Things come and things go. That's basically the nature of almost everything, from internet sites to species of animals, nothing lasts forever. I'm not going to go in depth with animals, but I am going to try and go in depth with internet sites.
Through the early 2000's, there was a social media site known as MySpace. It was very popular with teenagers to put some things on it about themselves, such as photos, where they live, who they're friends with, etc. I personally never used it because the school I was in was always finding bad things about that website and just shoving down our throats that its bad, you shouldn't use it, it'll only end up with trouble. It was also something that I just never was into. My parents had bought me a gaming system, and that's really all I did after school, other than hanging out with friends.
There was one reason that my teachers had told me that was a bad thing that happened on MySpace, and it was one of the major reasons why they told us not to have one. It was a little thing called 'CyberBullying.' There have been a lot of stories throughout the years of people who get cyberbullied on line, and it sometimes has a very dramatic affect on them. There have been people who have committed suicide from cyberbullying, like the Amanda Todd story. She was not only cyberbullied, but she was also bullied in school. She had moved to a different school, but that didn't help, so she eventually took her life.
Another story like that is the Lori Drew/Megan Meier story. Lori had a teenage daughter who was friends with Megan, but there were rumors that Megan was spreading false statements about Lori's daughter. Lori then decided to get back at Megan to create a Myspace page of a 16 year old boy, 'Josh Evans'. She gained the trust of Megan, but then eventually Lori sent a message to her that the world would be better off without her, so Megan took her life. Megan's mother took this to court, and the court decided only to give Lori a misdemeanor, but otherwise let her go. I disagree very much with this decision, because Lori had pushed an innocent teenage girl to the point of suicide, which was taken.
Moving on! The band Truth on Earth had given some 'medicine' for cyberbullying, their music. They had come out with a song called 'Shot with a Bulletless Gun.' It was a song about cyberbullying, which basically said that you shouldn't take it seriously. There is a random nobody who is bullying you, you may not know them, but you shouldn't take it to heart. I think it was a good idea, it showed people that just because somebody is bullying them, it doesn't mean that they have to take it seriously.
Alright, moving on to something else. Bands also used Myspace to advertise their music to a newer audience by linking their songs on their page and posting tour dates as well. This gave people who have never heard their songs to give them a chance to sample their songs, and if they like them enough, to buy the songs or albums. My favorite band, AC/DC, have a page setup that has their music, tour dates, and old videos of live performances put right on their page.
Time to get off Myspace and move on to another website that has become less popular, Digg. Digg, in my mind, was basically a blog for the entire website. People would post links to a whole different selection to different posts on the entirety of the internet, and it would be put on the front page. It was useful when it came out, I used it a lot, but then I discovered Stumbleupon, and that gave me a better, more fun way to explore the internet. It replaced Digg on my favorites bar on my browser.
Another website like Digg is Reddit. Reddit is still very popular, but I don't really know much about it, I have rarely used it. I don't have much to say because of that, so I'll just say what I know. Basically Reddit is like Digg, but posted a wider range of websites, and they could be sorted into different categories.
On to a different topic, the election of 2012. Just bare with me. During that election my Facebook wall was light up with posts of everybody saying 'Oh I hope so and so wins!' or the more dramatic, 'if he wins, I'm moving out of this country!' Because of all the stupid posts of the election, I basically just stopped using the social media sites just for that reason. I watched the election of TV, and thats about it.
Sorry for the long rant, just had to get it out.
Ciao
~Travis
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