Like everything in life, it has it's good and bad virtues.
It's good because it provides new opportunities and avenues for positive communication. But it's also bad because the simple written words of strangers are able to suddenly have a strategic importance in people's lives which can be harmful in some ways.
People can edit their words and seem much more perfect than they really are in real life, and conversely other people can be too easily dismissed because their identity is reduced to mere words on a screen without any connection to a real living person.
Just look at all of those people trapped in sting operations trying to hook up with minors on NBC's Dateline. How many of those folks would never have succeeded in linking up with a "real" minor or would have been foolish enough to have even attempted to seduce a minor if the staged opportunity didn't present itself?
Of course many of those perps would have anyway, but it's probably a certainty that at least a small percentage wouldn't have.
Well enough about criminal activity, but how many otherwise honest, sincere and relatively innocent people have been led astray by bad advice from seemingly reputable, trustworthy people over the internet?
Everyone has a personal bias of some sort, so is there really such a thing as objective advice?
Since the internet aids people to more greatly influence others, it becomes a weapon of a sort that's just like any other weapon, and must be used responsibly. Personal responsibility is just what it sounds like it is, everyone's own personal responsibility and in the end, it's no one else's. So caveat emptor...let the buyer beware, because there's always the potential for trouble in the air...of the er... internet!
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
