I believe that all students should at least learn the fundamentals of web development, especially in a time when the internet is such a big part of our lives. Learning how the web functions at a basic level allows people to understand the systems they rely on daily, rather than just purely engaging with them. It is like becoming proficient in another language. At first, you don’t really see the point of it; however, the more you learn, the more you realize how useful it can really be. Working with HTML made me notice how much goes into even the simplest web pages, and it has helped me better appreciate the work of web designers such as my mom. Writing code makes you constantly aware of hierarchy and structure, because every element depends on its placement within the system. One misplaced character can detour the entire project, reinforcing the amount of attention to detail that goes into digital creation.
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome to my coding sample</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is my heading</h1>
<p>Here I write about my experience with coding. I am becoming increasingly familiar with HTML.</p>
<ol>
<h2>This is my list of comfortability with each web language</h2>
<li>HTML</li>
<li>CSS</li>
<li>JavaScript</li>
</ol>
<a href="https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/smiley-face-thumbs-up">Thanks for reading!</a>So far, my experience with coding has been challenging and eye-opening. Before this class, my coding experience was minimal. I had little experience with coding in a computer science class in middle school, but that was sunshine and rainbows compared to this. The programs they had us using were watered-down versions of web languages to get us interested in coding, and even then I was struggling a bit. I never worked with HTML, CSS, or JavaScript until now, and I’ll admit, I got pretty frustrated at times. Never, though, did I feel like I was wasting my time. There’s a reason computer science is one of the highest-paying majors. Not many people know how to actually code well, making it high demand and hard to replace. As of right now, I can’t imagine working with more complicated web languages like JavaScript.
Berners- Lee knows that the obstacles are formidable. But he’s pulled off a miracle before. “Young people don’t understand what it took to make the web,” he said. “It took companies giving up their patent rights, it took individuals giving up their time and energy, and it took bright people giving up their ideas for the sake of a common idea.”
Julian Lucas, “Tim Berners-Lee Invented the World Wide Web. Now He Wants to Save It,” Annals of Technology, The New Yorker, September 29, 2025.
This quote caught my eye because it demonstrates that the creation of the web was an incredible achievement made possible by profound collaboration and sacrifices from companies and people for the greater good.
I certainly agree that it’s interesting and important to know the basics of web coding, such as with your point in how complicated even basic websites can be. The language analogy is also interesting. Sometimes people learn a language for fun and could end up finding great use for it, and after learning a second language, it’s easier to learn a third. Both these can be tied into knowing web coding languages.