Modern technology distracts from discovery
Some days I look around, and all I see are people on their phones or on their computers. These are people who watch Netflix, party and play video games after a long day of classes and homework. It is all quite entertaining to watch.
They walk around campus oblivious to the rest of the world. Some, like me, think of what is going to happen on the next episode of “Arrow” while heading to class.
As college students, we spend a lot of our day wasting valuable time. Priorities are subjective to each individual, but I would like to think that if I could make a groundbreaking discovery rather than play another round of Sodoku, I would choose to make the discovery.
We are oblivious to the fact that we have so many resources for opportunities to make a difference at our fingertips. The resources are available, yet we all take the path most taken. There isn’t a clear, defined path to success.
I can say with some level of certainty, however, that if we do what others do we will never be successful. Following the rest of the crowd instead of treading our own path is just conforming to society’s standards.
Who am I to speak, you might ask. Our world is set up in a way in which the rich are born and raised rich and where a manuscript is given to us as a road map to what we should do. However, there are a small number of people who don’t conform to the masses. There are people out there willing to work hard and not conform to just being poor or rich. They become richer because of their hard work.
There are those like Martin Luther King, Jr., who revolutionized his era’s way of thinking. Then you have people like Mark Zuckerburg, going out and revolutionizing the way in which society interacts. People like this are making differences in the world, while I’m sitting at the Muenster University Center sipping my frozen caffeine drink and combing through fashion pins on Pinterest.
It’s quite ironic, really — college is supposed to be about learning and improving society. However, many of us sit in our rooms watching Netflix or reading Tumblr.
A recent Forbe’s article indicated research from the Social Science Research Council reporting, “College students spend 16 percent of their time going to class and studying, while 51 percent is spent socializing.”
Even though socializing is always an important aspect of daily life, we should not let it become a distraction from our priorities.
College students have so many amazing resources of which to spend. We should be wise and use them to our advantage.
