Social Media

When I first started with the Internet, the only social groupings there was probably involved sending e-mails to and fro. Message boards were mainly rare, hard to use and mainly for very odd and terribly boring discussions of Moss growing on ferns or How cows regurgitate certain types of feed, I am kidding of course, but message boards held no attraction for me back then at all. I wanted a web page, So I was studying your basic HTML and learning the in's and outs of web page design and style.

So, the Internet to me was a workout at first. I used Notepad, researched HTML, used note pad, uploaded and re uploaded, tested, growled, tested more, growled more, researched more and finally a web page sorta kinda that I could work with, for the time being.

Then I found a message board, then ICQ. then some groups and other Social Media out croppings. I discovered that you could actually communicate with others on the Internet, that you could find people in different countries, in different Time zones and different understandings, religions, and thinking processes. It was at times scary, strange, interesting and could be very funny. At times I loved it, then hated it, then back to loving the whole process again. Trolls cam and went, and time went by.

I came across many social outcroppings. Some of them worked for me, some of them fell off the face of the web. Some of them were bought out, and would become something entirely different, all the old people, love, laughter, and tears would be washed away with so much a clue as to what was being wiped away.

I once belonged to a message board that dealt with some very heavy and dramatic social issues that suddenly overnight became a web page for a clinic of some kind. The message board was gone. No warning the place we loved and cared about greatly was about to be destroyed, No time to collect names, phone numbers, or e-mail addresses and ways to stay in touch,

Just gone.

All those people that were getting badly needed help hopefully found other outlets for their varied and many needs.

So I discovered the hard way that compassion many times didn't stand a chance in the Wild wild web. Compassion took a back seat to greed and desire and progress. Out with the old and in with the New, right now, right this instant and if you don't like it - Tuff. This is the way things are done in the digital age and you best get use to it.

So now there is Twitter (@beamer) and Facebook and many other great ways of talking and gathering info and the Internet keeps on a changing. I would like to think that it is making progress, becoming better , more friendly, but don't bet on it. There are more people hacking more things in more creative ways. Governments have to harden their security positions to ridiculous lengths to prevent technological sabotage. In fact, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this article doesn't get flagged somewhere in some database just cause I used that term.

The Internet can be a great place to get a variety of Information and Ideas. It seems like it going to be force to contend with for quite a while. That is good. So many things from a plethora of different areas have tried to change or diminish the Interwebz. Don't get me wrong, things have changed a lot on the Internet over the years, sometimes not for the best.

I just wish Compassion had a stronger foothold. I think that would be a great devolopment.