The Internetz Blowz My Mind

I always have the best of intentions on getting up everyday and making myself useful around my house. You know, doing my job as Stay at Home Mom and house wife. I always do the Mom thing, the house wife thing....not so much. I am not, and never have been, a morning person. I like to start my day by checking out what is going on with the world wide web.

I start on Facebook and some days am amazed at where my journey ends, when I realize I have wasted way too much time online. Some days I find the coolest shit to waste time away with. Check out the Akinator. Seriously, I have only fooled him once and it was with a sad excuse of a back up Quarterback, destined to be known as "Who was that guy that shit the bed while Peyton Manning was out that year?"

Other days I finally follow things that have been going on in the news for weeks already like the Mom from Calgary who went on strike and whose blog went viral because of it. She got to go to New York and be all on shows and stuff. Had I known that kind of stuff would happen I would have been telling you that kind of shit for years now. :) I read her blog and it is very amusing and very well written and I look forward to following her from now on.

What blows my mind about the internet though is how people think that they can spew whatever bullshit they want on here and have no accountability. Striking Mom posted her story on a blog because people that saw her story on Facebook wanted more of it. After it went viral it became yet another place for trolls to hang out and do what they do best. Criticize, abuse, mock, feel superior, insult, pick apart. I have been fortunate that I have yet to have trolls that have found their way to my little corner of the internet. I have had spammers but I can deal with that.

The recent tragic death of Amanda Todd has literally made me sick to my stomach as we have experienced a situation similar to the one that began the torment for this poor girl. Thankfully our path has not led to the same place and I hope that it never will. I cannot believe the hate that has poured out of some people in the forms of comments on youtube videos, comments on news stories, facebook posts, and tweets.

It is disgusting and heartbreaking to think of the torment this girl must have suffered and the despair she must have been feeling to take her own life. My heart aches for her family for experiencing this loss and even more for the vileness that has taken place on the internet in the days since. Don't get me wrong, I know not all is black and white with the internet. There are some great things to be found and some things so shocking I am sure that my mind can't even comprehend them. I know that I attribute the anonymity that comes along with a keyboard and monitor for some of the horrible things that people say online. It is very easy to be tough when you are by yourself with no one to face with the terrible things that are being said.

I keep pretty close tabs on my kids and the internet and in reality, they have very little time on it, at home anyway. One of the things that I keep reminding them of constantly though it to not post anything online that they wouldn't be willing to say to someone to their face and not to post any pictures they wouldn't be willing for their Great Grandparents to see. I admit these are lessons learned the hard way but learned nonetheless.

People talk about decline in our society and I wonder how much of it can be attributed to the technology that we have before us today. I think that we are still learning how to use it responsibly and just like anything else in life, some people will take longer to learn that lesson. It scares me to wonder what the bottom line will be before we all learn that "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all".