Internet Etiquette
The above quote I took off the Molson Concert Series facebook page. Terrible spelling, grammar and punctuation aside; a more serious problem lurks in the shadows. This once quaint page existed as an informational tool for people seeking to attend the weekly summer concerts, hear reviews or anything else concert related. It has since boiled down to a bunch of out of touch old people tearing into each other about any number of issues ranging from what bands the promoter should book for next year to out right personal attacks. Mind you when I say old, I'm talking people in the 40+ range(who shouldn't be on facebook or the Internet to begin with but that's another story for another day.) (Facebook was invented by a college kid for other college kids, take the hint parents and stay away. Just because you can join something doesn't mean you should.)
Which brings us to the problem at hand. People getting offended by the presence of foul language on the Internet. Like it or not, the Internet is largely an unregulated domain which often times represents the purest form of the freedom of speech portion of the 1st Amendment. I have noticed, that it is generally the older crowd that takes more offense to cursing. As a 28 year old, I do my fair share of swearing much to my parents dismay at times. There exists an ironic hypocrisy with that generation. They don't find it inappropriate to swear in casual conversation, but put a swear word on TV or the Internet and its the end of the world. I understand the reason for this.
As kids, we grew up being exposed to vulgar R-rated movies and we pioneered the start of the Internet boom, where anything went. Social norms that existed in the real world did not apply to the Internet, and to this day still do not in some cases. Our parents on the other hand, had a much more "white-collar" upbringing. There was no Internet and very few films had gratuitous language and violence, therefore they have less tolerance for it, where as we just deal with it because it's always been there.
Back to the quote. It implies that people should censor themselves and/or their feelings because the Internet is a public domain. I have a problem with that. If you don't want your child exposed to vulgar opinions and comments, stop being a lazy parent and either monitor their Internet usage or don't let them online. Don't blame other people for your kid seeing or hearing something that's above their age grade when you easily could have prevented it. The Internet is for gambling, pornography and occasionally academic/recreational research, no place for unsupervised small children. I'm not advocating or condemning swearing, I'm just saying that its going to happen and its not a big deal, but if you have that big a problem, take some precautions. As for the rest of the quote, I find that a bit sexist as it implies women can't or shouldn't. They're big girls like the rest of us and need not be sheltered or treated differently. Isn't that what the women's right movement was about?
In summation, there's bigger problems out there to occupy our attention with how people choose to express themselves in the digital realm. Things I don't care about like foreign policy and Wall street. Now where did I put my dirty fucking magazines?
