The World at My Fingertips, aka Thing 5

"Is it amazing and positive for a nine year old to be able to share her perspectives and ideas with tens of thousands of people around our globe, all within the space of 48 hours? I'm inclined to think it is." I had to comment on this quote as I think it reflects what I was trying to express in my last entry. I don't think, personally, that I would put a video of my little girl on YouTube simply because I can't bear the thought of some stranger "thinking" about her. Send it to my family and friends? Absolutely. Of course, speaking from a non-parent view point, I don't really care what your nine year old thinks about the President; it's kind of like vacation pictures or drawings. I can feign interest for only so long, but then. . .

That last link is just a little something I found while surfing. I especially love the comments; maybe I'm a cynic, but come on . . . "haunting"? I've always been more of a fan of that guy that critiques kids' drawings, but that link might be offensive to some, and I don't the school filter would let us visit anyway. But trust me, it is good for a laugh--a big gut-busting laugh.

Meanwhile, back on my reader, I hit "mark all as read" as I finished the NPR stuff, and POOF everything went bye-bye. I spent some time looking for them, but, alas, I cannot figure how to retrieve them. I even asked Techno-husband, but he doesn't use Google as his reader so he couldn't really help me. So next time, I'll just hold off on that until I'm really done, with everything. Live and learn--glad they weren't my important notes for my meeting with the President later; would you like to see the pictures of my linoleum?

So back to the world of YouTube, etc. While I was surfing and found the precious drawing cite, I also discovered peopleofwalmart.com (travel here at your own risk; again, not including the link on purpose--this one is disturbing). I think there are some privacy law issues here, but oddly, I could connect from school. This cite troubles me to no end. At any time, someone can snap a picture of you and upload it somewhere, make snotty little comments, and if you respond, suddenly you can't take a joke or something. Lawyers must love this!

So that got me thinking. Have we become so narcissistic that we crave approval from anyone just to feel validated. I had no idea who Kanye West was until he shows up all over the news for being a "jackass." Just quoting the President here because he put it so succinctly. Who cares what this guy has to say about videos or otherwise, but he apparently thinks we all do. He, Mr West, suffers from the "I'm the Center of the Universe Syndrome." Many of the blogs I've stumbled upon seem this way. And the responses / comments can be frightening. The aforementioned and linked blog above references what percentage of the responses contained "four letter words". To me that was creepier than the number of pedophiles who posted because you had to expect that--the dark curtain of anonymity pulls all the muck off the bottom of the swamp. But come on, if you don't agree with a 9 year old's politics, do you swear at her? Them's good arguing skills, Bubba. Yer maw must be proud. And this is just a sampling of the dark vitriolic nature of the average human being these days.

Remember the old Morton Downey Show? This set up seems so trite now as ugliness and hatred seem to be what feeds our collective unconscious. Why do we like controversy and conflict so much? Are we still that close to The Coliseum?

Looking back on the post, I think the world of the internet scares me--not because I am afraid to use it or I think I can't use it--it frightens me because I'm not sure the world needs to be in each other's pockets all the time.