Stop the Insanity

Stop right there

Please, someone stop the insanity.

Blogs are great. They're a chance for people to share their lives with the rest of the world. It's a place to voice thoughts and solidify feelings. I'm glad I started one. It's been fun and I enjoy ranting and raving about various issues - though I'm always mindful of my audience.

My friends and family read these little insights and I'm careful to word my entries to protect the innocent (in more ways than one). And the opinions and views of my entries are mine alone, they do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of my friends and family.

So I have to wonder, when I flip through various blogs, do people really lead these crazy lives?

After viewing my own blog, I clicked the "next blog" button located in the upper right-hand corner of this page and to my astonishment, landed squarely in the middle of a gay man's boast fest. Complete with graphic pictures.

Now before any of you out there in cyber land begin to think that I'm easily shocked, I'm not. In fact, it takes quite a lot to shock me (and trust me, I'm rarely speechless), but I have to admit, I was surprised. I had assumed that those "kinds" of blogs would be lumped into one category - graphic and obscene.

Whoa nelly. I'm NOT saying this man's blog was gross because he was gay (I remain gleefully blasé about that whole can of worms), my point is that the CONTEXT of his blog was nasty. Profanity, explicit images, etc. You get the picture. What is the point? To shock people? To make one's life more "exciting?" It seems pointless to me. If someone's life is really that messed up, there are professionals out there who will be more than happy to help you.

It's not just blogs, of course, this type of material is everywhere. And of course, there are a lot of GOOD blogs out there; I've read quite a few that were insightful and quite amusing. I guess what bothers me the most is that the disturbing blogs are literally a click away from my own. There are young people out there that read this stuff and it makes me cringe. It's bad enough when you're a jaded adult, quite another matter when you're an innocent. Why start the corruption so early?

Yes, there are ways to block these type of blogs, but one has to go in and specifically click the right button to block them; why can't it be a default setting? Then if one chooses to read that garbage they can choose to set it up so that it becomes visible. Why subject the rest of us to unwanted material?

But alas, that is the freedom of speech. Of course, it's a little known fact that with that freedom comes responsibility and that's where a lot of people drop the ball. And for those of you out there that don't know what responsibility means (yes, I'm being sarcastic):

Responsibility: a moral, legal, or mental accountability

In the meantime, I thank God for the exit window button.