The world of today mostly buzzes with social media and Hash tags. For a youth it’s a complicated dynamic world of internet where everything is yellow and every other day is blue. It is just the tons and tons of messages and notifications that pops up every other minute where no internet means no life.
Internet has become the thing where it is just incomparable to anything except being alone with a nightmare. Everyday my mom shouts waiting on me for food, how many hours do you sit in front of your laptop and yet the answer goes silence in view of keeping it still. I tell her, mom it’s the world of dreams where everything is possible. Even at 70, she uses Facebook and owns a smart phone so she is pretty reluctant about using the Alien device.
Talking more about the past, it is just an endless story that really excites and makes me feel contained within the world which is so easy to navigate and which absorbs my energy. I have seen the rendition of big bulky computers to the slimming smart technology which literally changed our lives. Money was always an issue but the interest always fought to find a solution. From Nokia mobile to Dell laptop to Gmail invitation, technology has fought back in neutralizing popularity and interest. It is what we people have created and believed in rather than how it has transcended.
A journalist, blogger, activist and a consultant, internet made me who I am and still I am exploring the possibilities of my virtue. Nothing was easy but the point is standing for change and adapting technology was one of the best thing that life gave me. Moreover, being associated with Internet Society(ISOC) was an accident that changed my life forever. It was just by accident when I search for Internet Society in the web and became a member in 2006. I guess I was destined to be associated with ISOC.
Once someone told me that, till the time you realize how life changes, things slip away, so it is better to go with the flow accepting than complaining. Internet and change goes hand to hand, using the technology to the ultimate level of exploring the possibilities was something highly questionable then.
I started my career as a journalist. A fair and square storyteller with values of creating change. Those were the days when I use to search the available search engine and scope the possibilities of my name and nothing would come up. In view of creating my name in the World Wide Web, I started blogging, writing stories and voicing issues.
I realized, the power of internet when I published a story in one of the citizen journalism site Ground report and it was picked up by Access now and they launched an international campaign “Nepal Shutdown Showdown”, Man I felt powerful !!!
It was not only standing for change but I think it was more about standing for your rights and voicing what can be done.
In 2011 with the revolution of social media we launched internet activism in Nepal. Various campaigns against the political leaders were launched voicing issues of concern. We used the available technology and network in creating a solution for the frustration of what we believe in. The campaign created a ripple in the political hemisphere and we made our point.
Working with ISOC was a rendition of my skills where I grew from a limited scope to an attitude of multistakeholder perspective that broaden my vision and leadership skills. Being the ISOC Ambassadors for 2014 and 2015, it was limitless opportunity, that changed my life forever. Who could have thought a guy coming from a least developed country like Nepal was standing in-front of hundreds and thousands of people of the internet world and voicing the issues of human rights, FoE and internet standardization. I felt proud in everyday to say I represented Nepal for being a youth for change. ISOC gave me the opportunity, leadership, communication skill and networking to be who I am.
It was not just the attitude but it was more of a support that the leadership and the community that gave me. For me internet was not only a means of communication but slowly I was moving on to understand Internet was changing my life in every possible way of giving new vision and leads.
Moreover, the thing that changed my perspective about internet was during the earthquake of 2015. It was massive and everything was doomed but one thing that came as a rescue was the internet.
Every day I would open the TV and was sick and tired of seeing people crying and saying the government was not doing nothing so we decided to do something. We took it to ourselves and started posting messages in our social media, one after the other people showed their interest. Some gave away spare food, some with medical supplies, some with material and we helped people. That day I realized the importance of internet and how we could bridge the gaps of changing the world. Complaining was not an option but finding a solution was always the task. Helping people coordinate and distribute food and material was something that changed my perspective of how we can use technology. Touching the hearts of thousands of people was something special which was possible just because of the internet and we helped people to the possibility.
That day the definition of internet changed, internet for me was not just possibilities but it stood as a helping hand, it was humanity for all those people ………………… Internet is not just for entertainment speak up, voice out and be the change
BE YOUTH…………….
Stop being vulnerable, start being the CHANGE: 25 Under 25
Show the world what you are made of……………………
BE THE CHANGE
