through something I want to learn (especially when it comes to physical skills) but I can learn a lot just by doing some simple searches and reading the articles or watching the videos that appear. Without internet access, it would have taken me a lot longer to track down the resources that have taught me all the skills, concepts, and facts that I’ve learned in a relatively short period of time. I’m grateful to live in the internet age and have most of humanity’s knowledge available at my fingertips almost all the time. I don’t know where I’d be right now without it but I think it’s safe to say that I’m in a much better place in life because of it.