One thing I have gotten a lot of over the past two or three years is people telling me I take the internet too seriously. A majority of these people who say that to me think it's perfectly okay to express any opinion they have about someone any time of the day, even if the person they're talking about is going to see what they write.
They're the folks I like to categorize as "logic thinkers" because they are too strict with standards. They have the freedom to say what they wish, so they take that too the extreme without any regard to a person's feelings. Those are exactly the kind of people I've often had a problem with. They're not like the nice folks who neighbor me where I live and areas close by.
Young people get bullied everyday on the internet because of a lack of parental supervision and an environment where basically anything goes. Moral and traditional values are poor on the internet. If older folks on some of these websites would try to raise the bar and set a good example, the younger folks would most likely behave better. As long as there's an "anything goes" attitude, the internet will always be a cruel place to be.
I was stunned when some people asked me why in the world I would release those videos of me basically making a fool of myself. I said they were just for fun. Everyone has been that way at least once. They insisted that they still didn't understand, and they basically over-reacted and thought it was silly for me to have fun with my webcam like that and show people.
Now recently an individual named Austin Sims from Michigan City, Indiana decided to spam some of my blog posts. I have left the comments he made so others could see the poor behaviour by this kid. On YouTube, he portrays himself as an 18 year old when he's actually only 15 and has a lot of maturing to do yet. I am expecting an appology from him for this. One thing I'm very good at doing is digging up a lot of dirt on people that they don't want anyone else to see. I have plenty of it on him, so he'll appologize and never do this again if he's smart.
Where did this kid come from? 7chan.org is the place. Someone who knows me online found one of my videos and told a bunch of people on 7chan.org about it. As a result, they tried to dig up my phone number (unsuccessfully by the way) to harass me by phone, and then Austin spammed my blog posts.
Had there been higher standards, leadership, and good number of positive examples set, these kids would never have seen any of that as funny. But the internet is a standard of it's own. I could act like them to try and survive and avoid the heavy load of criticism and hate aimed at me over the years, but I choose to instead set good examples for people who look up to me and not them.
I hope when I'm older, I can look back to these days and say that I made a positive difference in some people. When I set good examples, they will spread. Otherwise, bad things happen. So am I really taking the internet too seriously? Absolutely not, but there are things that are right and wrong, and I'm going to follow my morals regardless what typical internet users tell me.
13 comments:
I agree with following your morals on the internet, but I still think you take the internet too seriously. But you need to understand that people on the internet can't hurt you in anyway. (Well unless they ask for your home address) Even if people hate you on the internet, it shouldn't affect you to the point of disappointment.
I know about the kid who killed himself because his online lover dumped him on Everquest. That's another story, because he got too emotionally attached to the internet or he was depressed. *cough*Andy Wolan*cough*
They're all talk and no action. All I can say is that you should not consider people you meet and interact with online your friends.
All I ask is that you learn to laugh at yourself.
If I couldn't laugh at myself, I wouldn't have done those videos and showed them to everyone. I'm not worried about who thinks the videos are stupid. I'm talking about people who do bad things (like vandalize my blog) because they see it as a "cool" thing to do. The internet has trends that are very radical compared to those in the real world. I'm not saying the real world is perfect, but there are fewer boundaries on the internet and I think therefore people like you and me have responsibilities to try and be good role models for younger people. That's the absolute only thing you can do to try and put more moral-guidence into the internet.
If this is what you need to feel satisfied: I apologize.
I really hope you feel GREAT for stalking and threatening a minor...
When you call (since you will most certainly deem this apology unacceptable) I hope you enjoy the conversation with my mother. She will most certainly be pleased to know that someone is stalking her son.
I suppose some might consider my messages as immoral, but they were the "on-line" equivalent of a harmless "in-real-life" joke... You do take the internet too seriously. If you are so offended at my messages, you should simply remove them.
To Damian and his fans: have fun devouring my post.
Distortions!
Here's a quote from the e-mail I sent our friend Austin:
"Read the comment I left in your YouTube profile. You have until Saturday to appologize to me. If you do not, then you will hear from me directly via phone."
That's my so-called "blackmail" on him. Real dirty business. Isn't that what a principal of a school does when he needs to deal with a kid that is out of line?
I also warned Austin that the internet is not the place to play pranks because people he doesn't know can easily get his address, phone number, and other personal information (which I proved to him). But a "stalker"?! I'm no stalker, I was just trying to figure out who he was since he blocked his profile from being viewed shortly after spamming my blog posts.
He believes he's done nothing illegal. Harassment of any kind is technically illegal. But hey, I like solving my problems outside the law.
I also prove my point that he, like so many other young kids on the internet, honestly believes it's perfectly okay to do this! Due to a lack of guidence, he thinks flipping me off 9 times over on YouTube and creating a mess for me to cleanup on my blog is funny. We did pranks when I was in school, but most of us never did this and called it okay to do. You do this if you hate someone. Why would you do this to someone you've never even spoken to?
I'll accept his appology because it's only fair.
Well, my good friend Damian, I would have to thank you for not publishing my personal information past my location. I see this entire thing as a clash between two types of people. Please, do take the other commentators' advice: Lighten up!
Last reply before I leave this topic (and this is directly to the attacker)
I don't need to lighten up, you do. I scared you in that e-mail and made you appologize to me. You weren't sure what kind of person I was, and so you went with my wishes and appologized. But then you whine about how I stalked you and these other lies... you need to lighten up! You're just upset because I have a lot of crap over you that I could use against you. Remember, "I did nothing wrong"... wait, who said that?! I can play that game too.
*yawn* What a surprise, another anti-Saxman post...
http://poolsclosed.nexisonline.net/i/res/17.htm#i17
You guys can't hide anything from me. I saw that 2 days ago and was expecting more spam because of it.
Let's see, could that General Raids post be from Wetflame, DHR, FoS, Fiz, Nikki, or one of the many people at S2Beta.com? You can run me out of a Sonic community, but you cannot and will not run me away from the internet. I'm here to stay.
You can do all you want. You can spam several forums and say how obsessed you are with not liking me, it doesn't make much difference to me. Or better yet, you could try http://info.sonicretro.org/ -- that gets vandalized a lot! "Saxman", and surprisingly "ProSonic", articles are even on there. Or you could try making more posts on General Raids to continue the feedback and flow of messages attacking me.
The attacker is probably wetflame or fiz.
S2beta is more mature than it used to be (in my opinion). They made the quiz for membership more difficult. (Cracking down on dumb members)
You ought to come back to s2beta. (Or rather the Sonic Community) Wetflame got banned, Dust hill resident rarely posts, and Fiz no longer posts due to her "vow of silence." (read: she's emotionally attached to the board and hates the new staff)
Anonymous does not forget.
Anonymous is from Spokane, Washington ^_^
...bad 4chan reference...
Don't lie, it's very much the location of an existing user. Is it you specifically... I think it is, but we'll find out.
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