See no evil, blog no evilI may have lost a friend this week. I'm not sure. Friends have been walking in and out of my life. And it's gotten to a point that i really ain't gonna care no more. Perhaps i should just be alone. Oh wait. I'm already on the road to being one. Great.
The recreation team had their first training yesterday. The wind was darn strong. Thank goodness i wasn't on the laser. Would have died. But it was just right for the pico. Finally, i get the taste of being crew and controlling the jib. The ultimate slack job.
You know, i just love reading the sunday newspapers. I spend like 3 hours on it every sunday?
15 hawker legends were featured today. So wanna try them. Anyone up for it? It's quite sad that mj people aren't exactly the kind to go to hawker centres to eat. It's always food court, fast food outlets or places like cafe cartel. I have only been to the hawker centre with a mj person once and she is yu shan. But she's gone now so that leaves no one. My sister always tells me about how her canoeing mates and her discover delicious food - at hawker centres - after their training and i really envy her. I wish i can do the same with my mates here in mjc.
Anyway there's an article in lifestyle today which i think is quite relevant. To me at least.
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See no evil, blog no evil by Sumiko Tan
Need evidence that man is nasty adn brutish? Go to the Net. You can witness the worst in human nature there
MY SISTER isn't going to be happy when she reads this, but here's a confession: When we were growing up, I used to sneak a peek or two at her diary.
It wasn't a nice thing to do, but I was young, there was some sibling rivalry on my part, and forbidden fruit sure tasted sweet.
Which is why the latest development in our lives smacks of irony.
Last month, I got an e-mail from her from the United States where she lives.
"I'm blogging!" the subject header announced gleefully.
Oh great, I thought, but not in a supportive, sisterly sense.
In fact, I groaned.
My niece is being home-schooled and my sister thought the blog would be a good record for her when she's older.
"Don't laugh, okay?" my sister said, urging me to read her blog.
I must confess that it was with reluctance that I opened the link. In fact, I've only been into her online diary twice - that one time to check it out, and the second occasion when I was preparing for this column.
I can't quite understand my disinclination to read her blog. I lvoe her dearly and lap up every minutia of my niece's and nephew's lives. It also wasn't that long ago that i got a thrill from stealing a peep at her secrets.
Yet now, when all that - and more- is there for me to read, the thought just wearies me.
Maybe it has to do with information fatigue. I'm in the business of words and, day in day out, my job is to read and edit "stories".
Or it could be that some things are better left unsaid. I sympathise with her problems, but do I really want to be burdened with the details?
Or could it be that blogs are an impersonal way of communication? I'm now sharing her life with her online pals. How special does that make me?
But perhaps the real reason I'm not keen to visit her blog is this: I've come to dread and fear the Internet.
Cyberspace has degenerated into such a malicious, nasty, toxic place. There is so much bile and vile floating around, it's a world I'm trying to avoid as much as I can. I don't want to be contaminated.
I SUPPOSE this Sunday column has been a blog of sorts.
It falls under the journalistic genre of "personal column", and over the last 11 years, I've been privileged to be given a space to write about my life.
But the Internet is a great leveller.
With blogging, anyone and everyone can be a personal columnist, garner as wide a readership as his blog can reach, and be famous.
It's democracy at play. The Net offers absolute freedom of expresson, and anyone armed with a computer can have his say and tell his story. It's power to the people and, to me, that's a fantastic thing.
Problem is, the Internet has also brought out the worst in people. Cyberspace is choked with smut.
I'm not talking about pornography sites. The way I view it, porn is harmless so long as children are not involved, either as participants or audience. If an adult indulges in porn, that's his personal choice, it doesn't hurt me and is none of my business.
What scares me more is the personal smut that litters the Net, the vicious gossip, invidious hearsay and the big, fat lies you get on some websites, chatrooms and - with blogging as the latest communication tool - blogs.
It's easy being a cyber-slanderer. Internet defamation laws are still vague, postings can be anonymous, policing is difficult and you are answerable to no one. Little wonder then that the Net has become a repository of all that is nasty and brutish in human nature.
Check out some forums and staring at you is evidence that Thomas Hobbes was right after all. In our natural state without common rules and laws, it's clearly a war of everyone against everyone.
Malice abounds - and astounds.
It's apparently okay to question a person's sexuality and speculate on his relationships.
It's all right to make fun of the way he looks, defame him, assassinate his character, curse and caricature his wife and children and post pictures of where he lives.
It's fine to lie about, insult and denigrate anyone you know, slightly know and - this takes the cake - those you have never even met.
I should know, as I've been flamed enough on the Net before, though, of course, you could say that it's par for the course. If i advertise my life in the newspaper, I should expect and accept a public roasting - and, yes, to an extent I do.
But many of the victims on the Net don't ask for it. They're innocent bystanders who get dragged into the maelstrom of malice.
Some might argue that if one lauds the democratic nature of the Net, one shouldn't complain about the consequences. Freedom of speech has its price.
Besides, isn't the Net simply reflecting the idle gossip that's already being traded at the office water-cooler?
Isn't the Net merely articulating in concrete form the catty comments about others that silenly flit through our minds each day? Why take the smut so seriously? Just read it and laugh it off.
But the Net is too powerdul a medium to dismiss so lightly.
It's one thing to bitch with your colleagues about another person at the office pantry, but every lie and every piece of misinformation that is posted in cyberspace is spread to thousands of eyeballs and takes on a life of its own. What recourse does a victim have?
In asserting one's right to comment, surely one must be guided with some decency and decorum?
Then again, I suppose that if a person can't take the heat, he should just keep out. And so it is that I've decided to limit my usage of the Internet.
I still check out news sites and others that are useful to my work. But I'm leery of chatrooms, forums and blogs.
I might be missing out on the "chatter" out there, and my finger might not quite be on the pulse of what people are really feeling "on the ground". But, well, so be it.
Life is short and complicated as it is. If I want to be mentally and spritually calm, I should strive to see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil - and blog no evil, too.
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I love her articles! It always make me think after reading it.
