And in the beginning there was the Word...

[misscam]

Ah, blessed three words, how I love thee.

Story not found.

So inbetween various discussion of the many good things Olympic orgies might bring us (make countries bond and help relations among countries of the world for sure) and reading the lastest big discussion about Turimel's book on "Jordan Wood" and all that insanity, I got to thinking about words and the Net.

Now, some of you may now that words do matter to me. I believe words have power through the stories they tell and through what we use them for. And the Net is a world of words - and thus often a world of lies (and by this I don't mean white lies, but the more serious lies that have greater consequences). So you have Jordan Wood and Thalia and plagiarisers. Where does this leave the power of words? Does it cheapen even my words? It's a distressing thought to me. I am a person of words. I like to write, to read, to debate, to think. I submerge myself in worlds created merely by words and I create worlds of my own with my words. And my words is the gate to my mind, a gate I watch most carefully. I have tied my honour to my word and thus I expect people to trust it. But I wonder if this is not an unfair assumption.

So I'm wondering - how much do you trust people on the Net? Am I a silly, naive Norwegian with old-fashioned ideas of honour? (If you say yes, I promise not to smack you with a trout.) Or is trust and honour essential on the Net, this world of words?

Comments

[flamingofeather.livejournal.com]

I do not, however, believe in distrusting everyone because one person lied.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I may be naive, but I trust most or all of the people I've met through the PPC and have on my friends list. They write well, they're all intelligent, and all have interesting insights.

There is no way that everyone I meet online that I have not met in "real life" is a stalker/sociopath; it's impossible. There are some online, of course. And these are the ones that make it into the news. The people that meet online, share similar interests, and develop friendships don't make it onto the news. No one cares about them. but it does happen. I don't see why it shouldn't happen online instead of in the real world. I'd trade about half the people I interact with weekly to see some of the people I met via the Internet. Unfortunately, my parents are waaay overprotective and even if I could explain to them why I wanted to meet up with someone, they'd nix it on general principles.

I mean, a little bit of paranoia, and definitely caution, is necessary. But isn't that the way everywhere? The world is dangerous. People you know and trust and see every day could turn out to be serial killers or compulsive liars or any damned thing.

Sometimes I think you can actually get more "credit" online, because people who consistently write good fanfiction, talk to others, help people, keep LJs, etc. are not considered stalker material by anyone.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I would say that depends on the nature of their LJ and fanfics, really. I find some of the Tinhats rather stalkerish, for instance.