Otilio+Editorial

 Facebook masking a golden opportunity By Otilio Rios Jr   The internet is essentially a pool of vast knowledge that we have at our fingertips, think of all the possibilities we have to simply learn something. With the internet at our hands we’re a Google search away from learning just about anything we want to. Yet, we seem to misuse this resource and rather than use it to learn we spend more time on Facebook than anything else (according to the [|Neilson Company]).  As of May 2010 59% of adults who access the internet did so wirelessly using either Wi-Fi on a laptop or through their mobile phones, according to a survey done by the [|Pew Research Center]. So it becomes quite obvious that the internet is all around us, in our Starbucks, offices, schools, and in some occasions even in our pockets. With the world’s knowledge easily accessible to us we spend more time on Facebook (according to the [|Nielsen Company]) than we do actually learning anything. Some may argue that we do learn on Facebook and maybe we do, but we probably spend just as much time making small talk with friends or just searching through updates. My problem with the internet isn’t that it makes us stupid; because that simply isn’t true the internet can actually make us smarter if we spent more time reading articles and researching things that interested us. My problem with it is the way we use it, which is social networking sites.  I have recently fallen in love with the internet. I’ve discovered so many websites that can show you just about anything. Wikipedia for example yes it is not always accurate, however the average internet user spends about 17 minutes on Wikipedia while they spend a little more than 5 hours on Facebook (per month) according to the [|Neilson Company]. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t hate Facebook, in fact I think it’s a neat thing for socializing with friends, keeping in touch, and staying updated. Facebook is fine, with moderation, but we are taking it in alarmingly large doses over long periods of time. Some may say that Facebook is only on in the background and that they’re doing other things, maybe this is true. However, the fact of the matter is that we spend 6 hours on Facebook and that is a lot of hours even if it is in the background.  The internet provides us with a golden opportunity and we’re throwing it away. Through the internet we can learn so much. Want to learn how to cook or play an instrument? Well you could easily find coking recipes on the internet, and could probably type in how to play ____ into YouTube and find some interesting stuff, and anything you don’t understand you could probably figure out with a Google search; the possibilities are almost endless. That’s why the next time you’re on the internet I urge you to try and actually learn something before you log onto Facebook 