It constantly amazes me that people think they can behave differently on the internet than they would in real life.
A week or so ago, I received a comment on this blog that said, "please, please kill yourself." Now, it was annonymous and, of course, I deleted it.
But it struck me that anyone should feel so arrogant that they would say something like that to a total stranger. Never mind that they don't know who I am... nor that they have absolutely no idea how I might react. What if I looked up their IP address and decided to really mess with them, big time? Or, conversely, was on the brink of suicide. That kind of message might push me right over the edge.
But, mostly, I thought, one of the greatest misnomers of the internet is anytime people think that they are annonymous. The truth is, we're only annonymous to the un-informed. And anyone working on the internet cannot afford to be uninformed. Because -- for anyone who never bothered to study their history lessons -- since the government originally sponsored and formed the internet, it's hard to believe they wouldn't utilize it -- in a low-key fashion -- so that they could keep tabs on people. Truth be told, we have no clear idea of how much Big Brother might be watching.
For instance, just as search engines can scan the entire internet for a key phrase in a matter of seconds, I'm sure that the government has certain key words and phrases set up as red flags. Words like "kill," among others.
The whole point is, on the internet, we are still very much a part of society-- anyone who thinks they can "get away" with anything, is seriously deluded and will learn the hard way how wrong they are. Oh, there are some who try. But, you might notice that they don't last very long. If you've ever encountered or been taken in a scam, for instance, it's no co-incidence that the site is gone 2-3 months later. Why is that? I mean, NONE of them last very long. Hmmm.
But with regards to every day activities among average users, the same thing, to a lesser degree, applies. I see this a lot on forums. People say and do the most ridiculous things sometimes. And, unlike something that is spoken between two people (leaving no evidence) something in writing lasts forever-- especially on the internet. (Trust me: I've got book reviews on Amazon.com that are more than 5 years old.)
Another aspect of this is that, what people who think they can behave badly because of the annonymity clearly DON'T understand is that they're NOT the ONLY ones who are annonymous! Many are watching-- who? They don't know.
So, no, it's not like being in society. It's much stricter. At least, the stupid comment someone makes today, can haunt their steps much longer than they realize-- possibly forever. Those who don't understand this will have to learn it the hard way. How hard depends only on the level of their stupidity.
You know what they say: in cyber-space, no one hears you scream. But you do scream, nonetheless.--mo
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