The Internet

During my lunch break earlier, I went to a site containing popular trends and phenomena happening in the internet. Such are called memes (correctly pronounced as meems), and many have come and go. Many of these are funny and worth some laughs, but there was something I came across that was pretty interesting in its own way.

The meme, which I will not name in the intention of keeping the episode closed, was about a teenage girl who innocently posted a youtube video for her friends. The contents of the video and the video itself were not extraordinary taking the fact that it was posted in youtube, however, months after the girl posted her video, an anonymous person posted the same video in a message board about randomness. There, the video amassed hundreds and hundreds of hits. Not only did it garner instant fame and celebrity status, the video and the girl also received very negative and insulting comments. From an innocuous video post, the internet would soon experience a civil war between those entranced by the girl's cuteness and those enraged and ultimately irritated by her behavior in that pivotal video.

Soon, things would spiral out of control. It was so out of control that several groups were formed with the goals of making her permanently stop creating videos, bringing the girl down, or ruining her life completely. A message board where the phenomenon was at its worst was forced to go 404 for a couple of days by its very own users. It was reported that the girl would then receive grave threats from whatever online access she had.

It was a mess. And it started as a video post for some friends with no intention to defame or step on anyone.

We must admit that the internet is an integral part of our everyday lives. But we should always remember that we should be careful in using it. In the case of the girl, I see her as a victim; a helpless scapegoat for all the anonymous rage people are feeding to the internet. The internet is always there, yes, but it isn't there for us all the time.