The internet has opened up a multitude of opportunities for us mixing the good with the bad. Personally, I find it a wonderful venue to keep in touch with family and friends, research and purchase products, and obtain information about a variety of topics from gardening, whale spotting trips, and platforms of the presidential candidates. Reading others blogs to get a handle on what the public is concerned about with their thoughts on a variety of topics from faith based to political to entertainment to new technology gizmo's to personal experiences in their lives is very interesting and informative for me. And so I read but rarely offer an opinion at a blog unless I know something about the topic.
What has alarmed me greatly is the comments/replies others make to the person who has blogged. Do we think about the meaning behind our words before we write a reply to someone who has suffered childhood abuse? Are we victimizing the person again by our thoughtless, hurtful, and uneducated replies? Do we write about something we know nothing about just to make a statement? Many questions but not very many good answers.
Internet Psycho-analysis or what I call ARM CHAIR MIND READING ( ie: arm chair quarterbacking for us lovers of football) is hazardous to all. Not only the person at the receiving end of the comments but those who make those analysis without knowing the full story. I've read blogs where others have stated that someone was an alcoholic, drug user, womanizer, emotionally unstable, person without a good life etc. As I write, rumors are flying around about a famous non-Presidential candidate and a certain women..not his wife.
But I don't know where the truth lies about him anymore then I know whether one suffers from an addiction or is from a dysfunctional family and in serious need of " sit down in the chair" with a psychologist type therapy. Few of us on the internet who interact with one another via message boards, emails, or blogs are privy to the intimate details of each others life journey. The only information we have is what they write and what we read. Who's to know whether it is fictitious writing or a truthful version of their experiences. I tend to take people at their word but always with a degree of skepticism when I don't know the whole story or have any way of verifying the details. Buyer beware comes to mind & don't always believe what you read in print form or on the internet. Why am I thinking about the New York Times..hmmm
For that reason alone, I'm reluctant to jump to any conclusion about anyone I've met on the internet but wonder why others believe they are capable of reading minds resulting in diagnosis of folks they have never met or conversed with. ARM CHAIR MIND READING AT IT'S WORST!
Internet Psycho-analysis is a very dangerous game for all who indulge but it seems to be a favorite game people are playing in this age of the internet.
And about blog writing...someone said that when you write a blog you're talking to yourself. In some sense that is true, but when " you think" you're always talking to yourself, aren't you? Because of that I conducted my own test and wrote my first blog earlier this month to determine if that conjecture was accurate. Guess what I found...people ARE reading what you write. And the good thing is that it doesn't have to be well written to receive a hit, there's no English teacher around to circle the mis-spelled words in red or instruct to you re-write the paragraphs. Thank goodness for that!
No internet psycho-analysis of me is welcomed. Please keep your comments to yourself.
