A moment of seriousness

I like this internet thing. I really do. I've got the blog, I've got the plurk, and I spend way too much time on Ravelry. And even though I'm normally way behind on all the techie stuff (I have avoided instant messaging like the plague, and my phone can't even get text messages), I really like where web 2.0 has been going. Some really amazing things are happening on the web.

But, and I'm sure this will come as a shock to no one, some really low, frankly disgusting things are happening on the web as well. Boy-Creature has actually learned to shield me from the things I don't want to see, because they are out there. I don't mean pop-up porn ads, either. I mean the disturbing things that people post on YouTube and on blogs and call them news, when really it's just voyeurism at its sickest.

I hate seeing videos of people doing mean things to pets that could be construed as funny, until you stop to look at how freaked out the poor pet is, like when that guy took his cat skydiving by strapping the cat to his chest. I think that guy shouldn't be allowed to have pets, but maybe that's just me. Even when it's an accident, like when the Tour de France bicyclist accidentally hit a dog that had run out into the roadway, I still don't want to see it. Especially then. Because then I fault not the guy who hit the dog. There wasn't much he could have done. I fault the jerk who records it and puts it on the internet. I realize I don't know his intentions in posting it, but by the time the video got to me, it already seemed like yet another stupid video on the web for entertainment. That's not entertainment to me.

But even more than seeing things like that, there was one that Boy-Creature found on the Huffington Post today that just made me sick. I didn't even stick around long enough to read the whole title, because once I saw the gist of it, I left, but it was something about a police car that ran off the road and killed two people. Bad enough as it is, but somehow the video surveillance from inside the cop car ended up on the internet. So people are sitting around today, watching people get killed. And I hate that thought. I really don't understand the people who think things like that need to be strewn across the web for anyone to see, and I never will. I get that it does constitute news, as far as our media is concerned, but there's a difference between reporting the event and sharing the real-time video of it happening. It feels like there are no boundaries anymore. I can't help but wonder how the families of the victims feel, knowing complete strangers can watch that video in between checking out LolCats and updating their Twitter statuses.

I just don't get it. And I try to stay away from that sort of internet.