Does the Internet Do More Harm Than Good?

Last year, I went to a class composed of several homeschool kids where we learned public speaking and debate.  We started every class with a prompt question and each student would do a one minute speech giving the answer.  The questions were usually nothing that would cause a hot debate, "What did you do this summer?" and the like.  However, one class, we were asked the question, "Does the internet do more bad than good?"  Being homeschool kids, many of the kids in the class gave the expected answers.  "Yes and no." , "I don't know." , and "My mom doesn't let me use the computer."  The kids came to the conclusion that the internet doesn't do much good besides providing information.  Many people have this opinion that the internet does more bad than good.  While there are plenty of bad things on the net, like anything else, it can't all be bad.  But what good does the internet do besides providing information?  For one thing, it allows talented people a unique and new creative outlet.  Tumblr, Blogger, Twitter, Youtube, and many more websites give talent somewhere to live and be displayed to a great, worldwide audience.  I mean without Youtube, we would never have known about Justin Bieber, amirite?  The internet gives us a new way to keep in touch with people through social media. (Which can be good and bad, but that's a whole nother story)  Not even going to mention the amazing amount of Gravity Falls gifs that you can find at the blink of an eye.  At some point in this debate, people will probably say "Yeah, the internet does this, but what does it do to physically help people?"  1. Thank you, Mr. Hypothetical guy from the cultural vacuum.  and
2. You probably have never heard of the Project for Awesome.

The P4A is something that happens every year on the internet and has happened since 2007.  If you've never heard of it, you probably live under a rock and/or are homeschooled.  If you do live under a rock, I'll give you a quick P4A crash course.  Hank Green and John Green are brothers.  Hank Green is a guy that has a really great idea every 3.5 seconds and almost always pulls these ideas off.  You may recognize Hank's name from being the executive producer and creator of the Emmy winning web series "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries"  He is an internet entrepreneur and is great at what he does.  John Green is an incredibly successful author and the host of the educational web series Crashcourse: world history and classic literature.  The brothers share the highly popular Youtube channel, Vlogbrothers, each posting a video almost every week since 2007.  As the Vlogbrothers gained popularity, many fans of the youtube channel began making videos of their own.   This kickstarted a large movement in the Youtube community.  Vlogbrothers fans became known as Nerdfighters.  December 17th, 2007 Nerdfighters took part in an event called Project for Awesome that started with the Green brothers.  P4A was all about giving Youtube creators a chance to lend their talents to a favorite charity.  John and Hank hosted a livestream and Nerdfighters posted and spammed videos to raise awareness for multiple charities and got people to donate to the most popular charities.  The P4A has happened every year since then.  This year, P4A raised more than 800,000 dollars for charity.  They are still taking donations and voting on which charities will receive a fraction of the donations if you want to contribute, you can go to http://www.projectforawesome.com/ and click the DONATE button.  If you don't want to donate, take some time to watch some of the videos and comment.  For every comment, a penny will be donated to the cause as well.

Love,

   Lucy