JH English Monthly Writing Competitions – Andy Jin

“JH English Monthly Writing Competitions – Andy Jin”

 

Huili JH English Department are continuing to hold monthly writing competitions. February’s challenge, ‘Down With the Internet’, was to write a persuasive article to argue in favour of or in opposition to the following statement: “The internet is negatively impacting how we live our daily lives, forcing us to live in a virtual world rather than the real world.” We’re very pleased to have Andy Jin from G8A with us today who earned second place in the competition! We welcome you to please listen to Andy as he interviews with Mr Speers and shares his perspective!

 

Second Place Article Below;

 

Internet: What is it? The future & Whether it is Good or Bad

By Andy Jin

 

Internet, or a network of networks is now acting as an unreplaceable part of our daily life. When you wake up in the morning, your phone will deliver news from all over the world via internet. When you are hungry, you order a takeaway using internet. When you are calling others through phone, you are using internet again. If you are a child, you will be told by your parents to leave the virtual world on the internet. Internet is now not just important for people, but even fatal! Although there are lots of advantages of the internet, many people still have no idea what it is and if it a good thing or not.

The internet was invented during the cold war by the United States. At that time, the internet was just a network of computers to ensure if the USSR uses nuclear weapons on the US, the US’s nuclear weapons will fight back. This is totally different to the internet we know now. The internet we know now is developed after the introduction of personal computers and smart phones. The internet we are familiar with became visible to the general public at around 1990s. The internet then grew at a shocking speed since the introduction of PCs and smart phones. Now many people all over the world have become addicted to the visual world created by mass medias, games, and videos on the internet. Many people argue that internet is bad as it stops people from spending time without a screen. They claims that it is especially true for teenagers, as they are immature, and are unable to control themselves from getting to be too addicted to the internet.

Many people think that visual world is bad for us, and the visual world should be closed or at least make less addictive to teenagers, but these people haven’t considered a fact: these games, social media and short videos are all driven by the huge market on the internet. This means it is impossible to stop them. So, the next question becomes whose fault is it. Is it the user’s fault or is it the company’s fault or is it the internet’s fault? As the company’s goal is just money, there is no reason the blame them, as no one will hate getting more money. As for the internet, who will blame a medium? It is just like blaming a gun for committing a crime instead of blaming the actual criminal. This leads to the question of who to blame for the users. The users cannot control themselves to get addicted and cannot use the internet-the tool-in the right way. This way we can make our conclusion: internet is a great thing; it is a fantastic tool that can boost our efficiency. The only thing wrong with the internet is that its users kept making mistakes, decreasing their efficiency.

For the future of the internet, it will change from connecting smart devices and people to connecting almost everything. This is already happening: many furniture, television, and lights now support being controlled directly using your phone instead of a lot of switches. The future of the internet will definitely become brighter and more useful. This will increase the quality of life from every perspective, from faster and safer transportation to better health care, the internet will become the best thing human have ever invented in the foreseeable future.

In conclusion, the internet should not be blamed for its users becoming addicted to it. The users were responsible for their own health and not being trapped in the world of internet. Other than being addictive, the internet also offers many really useful tools: cloud storage, video conferences and also chatting software. The internet is now becoming more and more useful in the last few years and will continue to become even more useful in the future.

 

You could be on featured on Dukebox in the future too if you participate in our writing competitions! Our competition this month is “Information Leaflet on Qing Ming Festival.” We also have the “Wellington English Competition” across our Hangzhou, Tianjin, and Shanghai campuses.

 

 

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