JianYu Zhang, Period 7, 11/10/2022

 It was 2 A.M.

After scrolling down the abyss of the internet for hours, I yawned and put my phone down. Doomscrolling celebrities’ deaths, climate change, federal policy changes, and the doomsday clock itching closer and closer to midnight, I feel sad. Sad that I could not make a change until I am 18. Sad that politicians seem to ignore the separation of church and state. Unfortunately, doomscrolling gave me a general distrust against authority and power, but it gave me an urge to speak out against inequality and oppression.

Bad news surrounded me for quite a while, especially during 2020. I eventually became jaded to events such as “Gender Reveal Party Injures 5 People and Causes 300 Acre Wildfire”. It took me a while to acknowledge that doomscrolling is not healthy, because social media does not tell me the truth (and nothing but the truth). On top of that, I faced the fact that my ideals are not the same as politicians' ideals, despite how my confirmation bias asserts that my ideals are “morally correct”. I realized that there may be external factors that alter their decisions in policies that I do not know. 

Later on, I find myself debating against some of my online friends who have severely different political beliefs that I do. These discussions, such as healthcare and the whether “the US government is spending too much on military and can allocate the money to something more beneficial to the people”, opened my eyes to other peoples’ perspectives. Their arguments that “despite how the US is at peace, it is good to be prepared with an extremely strong military, because it’s military strength would reinforce its establishment as a global superpower and give it more negotiating power” made me consider my own argument. This revelation would made me reconsider the “short-sighted laws” that politicians send out, and believe that maybe it will change peoples’ lives in ways I have not thought of. 

On a later 2 A.M. night, I picked up my phone again to doomscroll for 30 more minutes, but I decided that it is best to stop this once and for all. I go to sleep, knowing that whatever happens, the world would still be spinning.