Everyday, every hour, every minute, every second, somewhere on Earth, some sort of information, whether it be text, an image, an MP3, or some random file, is uploaded to the Internet. News sites are updated in real time as an event occurs, blogs are updated as often as some great event happens, whether it be personal or not, YouTube is updated at the whim of every Internet user and MySpace is updated everytime someone breaks up with someone else.
In essence, the Internet is life in real time. As already stated, someone is updating some web site every second of everyday. You are probably saying, great, I already knew this, what is your point? My point is, when we post this information, do we think of who will read it or who won’t read it? Do we consciously decide that this should be posted on the Internet for the world to see or do we post on a whim?
Major news sites have editors and chains-of-command that try to prevent posting information on a whim. Multiple people have to read the article and facts have to be checked and then checked again. However, what about the blogs; the web sites created and maintained by regular people like you and me? Do we honestly think about the consequences of what we write and how it will affect other people we know or might not know? I have heard that once something is uploaded to the Internet, it can never be deleted. If that is true, we should really be thinking a lot more before we post anything.
This post has been spurred by a discussion between me and a friend about what I have posted in the past and therefore, I must answer my own question. Let me first say what I think a blog is and go from there. A blog to me is essentially a journal/diary/etc where you can vent about your life and the world around you. Most of what I post deals with me and not much else. If I didn’t post a lot of what I have, the world wouldn’t miss it.
However, here and there I do post stuff that involves other people, some who read and some who don’t. Sometimes I post information and such on purpose, to try and see if I can get a reaction out of someone, whether it be negative or positive, therefore thinking of who might be reading. On the other hand, when I know the person I am writing about will be reading, and I don’t necessarily want it to be obvious, I try and be vague; sometimes being more successful than others. When I do not succeed, it affects people reading, sometimes in a positive way, and sometimes in a negative way, and so I must be aware that I am affecting someone and take the necessary steps to insure that doesn’t happen the next time.
Then I have the third kind of post, which will most likely down the read get me in trouble: posting on emotion or a whim. This happens from time to time, mostly at night, when I am just in a weird mood. When posting like this, I normally only quickly think about other people that might be affected and then post on, ignoring the world around me and throwing caution to the wind. I can’t say for sure, but I believe this is where most people will get themselves in trouble, especially myself. Emotion and posting are not a good combination, at least not in my opinion.
I don’t know where I was really going with this, other than to ask the question of if people really think before they post. I only have answers for myself: how I post and my thought process. However, it seems as though, we should always care because there will most always be someone out there affected by what is written; whether it be ourselves or someone else we know and care about.
