More & more all the time I'm amazed at the ability of internet people to maintain grudges & carry on with silly vendettas for months at a time. Admittedly, I myself have engaged in the practice of warring with a fellow computer person, someone who only existed inside this machine or at the end of a telephone connection, but still...I'm amazed.
Looking around I see that I'm not the only person this happens to either. I regularly see my fellow internetters engaging in computer battles. It's hard to resist. Every time I find a new fake profile of myself, a slanderous mention on some shameful site, or lately even the attacks on my precious boys posted at stupid blogs, I feel enraged, furious & hopeless....even sometimes momentarily wishing I could physically reach out & hurt these people back.
We must however learn to realize that the internet is not a real place. This is a digital world. It's sad that cyber bullies & stalkers desire to ruin it for the rest of us, but hopefully soon there will be change. I would like to see it come sooner rather than later, but I've been told it's years away at best. I wish my children might one day be able to use computers, phones, tablets & game consoles to access the wonderful world wide web in a safe & pleasant way. Internet pranks are not like the harmless pranks of children. Internet pranks leave traces everywhere & they're not easily removed.
Remember, freedom is a beautiful thing, but there's not a better example of how high the price we pay for freedom is than the abuse that is allowed to occur online. Of course, free speech is not the same as hate speech & the cruel profiles that myself & some of my very dear friends have been subjected to recently are not free, they're hate filled & the cost is high. Far too high.
