A Quick Praise for the Internet

I feel like I have spent much of my time on this blog shaming the Internet and our culture's dependence on it. But I would like to take a moment to give media and its acceptability one small bit of praise for three reasons:

1.) Geek & Sundry - Table Top:
There is a channel on YouTube called "Geek & Sundry" on which they produce mulitple shows, one specific show .... Table Top. Table Top is a board game review show, one of many on the Internet, on which actor Wil Wheaton plays table top board games with other celebrities. Wil teaches you the game and shows you a play through. Here's why this is important. It's exposing people to something fun to do outside of the computer, the tablet, the smartphone. In a world where we are so wedded to our gadgets what better way to help get people off the Internet then by using the Internet to show them what they are missing by being barrier in it! Geek & Sundry's show has proven to be so popular that they created a whole day based around gaming, International Table Top Day (April 30th)
(Click HERE to go to the Geek & Sundry YouTube page)

2.) Netflix helps me flex:
I know I am not the only one in this big wide world of ours that has trouble motivating myself to workout. I can make it to the gym, but staying there and pushing myself for realistic amount of time is even harder. But thanks to being able to access Netflix on my smartphone I'm able to watch while doing cardio workouts on a treadmill or an elliptical machine. I may be buried into my phone, but the hour I spend doing cardio passes in the blink of an eye and as a result I am able to stay in shape.

3.) Personal Branding:
Random success story, not my own sadly.
There is a YouTuber by the name of Rachel Bloom Rachel made comedic/parody music videos and posted them on YouTube. A year ago a producer in Hollywood saw Rachel's videos and contacted her about making a TV show. They created a pilot for showtime, which showtime later rejected. HOWEVER, the show ended up being picked up by The CW and Rachel won a Golden Globe this year for best actress in a TV musical or comedy. Rachel had her dreams come true thanks to her use of media and now she is an award winning actress with a brilliant show (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend).



So I will give in and say that the Internet and media isn't ALL bad, it can have some really good uses. But we have to be careful, if we abuse our access to the Internet then the Internet will abuse us.