We live in an age of information. The latest trends, sports scores, and weather reports are all just a swipe away. Constantly, we are ambushed by advertisements, TV shows, and radio. Six hours a day at school, what we learn is academic, tiring, and (dare I say it?) boring. So it makes sense that the last thing you want to do at night is go home and read more dense educational text. That’s where the internet comes in. The internet can be used for studying, but let’s face it- it’s mostly just used for entertainment.

During the VMAs, Miley Cyrus gave a rude performance, which set the internet abuzz. Nearly every Twitter account was talking about it. Four days later, the White House released a statement about the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons, and still, all Twitter could talk about was Miley. Good for her album sales, right? But since when does a risqué performance by a pop starlet overshadow the deaths of hundreds of people? We can’t change it now, but we should be aware of it. Though so much information is available to us, often we only pay attention to comparably trivial information.

The voice of the internet is overwhelmingly wealthy. With wealth comes the ability to deny a lot of things that are big problems for others (hunger, housing, safety). This leads to a lot of frivolous content posted by people who are there for entertainment. But as the widespread use of smart phones and tablets rises, the internet will become more widely available to people all across the globe, not just in first world countries. Because there are often more crises in developing countries, more content will be created about injustices, and more people will care about them. Even if no major changes come around, I think we can all agree that increasing people’s awareness will change something.

At the end of the day, I admit that I just want to turn my brain off. And I’m not asking you to go all crazy social justice on everyone- just be aware. When you pay attention to something, it makes it important. Advertisers have jobs because your attention is worth something. So try and intentionally realize the implications of what you like, tweet, post, and say. People care what you think, so try and make a difference by thinking bigger. Bigger than just America. Bigger than just you.