I've been thinking about the Internet...

You know how if you read a local news story online there's a comments section at the bottom page? Well, I can't stand reading the comments (though, a lot of the time I do). The reason I don't like reading the comments is because when you read that you're really seeing people at there worst. Like most of the Internet it's anonymous. And when people can hide behind a fake name they say exactly what they want, regardless of how they could hurt people.

For instance, maybe the article is some kind of accident. Some people will speculate on the cause, not thinking that friends and family of the victim will be reading the comments.

Then there are the comments that clearly come from the white men in their 30s who just bought their first houses and have one or two young children. These guys are the most judgemental people in the world. These posters do everything by the book and they can't understand why anyone would lead a life different from theirs.

A couple years ago I got rid of my Facebook, partly because I felt too old to have a page, but mostly because I didn't like what I saw. I don't mean on my friends' pages, just in general.

Wait. Wait. I'm not saying at all what I want to say and my point is lost. Let me get to it: people talk to, and about, people in a way that they would never do in real life. That's how the news comments sections are, it's how Facebook is becoming, and I don't want to do that here.

I've been thinking about the post I wrote last September about the concert reviews. Was I too hard on that kid? How would he feel if he Googled himself and he came across that post and he read it? And if he felt compelled to respond with a comment here, what would he say?

Well, I think I was fair and what I said was true. Of course when something is published in the paper it's fair game. And I think that my main point was that there was no improvement- I didn't notice the dates on each review; all I saw was that each review was just as bad as any other. They all had the same problems that he didn't notice and no editor pointed out to him.

So if he happened to see my post I would think he'd be embarrassed and upset. If he left a comment I could imagine him writing that I was right and that I made some good points. Then again, I always expect that everyone will take things the right way when I should've learned from experience: most people think that they're right all the time and anyone who points out their mistakes is an asshole. Most likely the guy would leave a comments that my complaints were petty and that I'm in no position to put down anyone else's writing. It's true: I'm writing a glass blog and I shouldn't throw stones. I just can't help it sometimes.

But there are some subjects that I want to write about over the next couple days and weeks and I've decided to write my posts as if the subjects themselves will someday read them. I hope that will keep me fair.