MaggieMae
Reality bits
- Apr 3, 2009
- 24,043
- 1,635
- 48
Small stories which are otherwise insignificant to the public at large appear all over the Internet every day. These "stories" (like blogs, message boards, dedicated websites, and even Google) can become avenues for destruction, not for communication.
Every single person these days, whether a parent, sibling, teacher, student, pundit, politician, lawyer, doctor, Indian Chief, needs to wrap him or herself in a tightly wrapped virtual shield because everything we say or do can become a headline or a talking point which morphs into a headline, somewhere, and it will then be spread all over the Internet either willfully or unwittingly, taken out of context, and used against us if possible.
I guess it's one of the biggest advantages to being older because I really don't care who quotes me or alleges what, or even sues me. Bring it on. But if I were younger, with a career ambition ahead of me, I would think twice before opening my mouth or writing anything for fear it would be misinterpreted and affect my job possibilities, my credit rating, my reputation in general, just because somebody "read it on the Internet" and could anonymously wreak havoc on my entire life.
When is this going to stop? When are people going to stop wasting time reading garbage on the Internet instead of the wealth of real informative material it provides? Or at least stop passing garbage along simply because you want some sort of gotcha moment? When will people stop taking for granted that something must be true...because it was on the Internet? Hasn't the Net been around long enough for people to KNOW enough to wade through the bullshit and get to the facts?
Every single person these days, whether a parent, sibling, teacher, student, pundit, politician, lawyer, doctor, Indian Chief, needs to wrap him or herself in a tightly wrapped virtual shield because everything we say or do can become a headline or a talking point which morphs into a headline, somewhere, and it will then be spread all over the Internet either willfully or unwittingly, taken out of context, and used against us if possible.
I guess it's one of the biggest advantages to being older because I really don't care who quotes me or alleges what, or even sues me. Bring it on. But if I were younger, with a career ambition ahead of me, I would think twice before opening my mouth or writing anything for fear it would be misinterpreted and affect my job possibilities, my credit rating, my reputation in general, just because somebody "read it on the Internet" and could anonymously wreak havoc on my entire life.
When is this going to stop? When are people going to stop wasting time reading garbage on the Internet instead of the wealth of real informative material it provides? Or at least stop passing garbage along simply because you want some sort of gotcha moment? When will people stop taking for granted that something must be true...because it was on the Internet? Hasn't the Net been around long enough for people to KNOW enough to wade through the bullshit and get to the facts?
