Wild and wacky internet people....

I got an email today that completely freaked me out!

This... mind you... from a 53-year-old female Internet acquaintance.

"Can't you send a photo? I'll bet you're really cute..."

I'm 56-freaking-years old! I'm not cute!

I am also not open to that kind of interaction. At all. Period.

Admittedly, I am not into the whole social networking, MySpace, Facebook stuff. The very idea of it makes me want to crawl under the bed.

That is not to say that I haven't become friends with people I initially met on the Internet. I have. I'm very open about phone calls. My long distance is free and minutes unlimited. I'm more than willing to take advantage of it. Mail is okay. I have a post office box. I would only meet someone once I'm reasonably sure they are who they indicate they are. "Extremely cautious" is one way to describe my Internet experience.

I have talked with a few people who regularly comment on this site. However, I know they are decent, respectable people ... as I'm sure all of my commenters are. I'd feel safe talking with any of you.

At the same time, I am not willing to put my entire identity out on the Internet for anyone to grab. I don't reveal information that would allow anyone to track me down.

I don't understand all of this "web chat" stuff. And sending notes to virtual strangers, saying "I'll bet you're really cute."

Does anyone really fall for that stuff?

Perhaps it's just my background in IT.. but don't most people realize that using those programs leaves an open port right into your computer system, one that can allow anyone with reasonable skills to copy everything on your hard drive? It's an open portal, for crying out loud!

Am I hopelessly behind the times? Is this sort of thing common now?

I don't get it! It makes me shudder! Seriously. It scares the hell out of me!

~*

Fire In The Hole....

Just recently I was watching a newscast, a general no-no in this house, and heard a story about some kids in Huntingdon, PA who have begun a new game.

This game is called "Fire in the Hole". The kids drive through a fast food place, order food and then throw it at the server. The objective in this game is to videotape it and put it on YouTube.

Now I'll grant you that we were rather mischievous as kids, too. But our idea of mischief was to toilet-paper a house or egg someone's windows. With the security patrol in the neighborhood, we wouldn't have gotten too far doing either on a regular basis ~ but we occasionally managed to unload some TP or a carton of eggs somewhere. The most that happened if we were caught was that we'd have to clean it up.

I got in trouble personally for writing on the bathroom walls in high school. Several of us wrote pretentious paragraphs that started with things like "In these hallowed halls of academia..." nWe were suspended for a few days and made to wash the walls on the weekend.

We really thought we were so clever.

We certainly didn't put anyone in danger.

Imagine if they begin to throw hot coffee on a server instead of cold soda.

Someone mentioned that their ultimate objective was to throw fire crackers in the windows. Another person took it a step further and speculated that it would be fun and interesting to shoot one of them between the eyes with a 9MM handgun.

Meanwhile, these videos are being played on YouTube, to the apparent amusement of other teenagers.

Where and when did kids become so hateful? And why?

I can speculate on how I think it came to be. In my culture, we have a thing called "face" and disrespecting someone, especially in public, is simply unacceptable.

And I can't help but wonder why it is not emphasized here.

The people working at those fast food places may be often young, or poor, maybe both ~ but they are working people and deserve the same respect as any working person.

Something tells me these kids would not target a lawyer ~ or a cop. They wouldn't dare!

Somehow these workers are considered to be acceptable targets.

I'd like to know if you heard this story... and, if so, what are your thoughts? What do you think has brought this kind of "amusement" about?

Personally, I find it repulsive.

~*

Finding Our Voices....

At first, I had a bit of a balk at the thought of "empowerment".

I am so not about power.

I am attracted to humility, modesty, gentleness. My sensibilities belong to another place and time.

Power has a different feel. Aggression. Oppression. All sorts of nasty gnarly things. It resonates of the self-help movement which I, generally speaking, despise.

So when the call was put out by BlogRhet (via Slouching Mom) to answer the question as to whether blogging empowers women, or more specifically does my blog empower me, I was going to skip the exercise and wait for the next one.

If I use the term "empower" in its original meaning before it was coopted by politics and the self-help movement, that being "to enable, to authorize", I was able to look at the question differently.

In that respect, yes, my blog enables me. My blog authorizes me to speak by the cultural norms of the wide open Internet, the virtual roundtable where we can all speak our minds.

It's more contemporary version of the soap box.

It is here that I can put my thoughts and ideas out for general consumption, learn new perspectives from the comments of others and tap into the wisdom of the community.

As for the enabling and authorizing me as a woman specifically, I don't think so. The Internet is, in a sense, the great equalizer. It is principles before personality. It is the one place where I can get beyond anyone's snap judgment or perception of this rather eccentric middle-aged woman with an abundance of pounds and too much Thai jewelry. Here is where my brain gets to play. Here's where my ideas are put out on the table, surrounded by people brighter and far more educated from all over the world. My ideas are tested. And I get feedback. And I grow and learn daily.

It offers me contact with people I would otherwise never have the honor of knowing. Geography, social status, demographics and many things divide us. Blogs unite us, men and women alike.

I also want to publicly thank the women of BlogRhet for its inclusivness. If there is such a thing as "empowerment", inclusiveness is the stem cell.

Peace,



~Chani