CYBER ATTACK DISABLED SOCIAL WEBSITE
LIFE'S SUPERHIGHWAY CAN BE REPAVED BUT NEVER REFORMED
"It's a brutal world out there in the blogosphere. I'm often surprised by the ferocity out there, but I probably shouldn't be." — Dana Milbank, The Washington Post
IT'S THE INTERNET, STUPID
Attention Luddite:
THE INTERNET IS WILD AND WOOLLY LIKE THE OLD WEST. The upside is that online files can be scrubbed, effectively repaving the Superhighway. Those who take exception to the Internet shouldn't be online.
Twitter as an online social network (like MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, Facebook and others ) is robust and durable. And assaults, like the one recently, are anticipated. This is what enables the Internet's survival.
But this is not what troubles the Luddite.
The current generation of digital natives enjoy widespread connectivity which comes with the dire threat of infringement by virtual outlaws upon privacy and identity. These cyber-bandits, as those in the real world, face a variety of opportunities to violate the law, because since its inception the Internet has remained the new wild and woolly frontier with only oppressive governments attempting to tame it.This is accomplished through software that filters domains and circumvents content to compromise the users in obtaining easy access. The governments of Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, People's Republic of China, and Saudi Arabia restrict what their people have access to, particularly as it relates to political and religious content.
That said, no one will reform the Internet, not in this generation. And for those who take exception to the Web, well, they shouldn't be online.
Imagine the Net as a gigantic mirror of the world in general and here, in the United States, Americana in particular. Love what you read or hate it, collectively it is what we are as a country.
The Internet worldwide has an increasingly noxious demographic. Who are these people? They comment about EVERYTHING and nothing of real significance. Actually, those who post are ranting sometimes for its own sake. Playing the role of contrarian or the Devil's advocate, these people live and breathe in a wretched age of cynicism where cynics abound and virtually rule the social web sites. Mostly under assumed names they hurl their invectives; drunks looking for a bar-room brawl, picking a fight by throwing punchy diatribes, pitching poison darts at a message board, preferring to get down and dirty rather than fight by the rules. It's ruby, not football.
Those who post a comment don't always think the thing through. No time to put on critical thinking caps. It's difficult, sometimes, to actually know what you're talking about, with the need to whine overcoming any useful logic. Although many are surprisingly enlightened, others are vicious grabs at the throat, impassioned feedback that brooks no whimpering, brokers no calm and offers no regret. It gets out of hand more than it should, mostly between or among anonymous posts using broken English (if "English" it can be called) to attack... and attack BIG. Uncouth behavior often discourages more thoughtful visitors to a site, but its intent is to encourage strong emotions and wrathful expressions of diverse views on the subject-at-hand—provided the subject by this time is not completely forgotten.
Political demagogues and louts who espouse racist, sexist, anti-Semitic and homophobic opinions may be listed as "unique visitors" and appeal to advertisers (believe it or not) but their fight over conflicting views while hiding behind "user names" is a desperate bid for notice and consideration. The upside is that online files can be scrubbed, effectively repaving the Superhighway, but the "information" does allow an honest plebescite to take great delight in having a vote with many readers amused by the drivel.
Coughing up vitriol secures a temporary position of authority and sense of self for anyone who spends so much time on the Internet, spewing pejorative comments and probably compensating for something deeply lacking in life.
Beyond its social implications, or because of them, application of the Internet's scale-free networks allow a large market for some of the biggest companies today which have grown considerably by taking full advantage of the efficient nature of low-cost advertising and e-commerce. The fastest and least expensive way to spread information (or bile) to a vast number of people simultaneously, the Internet has also revolutionized shopping, facilitate personalized marketing to a specific person or a specific group of people more effectively than any other medium.
Many, if not most, who use the Internet are young, typically in their teens and ranging from 13 to 25 years old. Marketing companies use the information these adolescents and young adults post on social web sites in determining how advertisers might position their products and services online. And it works!
So... what do we really know about these users from their profiles? Is a top-down review even possible? Online, everyone is faceless, an electric sylph untroubled by social mores and more concerned with cultural memes. What advertisers are attracted to is of no matter to them. Who are they, really? They're everybody and nobody all at once. They sit in the glow of a computer screen posting screeds on Twitter, fact and fiction on Wikipedia User Bio-page while anonymously alleging anything about anybody; or simply miscreants commenting on web sites with a hefty use of obscenity, vulgarity, hate speech and personal attacks to get attention.
When you're on the Internet ignorance, you see, is not a disqualifier.
Frederick Louis Richardson
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