| I've been surfing on the internet now for close to 10 years. I have boldly gone where no one should have gone, seen things no one should have seen, and in general been quite busy about poking into things I shouldn't have poked into. I have discovered things about human nature I am sure I would have been better off not discovering and I have had conversations with people I should have never talked to. Let me see if I can give you some examples. 1. I met this guy from Texas in a chat room. We were the same age, had similar backgrounds and interest and became good friends rather quickly. All went well until about six months later he told me he couldn't stand it anymore and he had to meet me to have sex. (End of relationship) 2. I have had 14 marriage proposals from women I have met in chat rooms. Bear in mind, I have already been married too many times and am content now with myself and remain adamantly single. 3. I have a "Hotmail" account that is 10 years old. I use it anytime I have to register for anything on the net. On an average now, I get over 100 spam mails there a day. 30% are for porn sites, 20% want to make my "member" larger, 20% want to "enhance the size of my breast, and the remaining 30% is a mish-mash of products I wouldn't let my children see, invitations to places I really DON'T want to go, or out-and-out scams. 4. Years ago I downloaded a cute little program to help me organize things on my computer. For that purpose it worked great but at night it dialed out to pay-porn sites and ran up my phone bill to over 1,000 bucks. Needless to say I got out of paying that one....lol. Oh yea, and I uninstalled the program. 5. Viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware......need I say more? That should be enough to get my point across as to the ills that can be found in cyberspace. In this respect, the net is no different than anything else. It contains both good and bad and how it is used is up to each individual person. I, however, have not been daunted as I plunge forward daily into new realms like a bull in a china shop and the reasons why are simple. There is more information at my fingertips now than there has ever been for anyone throughout the history of mankind. If you can even imagine a subject, someone somewhere has probably posted more information about it somewhere in cyberspace. With a click of a button, you can find out almost anything about almost anything and while that is a compelling reason to surf on, it is not by any means the most important. The greatest reason is because of the people you can meet once you weed out the crazies. People with warm hearts and giving natures flood the internet. All you have to do is reach out just a little and there they are. I believe there are angels among us and I have met many of them right here laughing, smiling, caring, praying, and living. Don't be turned away by the negative things you find in cyberspace. If you are, you will never find the good ones and they outweigh the bad ones a thousand to one. |
| Papasmurf: On the Internet |