Sherwood Studio Digital Designs by Julie Southern

Y'know, I've been kind of flippant about the internet and stuff (and touched a chord with some of you), but to be perfectly serious (I don't know about you, but I DO strive for perfection in almost half of all I do), it's quite an interesting phenomenon. Sometimes the anonymity frees us from the constraints of personal interaction, making us more powerful and more confident and freer and better. Other times, the anonymity makes us fearless in a negative, bullying way and we drop the constraints of good manners, and thoughtfulness, and generally make asses of ourselves in a way we wouldn't dream of behaving IRL (in real life. See, I'm good at this IS (internet Stuff) ). This leads to all sorts of philosophical questions. How can we make this power work for good? How do we stop ourselves from becoming things we don't admire just for the thrill of being free to be nasty? Where is the dividing line? Should we care? WHY do we care?

I realize I'm over-simplificating. I know that some really crappy stuff goes on. My kids have both suffered in their own way from Internet Crappiness. My husband still claims that the Internet is the AntiChrist. I maintain that it's still people that are crappy, and that the Internet is only the medium ( kind of like the LOVE of money is the root of all evil, not money in and of itself). So the internet is what you make of it. What are you making of it? What am I?

Food for thought.