Beauty and The Beast
About a week later, I got my first joke email. I remember it distinctively and I still laugh when I think about it. It was a little off-colour.
Since then, the internet has shown it is certainly the beauty and the beast.
The is the beauty in that we have immediate access to information we require. We can connect with people from all over the world. We can talk to friends and relatives. One of my nephews got married in 2002. One of the his best friend's was working in Yemen. He gave a toast to the groom live on screen from Yemen. That was pretty cool. I have been able to connect with past friends and to find out how their lives turned out. That is amazing. The global village is something to cherish and has led to many discoveries and connections that have enhanced our lives. Almost every day, an advancement has been made courtesy of the internet.
A bad thing happened to me in 2003. In some ways, it seems like a lifetime ago. In some ways, it feels like yesterday. Either way, at the time, I was scared to leave my house. It was a very dark period in my journey. I cried all the time and when I wasn't crying, I had panic attacks. But, calling them panic attacks doesn't seem to do it justice. They were debilitating convulsions when I couldn't speak or think. Somehow, during this dark period, I found a chat room that I seemed to connect with. I laughed the first time I was in this room. It seems silly but the more I was in the chat room, the more I healed. I met genuine friends.
Yes, the internet is beautiful. But, it is also a beast. There is currently a murder trial in Winnipeg of a beautiful young woman. The accused met her on a dating site. I was on dating sites for a number of years. I never found Prince Charming but I never had a problem and met some very nice people. Some of my friends haven't been that lucky.
There is also hackers and spammers. We know that our data is mined all the time and is probably sold. Facebook has faced a number of governments on their privacy measures and it about to face Canada. Facebook continues to survive and make billions. Identity theft. Scammers. That is the ugly face of the internet. Fake news does exist. Other governments try to influence other countries elections. It turns out a lot of us all gullible. Cyber-bullying was a term that didn't exist a decade ago and now it is a serious societal problem. Nothing is private anymore, yet, we seem to like to be alone scrolling at screens rather than interacting with other people.
There was a two hour special on ABC last night looking at the internet. It wasn't meant to make anyone feel bad, it was meant to start a conversation. One of the points it made was "user agreements". Most of us just scroll down and "accept". It turns if you looked at the average phone, it would take 14 hours to read all of the user agreements that we have accepted on our apps. No one has done this.
However, something happened yesterday to me that made me look at one of my user agreements. I made a little bit of money each money from my blog. I would like to stress that it is a little bit of money. Everyday, you can look at your earnings and at the end of the month, they transfer it to a balance that they owe you. Four days ago, they "took away" about $30 of my earnings at the end of April. No explanation, but, like I said, it is just a little money that won't change my life so I didn't pursue it. Every day in May, I am showing a negative balance. So, I owe them. That seems ridiculous. So, I looked into my user agreement.
I had already found out the hard way that I am not allowed to click on any ads that appear on my blog. I find this silly. Ads are placed in relation to the data that they have mined from you. So, my ads are for weight loss clinics, etc. I am actually interested in some of these ads and would like to learn more. But, I can't. It is the advertiser that is missing out on my potential purchases.
What I didn't know is that you can not do anything to encourage someone to click on my ads. So, my wonderful partner shares my blog entries and says, "please click on the ads". It turns out if anyone clicks on those ads, that they are ruled as "invalid activity" and that revenue is taken away. Again, I guess they don't realize that impulse shopping on the internet is a real deal. Just because he says, "please click on ads", it doesn't mean that people are doing it because of his suggestion. Perhaps it is an advertiser that people are actually interested in.
But, here is the worst thing. I have found out they have labelled my sweetie an "unethical person". I take huge exception to this. First of all, I have put up with guy for almost 9 years. If anyone gets to insult him, it is me. Secondly, an "unethical person". That is the complete opposite of who he is. He is a Superhero. I am alone this weekend because he is out volunteering for Special Olympics at a Wine Tasting Event. I have started to volunteer with him just so I can spend time with him on the weekends. I can't tell you how wonderfully he treats people. Everytime there is an election, he actually reads and talks to the candidates and makes his decision on the basis of this. He never once has fudged a mileage report or has mistakenly taken a towel from a hotel. Also, it has come to my attention that I may not be the easiest person to live with. He does nothing but love me and encourage me to follow my dreams. He is always patient with me. He continues to be in therapy to become a better man. He unconditionally accepts my children as his own and if you look at his phone, you will find thousands of pictures of our grandson and maybe one or two of me. He cares deeply about being the greatest grandpa that he can be. That is not an "unethical person".
Internet. You are the beauty and the beast. Now, that I have expended my negative energy, I will go back to seeing just the beauty. But, I will always keep in the back of my mind who you were messing with when you called my sweetie an "unethical person."
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