Red Room Where the Writers Are

I just recently read an article at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26837911/ about anonymity can turn nice people into nasty people online. This is all very true! A lot of times people do have different personas that we present to the world. We act one way around loved ones and show sides to our personalities that are a bit more complex than the average person can discern. The Internet has allowed people to go online, vent and say things that they would never say in real life but in our increasingly privacy-less environment, the Internet is now being used against us.

I was watching a video on CNN Headline News about college admission officials that were going online and checking out perspective students myspace.com and facebook.com profiles.Don't like that someone blasted your favorite actor on their profile? Don't admit them. Or when a certain public official anonymously professes love for something that you find bizarre, recall them, or better yet, find some dirt on them and use that to justify coming after them.

See where I'm going? We're turning into a society where having an opinion can and will be used against you. Over and over again. The problem is, all of us are human beings. We all believe that our opinions are right and valid. Sometimes, we are right. Sometimes, we are wrong. But that doesn't give someone else the right to stop us from thinking a certain way. Then, I thought back to another video that I had seen awhile ago on protestors down South who believed that the Klan shouldn't be allowed in business because they were selling hate material.

The question then becomes, when do our personal beliefs infringe on the rights of others? After all, if we say that this is okay over here, then we have to say that this isn't okay over there. The problem is, the Internet is supposed to be a free medium. I don't believe that someone's personal opinion should be used against them for the rest of the life. Unfortunately, the article at msnbc.com advocates that, in the belief that we should embarrass someone for something they say over and over again.  But here's the kicker: Let's not ask the person why they said or felt a certain way. Let's just make assumptions about them and use that to justify our own internal feelings of right and wrong. But then this is where the fear-driven hysteria that I've talked about previous begins.

I've made controversial statements on the Internet myself. I've said this so many times that I could scream. If anyone wants to know why I said a certain thing, they can ask me. Of course, I realize that with some people, no matter what you say, no answer I could give would ever be good enough and why? Because they're not interested in really getting to know the person behind the screen, the anonymous poster behind the comments. I've seen the same thing happen to celebrities over and over again, particularly celebs such as Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan.

We put celebrities on pedestals and then when they don't live up to our expectations, we knock them down, over and over and over again until we are satisfied that they have suffered. However, I think that some people get some kind of sick pleasure from making other people miserable. And yes, it's probably because they have their own issues to deal with. 

So, where do we go from here? Nowhere until we start actually asking people for their honest opinions and thoughts. Asking them why they think a certain way. The inability to do so suggests that we're not actually interested in the real deal but a fantasy, an illusion that allows us to continue spin around in circles. Circles that don't move or go forward.

Until Next Time,

P.