Promoting self-growth on the internet
Promoting self-growth on the internet via a medium called ‘Omegle’.
A little about myself:
I am a 14-year-old teenage boy from New Zealand who is an avid fan of the works of Shakespeare. My favorite play has to be Macbeth, although Othello is a close second. In the time it is my aim to adapt Macbeth into a screenplay and submit it for production in Hollywood. Promoting self-growth on the internet
The other day, whilst using the internet at home, I had the idea that I could utilize this powerful tool in order to promote self-growth by meeting random people on Omegle and starting up conversations with them so as to help stimulate intellectual discourse. After all, there has never been a better time in history than now where information can be shared so easily across the globe.
I started out by using Omegle to chat with strangers, and what I found was surprising. The vast majority of people were closed-minded and intolerant towards others who had a different outlook in life from them. This fact has been corroborated by a poll run by YouGov in 2013 where it was revealed that 58 percent of adults believed that their generation is less tolerant than their parent’s generation, which could be due to the rise of media outlets such as Fox News and Breitbart. It also ties in with the political polarization that has occurred in recent years — a phenomenon known as hyperpolarization. In this process, political parties have become much more polarized, resulting in citizens becoming much more politically divided.
For example, in the past month, I have encountered many individuals who are pro-life. Although I do not personally subscribe to this view, I believe it is important to respect other people’s opinions. However, what I noticed was that whenever I tried talking with these random people about such things, they would shut down any chance of conversation and claim that my opinion was invalid since they saw me as a child — no matter how mature my arguments were on either side of the debate. This kind of behavior is common amongst closed-minded bigots nowadays on the boundaries of race and sex and can be seen propagated by Donald Trump on his Twitter account every day. My friend recently had a similar experience where he asked someone what their favorite Kanye West track was and they replied “white people don’t listen to rap.”
It should be noted that the process of polarization has been occurring for a while now. It can be traced back to 1790’s France were the differences in political opinion between left-wing radicals led by Maximilien Robespierre, who dominated the Jacobin club, and right-wing conservatives led by Francois Hanriot were beginning to grow. This division caused the radical leaders of the revolution to use violence as their main method of bringing about change, leading eventually to The Terror which claimed many lives after Robespierre came into power. And this is exactly what I fear might happen in 2017 if we continue down this path of hyperpolarization since it breeds extremism on both.
FAQs:
1. Is what you do safe?
Yes, I have my parents’ permission to do this. Besides, a child cannot legally be holding responsible for their actions in New Zealand law.
2. Don’t you find the people on Omegle scary?
The only times where I was scared by meeting random strangers online were when I encounter pedophiles and drug dealers. Which I avoid talking about since it is not relevant to self-growth. In general, though, the majority of people are friendly and respectful towards me. As a person regardless of how old they think I am. Please note that just because one or two encounters went badly does not mean that everyone on Omegle is bad. Some aren’t good for human company, but most are okay.
3. How do you get past the initial awkwardness?
Well, if I ever feel uncomfortable about the direction a conversation is going in. I simply stop talking to that person and move on to somebody else. If worse comes to worst, I block that individual from contacting me again. Using my parental control software OMCOP — Open Monitoring Control & Operations Platform. This way it makes sure they cannot contact me again on any other online service. No matter how good their intentions seem. What kind of information can gather about them by doing reverse image searches.
Conclusion:
I have learned that most people are good-nature, friendly, self-growth, and want to help. Omegle has taught me how to become more confident in myself as a person. And giving me an outlet where I can honestly express my views without being judge for them. It also helped me discover the political spectrum of ideas on both sides of the spectrum. Which I grew up around since before I could even vote. Allowing me to learn about the major problems faced by our society today.