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I Should�ve Taken That Left Turn at Albuquerque |
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Hello and welcome. If you're new here, be a dear and Read my Disclaimer. My diary not good enough for you? Fine, be that way. Try these instead: plf
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2000-07-23 - 4:18 pm� Today, as I was online having a nice little chat with one of my friends, my mom came into the room and told me a little cautionary tale. She doesn't do this very often, (she did it more often when I wasn't living with her) but it's always so cute when she does. So anyway, today's tale was about a young girl that she works with who took off by herself, without informing her family, without giving anyone a address or phone number where she could be reached, to Halifax for a week so that she could meet and stay with some guy she'd "met" over the internet. This girl was due back in town yesterday, but obviouly did not return because she did not show up for work this morning, and can not be reached at home. So my mom finishes off her story by asking me a series of questions: Isn't that crazy? How stupid could you possibly be? And what about her poor family? She could be be dead right now for all anyone knows. At the first chance I get I answer, yes, she was extremely naive and stupid to fly off halfway across the country alone to stay with someone she'd never met in person before. She should have gone with a friend, stayed in a hotel, and she certainly should have told someone exactly where she would be staying, and checked in with someone back home often. My mother's face relaxes after I say this, but she continues with comments on why this girl was crazy, and that she is so glad I agree with her. By now I am getting a little annoyed. So I come right out and say it, "Mom? Is this a cautionary tale about the dangers of the internet? Because if it is, just tell me what you want me to say and I will say it." Yes, I know it was a snarky think to say, but I was feeling fairly snarky because I am an adult, and I have never in my life done anything irresponsible, and I don't like the idea that my mom might think I would be as stupid as some little twinkie that works at the Tim Hortons under her. Please. Besides, I *have* hooked up in real life with a few people that I had "met" online, even shared a hotel room with a few of them on a couple of occasions, and I did it properly. I didn't go alone, I met them in public places, and I left a number and address where I could be reached. My mother knows this. I still don't quite understand the paranoia that a lot of people still have over meeting people online. People have been using personal ads and dating agencies to meet people for years, and all you have to judge whether or not someone is worth meeting is a little blurb in the newspaper or a couple of minutes of video tape shot at an agency. When you meet someone online you can have long conversations, exchange letters and really get a feel for someone before you decide whether you want to meet them. I think that the psycho factor is less of a worry on the internet than it is through the personal ads. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be careful, or that you should just trust blindly (Trust is bad.), especially in a "romantic" online relationship (which I have never done... a little cyber flirting here and there, but nothing more). It's always important to use judgement. But I have trouble believing that any of the people I've become online friends with could be a psycho killer lying in wait. Take one of my closest online friends, for example. Over the past two and a half years we've chatted about everything from X-files fanfic to music, to politics to the startling similarities in our lives and our pasts. She's listened and talked me through some rough times, and I think I've done the same for her. And after all this I just can't believe that she isn't exactly who she tells me she is. If I ever do get the chance to meet her in real life I will take it in a second, and I am 100% sure that she isn't in actuality a 350 pound truck driver named Bubba who wants to kidnap me and brutally murder me. Does that make me too trusting? Somehow I don't think it does.
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The big 3 0 - 2006-06-03 Hello again - 2006-05-03 Random stuff in place of an actual update - 2006-03-15 Pictures. Just Because. - 2006-02-23 Christmas 05 - 2005-12-26 Currently listening to: |
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