The Hidden Faces
As the days pass by I sit and wonder at the marvel of this tool, this environment, this creature called the Internet. Nowhere in history has such an invention been able to minimize the distances and make the world a tiny place. Time zones, countries, even languages are no longer a barrier. You can meet more people in one day than you ever would in a lifetime before the Internet. From North America, to Africa to Australia and the Pacific... nowhere is safe from the reaches of the wires.
But the other day, I realized that no matter how much people meet and talk and form lasting friendships or bonds of love, there's always going to be surprises. Someone who I've known for several years surprised several of us by revealing a very tragic and horrifying background. True, this was never something that had come up in a conversation before so there was really no valid reason for me to know the information in the first place, but what shocked me was that the information given was so contradictory to what I imagined this person to be like, to the image I had formulated in my own mind, that I was very nearly off my chair in a flurry of black robes.
It taught me a lesson. Never assume you know someone based on the persona they display online. It seems like an easy enough lesson to know, but I find it drilled into my head time and time again. I'm no newbie to the online world... I can trace my virgin footsteps into the world of cyberchatting, message boards, and primitive email back to the early 90's. I've met my share of people online, and had the pleasure of meeting many in real life as well. I've had amazing friends and horrible enemies, romances and flings, even jobs and careers that centered around the cyberworld and the denizens in it. But daily, I'm reminded of how little I know about the people, the world, the complicated relationships that are built and torn down. How everything isn't always what they seem.
It's a long walk around that dark alley of the virtual world. Be on the lookout for the hidden dangers but be open to the wonderment and joy there is to behold. Learn all you can off the people you meet and thank them for being your teacher.
Hello
Is there anybody in there
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone home
- Pink Floyd "Comfortably Numb"
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