Thursday, October 21, 2010

Freedom of Speech = Internet Junk?

Many people have said that when you're baring yourself out there in the internet world, you should be ready for whatever "junk" you're going to get. It is true in the blogging world as well. However, what I don't get is that even though you're not writing about something controversial, how come you still find "junk" everywhere?



Of course freedom of speech is good in itself, but then again how about thinking about other people's feelings first? And I'm not saying about what you can blog about. You have freedom to blog about anything or rant about anything - at the risk of getting negative comments or criticism. What I don't get is something like this: I was once browsing for some food recipe and I noticed that in the comment section somebody started a HEATED debate between non-pork eaters and pork eaters. And as usual, once a couple started that debate, more and more people chimed into the argument and they started calling names and stuff.

I mean...HELLO?!?!?!?!?!

The recipe writer only wanted to SHARE recipes, but that was the "junk" she got in return? She didn't even write anything "controversial". It angered me to read all those nasty comments. I just wanted to shake them all and say, "What the HELL do you think you're doing here??? Can't we all be decent human beings who agree to disagree? Why do you have to attack one another like that?"

Sometimes I'm just sad at the nature of human beings, including myself. It's just so easy to spread "junk" without thinking first. When you're struck, your first instinct is to strike back. No wonder the world's never going to be able to enjoy true peace. That doesn't mean to say that we shouldn't try to create peace as much as we can, though. I'm also not saying that we should all lie and shut up and that we shouldn't express ourselves or rant if we need to, but we should all restrain ourselves to some degree, even in cyber world, esp. when it comes to throwing junk to other people's "areas" (blogs, video posts, recipes, etc.).


A bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles.
- Chinese proverb

Words can make a deeper scar than silence can heal...
- Author unknown

8 comments:

  1. Here, here! It really bugs me how some people can't resist an argument. As you say, it's good to have opnions, we shouldn't all be 'yes' people, I respect people for having their own opinion and I always try to listen to others point of view. But why are some people not happy until they are unhappy, why the need for the nasty comments, to ram their views down peoples throats in an unkind manner, what purpose does that serve? She was only writing about a flippin' receipe after all!

    Hope your well by the way. Will read some of your other posts now.

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  2. Whoa! That's crazy! A food blog shouldn't be a place where ppl want to argue with one another. At the end, that person was only sharing the recipes. If some stupid ppl are not happy with one (or more) of the ingredients listed there, they are free to modify the recipes according to their taste, instead of bashing out the writer. :o
    Well, I belong to non-pork eaters' group, but when I notice that pork is used in the recipes, I always substitute it with chicken or beef. And no, never I have any needs to complain or argue with the person who wrote the recipes as I know that recipes are normally can be modified.

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  3. The World According to Me+Henny: The arguing people weren't actually bashing the writer. One person just started the argument by commenting about one group (don't remember anymore which one: the non-pork eaters or the pork eaters) and another person replied in a not-very-nice tone and the heated debate continued as more and more people stumbled into the recipe post.

    So she shared a recipe and she ended up reading lots of stupid arguments. ?!?!?!?! What kind of world are we living in?

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  4. Oh, I've seen this in youtube, Amel. Someone posted a video of a good singer from her/his country... but then another person from other country was making comparison with the singer from her/his country and soon some people are arguing about who's the best, then more people joined with racist remarks and nasty words... sighhh...

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  5. CMG: Yeah, I've read "too much junk" in youtube that you described, but it was the first time I came across a recipe post and read that kind of junk there. Ugh...and the comments went on and on and one as one person bashed another and it continued...ugh...

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  6. Double ughhh... I wonder if the recipe writer did say something about all those junks...

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  7. CMG: I don't remember, but I don't think so.

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  8. So true!!

    I'm using this for my Newsflash, Amel. It'll be up by today some time. :-)

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