Don't Be So Quick to Blame the Internet

This post is clearly a personal observation and will offer no sound advice or tips regarding social media. If that is the only reason you clicked on the link, I will not be offended in the least if you stop reading this now.

Now for those of you who stayed; for whatever reason, I have a bone to pick. Why are we so quick to blame the Internet for every half truth, offensive post and those hordes of cats that we are so quick to share across every social media platform?  Have we, as a society, forgotten how to be freethinkers and not ones to be so gullible that we believe each and every post on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc?

Fact: The Internet is merely the mechanism used to transmit ideas, images and the like to your computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. It is not a person. It does not have rational thought, a conscious or even a sense of humor.

Fact:  The ideas and images we encounter through Internet transmission are those conceived by actual human beings.  Humans have been known to err in judgement and, at times, lack common decency. Does that make us the worst possible living creature on the planet? No, it is what makes us human. (By the way, the worst possible living creature in my book would be that spider hiding out in corner of the ceiling waiting to attack; but I digress.)

Fact: Social media marketers know the tricks of the trade. They know what words and images to use that will get a post shared and commented on the most. They know which audience they are targeting and, conversely, they know how to get a rise out of the opposing audience. It is their job and many of them do it quite well.  

Fact: All of us who use the Internet for one reason or the other are social media marketers in our own right. We know which of our posts will generate the most shares and comments. At times, we refrain from posting something out of fear of being ridiculed.  (That reminds me, maybe I should remove the line about the spider before I find pictures of spiders posted to my timeline.)

Fact: Many of us will share something because we agree with its message without first researching its validity. Granted, who really has time for a lot of research; especially when most of our interaction on the Internet is done via smartphone. Bandwidth is pricey; and, seriously, who has time to wait a minute for a website to load when there is so many more interesting things to scroll through on our news feeds?

If you made it this far, thank you.  I do have a request for you, though. The next time someone starts arguing with you and claims that something must be true because they saw it on the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, etc.; please knock them down, take a picture and post it on, where else, the Internet. (Just kidding. Or am I?  You did read this on the Internet.)