The Internet is like alcohol – in moderation it’s beneficial. Yet also like alcohol, most people don’t use it in moderation.
The Internet is a vast jungle of information and communication that has become inhabited by creatures who have turned it into a heart of darkness.
Almost everyone I know has an Internet-related addiction. One exception is my parents, but they also believe “spam” is just imitation meat, and they don’t understand why I shudder at e-mails titled “! YOUNG LOLITAS W/ GIANT HORSE!”
Normal people, on the other hand, know that the Internet’s mighty force defeats all but the wise. My friends are sucked into the game “World of Warcraft,” and now only their empty shells remain on earth. The game is more than their mistress. It’s their second, secret family. They use the term “zurg” more than they use the word “the.”
Then there are online forums that destroy all that is fine and redeemable about mankind. Forums are usually places where kindness, modesty and maturity go to die. This may be due to a plethora of 13 year olds who wreak havoc with their keyboards, but it’s amazing how their opinions can suck people into long, pointless and irresistible discussions.
Of course, there’s the online anti-Christ blogs. Many blogs are God-awful. Yet they wouldn’t bother me if they weren’t drawing masses of people into their depths away from real news reporting.
Blogs may have revealed important information to the public, but they are created by those who don’t have to take responsibility and who are quite often political fanatics who don’t understand the word “objective. ”
(If you want a news source that’s better than average, I recommend the BBC, which could easily pummel Instapundit Oz-style. But I digress.)
The intoxicating and disturbing realm of the Internet can also draw you in at random moments. Recently I was caught up in a string of e-mails about an article I wrote. It grew into an unusual series of events that ended up with my fretfully scanning a hideously long cartroom transcript close to soiling myself.
It’s a long story, but the point of it is that one e-mail led me into a state near hysteria, yet I couldn’t walk away from the situation.
Then there are the moments that everyone has faced – the “Oh, my Jesus! Why did that come up under my Google image search?”
After accidentally finding an image of a spread-eagle Harry Potter doing something perverse, my friends and I couldn’t look away, and the horrible, unholy, sexy image was burned into our brains – wait, did I just say “sexy”? Um, ignore that comment.
The point is that we must be careful about the Internet. It is a powerful tool that’s also dangerous. If people aren’t careful about Internet usage, they could become losers who do nothing but whine about politics, throw insults to adolescents all day and obsess over Harry Potter porn. And do you really want to end up like me?
Lisa Chun may be reached at bureacrat85@yahoo.com