When the internet began to become popularly known in the 1990’s as the information superhighway, it was touted as a means for all people, rich or poor, young and old, across the entire United States to share and feed from a collective pool of knowledge. It has provided us with wonderful tools like Wikipedia and Google; tools that are somewhat flawed, but still very informative and powerful. We now have this keen ability to comfortably research in detail anything that might be of concern or interest to our daily lives. It has shrunken the size of our planet, figuratively speaking. I can read the news in New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Russia, Zimbabwe, etc., before I even exit my bed in the morning.
The internet is a great tool, except for one little flaw. It is saturated with humans and their own personal, unsubstantiated opinions. There once was a time when that opinion might never go any further than the fool’s, who thought it, front porch. It might just be one of those family secrets that everyone knows about and are conscience enough to never mention that topic when that crazy uncle is around. When outsiders would come for a visit, they might have gotten stopped at the door before entering and warned not to mention anything about “the lake.” But now that crazy uncle has a computer with internet access and has a “Creature in the Lake” website that gets over 15-thousand hits a month.
A website about a mythological creature living in a lake is pretty harmless, even if the website was to get a million hits a week. But such fervor over anything can lead to a disastrous outcome, especially when unsubstantiated. That lake might become a mecca for monster hunters who inadvertently destroy an entire ecosystem just to look for something that does not exist. Even when another hypothetical site out there, run by people of science who have studied the lake extensively, rebut such claims with facts and evidence. That website gets 1.1 million hits a week, unfortunately one million are coming from the other website to disprove the scientists using pseudo-science and sketchy information.
But I know, I know, the internet can be quite confusing. So I’ve proposed 3 easy “Internet Rules” to assist you on being more internet savvy.
Internet Rule #1: “Citation Needed”
http://images1.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Citation-Needed-wikipedia-819731_500_271.jpg
Always request sources to back up outlandish claims.
Example:
“Obama administration gives British distiller $3 billion to move from one American territory to another”
Rabble…Rabble…Rabble… As a person of Puerto Rican descent, I am outraged!!! How could Obama do such a thing? I thought he and I were boys? Brother went to Columbia, smoked weed and blew lines with the Puerto Ricans in Washington Heights. Okay, I have no proof of that. But I do have proof that this deal began over a year ago under the Bush Administration and that tax credit actually falls under the TARP program that Mister Bush and Hank Paulson pushed forward.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=amp5wXx35fkc
Internet Rule #2: “Get a Brain! Morans”
http://www.nerve.com/CS/blogs/scanner/2009/03/01-07/moran.jpg
Don’t listen to the crazies.
Example:
“I have a problem with the states controlling education. The federal government has…no business at all. That’s just way beyond their control; it takes parents even further away from what is and isn’t taught,”
http://onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=669984
What part of “Public Schools” and “Public Education” does she not understand? Regardless I just read the president’s proposed speech and by the time this column gets published he will have read it to the country and OUR CHILDREN!!!!
http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/
You know what, I’m going to save you the time it would take to read it. The next link pretty much sums it all up in 35 seconds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQT830mo8Mc
Don’t have 35 seconds? Here is a picture.
http://wagist.com/images/political/education.jpg
Internet Rule #3 “Think for yourself”
http://hongki.at/images/typography/3d/think.jpg
There is so much information on this superhighway that it is easy for us to become lost and wander into dangerous territories. One minute we are reading the day’s news the next moment we are being kidnapped by raging lunatics on the Fox news network. I mean those guys can’t be trusted. In fact, do you know what I heard? Now, I’m not saying that he did, but I just cannot prove that he didn’t in fact rape and kill a woman in 1990. There is a rumor going around and even a website, not saying that Glenn Beck raped and killed a woman in 1990.
http://glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com/
Which brings me back to Obama’s evil, socialist, communist, fascist, Marxist, plan to brainwash our children with his pro-life, universal healthcare, greener planet, and global unity using his charm and wicked jump-shot. We need to continue to think for ourselves.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/6/776647/-The-Stay-In-School-Conspiracy-Theory
We need to maintain within the facts, study the sources and understand that maybe, just maybe, someone on the internet, on television, in a book, at a church, at the supermarket or in your house is lying to you. Life is in fact a roller coaster full of ups and downs and twists and turns. We were once young like the kid in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XQzQYFYfy8
And there is no need for us to lose that excitement towards the world. I like to keep it as simple as possible and remember some deep words from a great philosopher named Socrates, “As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.”
Enjoy your trip through the tubes.
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- Joe A. Melendez is a columnist for Bayridgistan.com. He also runs http://www.whiskeyandbeans.com and http://www.redmeatreviews.com . To contact Mr. Melendez please email: joeamelendez@whiskeyandbeans.com
Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.
What do you call it? marijauna?