Count down:
(I always try to be positive and uplifting so the best first)
The Best of the Internet
5.) It has really improved shopping. I am a girl who is a big fan of budget shopping. The Internet makes this fun, easy and gives me, who lives out in the country, variety. You can price check, look through thousands of options and pay from your own home.
4.) Maps. I am terrible at using verbal directions. Don't tell me how to get there, draw me a picture. Now I can get the Internet to do that for me anytime I want.
3.) The Internet encourages creativity. I am writing this now because of the Internet. I have put so many thoughts down in words that I never would have before and I don't have to be a published author to do it. The same goes for photography, art, crafts, etc.. Just look at Pinterest, Blogs, Amazon (you can sell an ebook easily now) and Etsy to explore some of it.
2.)The Internet is an amazing way to educate yourself. I can look up the ballot of an upcoming election and what it all means on the web. I can read news from anywhere. I can study my religion in depth, read blogs about cooking, read up on medical issues, parenting issues and Google anything under the sun.
1.) The Internet has made me closer to my friends and family. I know more about my friends and family now that ever before thanks to email, facebook, etc...
The Worst of the Internet
I like to think if this is a wake up call to one person about what we stuff into our minds or put out for the world to see, I have done something worth while.
5.) The Internet promotes envy. There is a fine line in sharing your joy and thankfulness and crossing over into look-at-me-ism. Sometimes it's hard to tell how much to share and some people's lives are presented as a study in perfection that can only make everyone else feel defeated and jealous. (flip side the woe-is-me-ism: the fierce competition to literally have the worst life in the universe)
4.) Glamorization of foolishness. It's a 24/7 tabloid, joke mill and blooper reel that screens nothing and puts everything forward as if it is worth watching. I fall for it more often than I like.
3.) Vice and sin central at your finger tips. You used to have to put some effort into being bad. If you wanted porn you had to go out of your home and buy it. If you wanted to overspend, cheat on your spouse, show off too much skin, or watch slasher movies, you had to leave your house on that mission or make plans to do it. Now with the click of a mouse, the destruction of your life is hassle free.
2.) IMHO overload. (IMHO stands for "in my humble opinion") This disclaimer is used to preface an opinion sometimes and a rant most of the time. Rants are usually poorly thought out declarations of opinion that require little thought, care or respect. You can add to this the comments that people make on other people's facebook pages about how that person should run their facebook page. Seriously, if you cannot stand what they post, UNFRIEND them, or post a rebuttal on your own page.
Also you can include the blizzard of inspirational sayings, pictures, political articles, and totally fictional forwards sent daily to every email and facebook page that exists.
Hey, I share these from time to time but I use them like hot sauce- lightly and with care. Too much and you ruined something good.
I feel that everyone- of any or no religious persuasion- is responsible to fact check something before they share it. If you are spreading a lie, you are helping no one.
Which brings me to the #1 worst thing about the Internet:
1.) It is a hoax factory and the most successful rumor mill of all time. Evil people do exist. They have a variety of beliefs and can label themselves anything you can imagine. They send out things they know aren't true because it gives them a thrill to trick people or they send out things they don't care to check because it supports a point they agree with.
The more people they trick or enrage/persuade, the bigger the thrill.
Please don't be used by them or taken in. If you are it is a tragedy.
The most current and best example of this is the propaganda that is going around that the Sandy Hook Tragedy was a giant hoax or conspiracy by our government.
No, I do not believe everything my government or the media puts out to be true.
But... I would never ever ever want to be part of something that would open and tear at the wounds of families who have lost loved ones.
Investigate everything and never take the word of a You Tube video, clip montage, famous person, or an "expert" that appeals to your interests or concerns as rock solid truth.
The best lies are interesting and exciting.
It is destructive for you and everyone you communicate with when you take no time to think it through.
This is what I like about blogs. I can give you this "overload" of IMHO and you choose to click on it or not.
If you like it awesome, if not you can move along about your day, never to read my blog again.
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