Protesting Anonymously

The advent of the internet has probably affected the way in which news of the world is spread more than any other source currently available. It's an almost instantaneous news source which helps spread the word about the latest happenings in the world at almost the very moment that it occurs. Just take a look at last year's Presidential race here in the United States, there was virtually no corner of the country that was not covered on the internet and it was next to impossible not to know what any candidate said any place in the world.

It's certainly helped shrink the world even more than it already was. It has also allowed for shut-ins to have their say in public though I wish a lot of them wouldn't. Now I know some may say the same to me and my endless blogging but to the best of my ability, I try to get my opinion out there (rightly or wrongly) and I try to express myself in the best manner possible. Some other people also prefer to voice their opinions but not on a blog or news page where their true identity is known but rather in the message boards of many major news sites. I can't tell you the number of times I've gone into these message boards to read the comments that people post and for the most part, the comments are inane and wrongly written to the point that it makes you wonder the age or even the maturity of some of the writers.

Now I grant you that many people who come in and post via the internet are not necessarily English scholars but I think the fact that they so proudly put up their ignorance on English standards makes one wonder whether they have any brains at all. Don't believe me? Well check out the message boards on most any major new site around the internet and check out the comments that you get. There is such a lack of basic English grammar to be almost laughable. While English may be a confusing language, anyone who has gone to school here or has had an education in English can tell the basic difference between the words "you're" and "your" but that's apparently not the case on message boards.

The butchering of the English language is so common out there that it's almost a travesty. The example of "you're" and "your" is so common but it isn't the only example. Confusion as to where and when to use the word "accept" versus "except", "they're" versus "their" are also rampant. In the end it all comes down to what many of these writers are hoping to prove. Many of them want to portray themselves as pseudo-intellectuals who have an opinion so high and mighty that those of us who don't agree with them are likely to be viewed as brain-dead morons. And the way they get away with making such bold claims is due to the fact that they don't have to attach their names to anything they post. They post their comments with 'clever' names such as RealGenius or SuperBrain. Still, if they can't even form a complete sentence correctly, are they truly that intelligent?

Not only that, but some of these message board trolls respond to almost every news article and every posting with such regularity that it makes me come to the conclusion that it's either a bitter old man sitting alone at home or an extremely young and naive child who is trying to prove that he's an adult. In either case the result is a disturbing one in that I soon come to the realization that posters on my local new websites are quite possibly my neighbors and to live next door to such 'intelligence' is something that scares me. I think it's a wonderful thing to have an opinion, but I wish that more people would ensure that the opinion they get across is presented intelligently. They'll win a better audience that way.