Anonymous

Just another reason I am finding myself more upset with the Internet. I liked the days pre-Internet where the only people contributing crazy ideas to society were the people calling into radio stations and the nutty conspiracy theorists that published their own poorly written news paper.

Now, unfortunately, anyone with a computer and an e-mail address can go on the Internet and make a complete fool of themselves. While I have no problem with people's opinions I can't begin to tell you how many times I have had the forehead smacking moments because of their stupidity. It's quickly coming to a point that many of the websites I tend to frequent I have to completely skip over the comments at the end of the article. It seems for every one intelligent poster there are 50 that bring the curve down.

There are two aspects of the anonymity that I find the mos disturbing. The first has to do with the freedom people feel to brandish their opinions about. While on the positive side this spurs debate and gets people talking, the reverse is that many of the things said would never be said in public. (If you would like to see an example of this go to cleveland.com and read the comments geared toward the Dolans and their spending habits in regard to the Cleveland Indians.)

Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

The other end of this is that people (instigators) use the Internet to pick fights and get a larger number of people riled up, with fewer consequnces. People that for whatever reason "get off" on other people getting mad. The word for them, in the present vernacular, is a troll. This is when an individual goes to a site, they normally wouldn't go to, just to say something against the collective thought. (an athiest on a Christian site, a Kobe Bryant fan on a LeBron James site.)

This thought has hit a little closer to home as my sister received an e-mail from a "friend" that was only looking to cause trouble. Even though everyone knows this individual, she is leaving and taking up the cause of others (which she has no business getting involved in).

So, I may be taking a break (not from blogging) from the Internet.

Also, I love the irony of this post. See if you can catch it.