Now, like all things on the internet, this is most likely a tremendous amount of crap. The person who wrote the caption probably thought he was being funny and provocative, never imagining it would amount to much. Here's the problem for this kid: this is the internet in 2013 and while he was original enough to think of this 'funny' idea for a caption, he wasn't funny enough to think of several usernames for his various internet activities. A Google search quickly led people things like his old MySpace page (told you to erase them). Plus, this is Reddit, where the serious gamers and internet addicts hang out. It was a matter of a few hours before people had tracked down his real name, address and sent his contact information along to local authorities, who would now like to have a conversation with the young man about his claim. Now, while I hope the story of him killing someone is not true, I do hope this scares the crap out a few internet trolls. Nothing annoys me more than the people who do obnoxious things strictly because they are sure they will be able to get away with them. This story proves that the age of total anonymity is starting to come to a close and someday in the near future you won't be able to say whatever random lies on the internet without facing a few consequences. And from now on stick to harmless stuff, like lying about having a girlfriend.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
It Wasn't Even That Funny
I long ago gave up visiting things like message boards. For those of you who never have been to one, a message board is essentially a website where people can throw out an idea or share some news and then everyone who is a member of that site can comment. (You know, when you put it in writing like that it sounds like a truly horrible idea.) Anyway, the problem is that while I wanted to use the sites as a place to exchange ideas with like-minded individuals, most people on these sites just wanted to anonymously tell lies, insult people and spread rumors. Despite the frustration with the format, every now and again I find myself on the website Reddit, which is like a message board with even lower standards. One of the reasons I can't help but visit the site so often is that people share very creative memes there. (Again, for those of you who aren't familiar, a meme is basically just a picture and then people write funny comments out of context. It's like a caption contest on sarcastic steroids.) Most of them are harmless and one of the most popular is known as the "Confession Bear" which features a picture of a bear in the wilderness with a guilty expression and then people use it to admit bad things they've done, like the father who used a break in to throw out one of his kids particularly annoying toys, blaming it on the robbers. Well, this week the confession bear stepped it up a notch when someone used the meme to confess to murder.
Now, like all things on the internet, this is most likely a tremendous amount of crap. The person who wrote the caption probably thought he was being funny and provocative, never imagining it would amount to much. Here's the problem for this kid: this is the internet in 2013 and while he was original enough to think of this 'funny' idea for a caption, he wasn't funny enough to think of several usernames for his various internet activities. A Google search quickly led people things like his old MySpace page (told you to erase them). Plus, this is Reddit, where the serious gamers and internet addicts hang out. It was a matter of a few hours before people had tracked down his real name, address and sent his contact information along to local authorities, who would now like to have a conversation with the young man about his claim. Now, while I hope the story of him killing someone is not true, I do hope this scares the crap out a few internet trolls. Nothing annoys me more than the people who do obnoxious things strictly because they are sure they will be able to get away with them. This story proves that the age of total anonymity is starting to come to a close and someday in the near future you won't be able to say whatever random lies on the internet without facing a few consequences. And from now on stick to harmless stuff, like lying about having a girlfriend.
Now, like all things on the internet, this is most likely a tremendous amount of crap. The person who wrote the caption probably thought he was being funny and provocative, never imagining it would amount to much. Here's the problem for this kid: this is the internet in 2013 and while he was original enough to think of this 'funny' idea for a caption, he wasn't funny enough to think of several usernames for his various internet activities. A Google search quickly led people things like his old MySpace page (told you to erase them). Plus, this is Reddit, where the serious gamers and internet addicts hang out. It was a matter of a few hours before people had tracked down his real name, address and sent his contact information along to local authorities, who would now like to have a conversation with the young man about his claim. Now, while I hope the story of him killing someone is not true, I do hope this scares the crap out a few internet trolls. Nothing annoys me more than the people who do obnoxious things strictly because they are sure they will be able to get away with them. This story proves that the age of total anonymity is starting to come to a close and someday in the near future you won't be able to say whatever random lies on the internet without facing a few consequences. And from now on stick to harmless stuff, like lying about having a girlfriend.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment