Do you remember the old saying ‘think before you take a leap’? When in the cyber space, this particular saying stands on a far firmer foot than in the virtual world. Often we invite a messy situation for our selves by floating some thoughts and expressions of ours in the web, which may bring unanticipated danger to us. I often get to see victims crying and repenting over their ‘karma’. True, many are unaware of the true nature of the ‘space’ where they spend maximum of their time. A released spade never comes back, but a digitally typed expression may come back in a disastrous form to devastate the creator. Examples of such sorts of ‘boomerangs’ are many…….an ugly caricature; flaming words; fussing over the issue unnecessarily and creating a huge trail of followers who will say nay or ye to add more pain to the insults; the list may be unending. The mediums of such hounding could be either emails, or chat messages or wall posts or forum boards; and such attacks could instigate cyber bullying, offending messages, stalking, defamation and even phishing. Hence , do think before the followings:
- Mailing to your girl friend or boy friend or spouse after an emotional outburst.
- Updating your status in the Facebook, Myspace etc in an agitated mood especially after a fight.
- Expressing your feelings over political /administrative decisions.
- Telling about the teacher or fellow student you hate the most, to your friends in open forums or in their message boards.
- Opting for easy money by replying to ‘lucrative offers’.
The list is not exhaustive.
The advocates of ‘Free Speech’ may use their power to express their opinions in this matter. Experiments with the First Amendment Guarantees of the US constitution had broaden the scope to exercise Right to speech and expression in a more extensive way. The social value system in India is also getting new interpretations from the judiciary and it is expected that very soon notions of ‘modest speech’ may also get new legal color. Given this situation, these typical issues and ‘warnings’ that I just mentioned, may chill some personal rights. I do agree. But, do remember, Rights beget responsibility and every ‘netizen’ is responsible to protect others Right. I would also emphasize that law protects our Rights, but may not guarantee mental peace while protecting our Rights. It is our good senses that we have to use when in the cyber space and only then Rights can peacefully coexist with responsibilities. Hence do not hurt others or others feelings and exercise your right to speech and expression cautiously and with responsible words.
Please Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2010),“Think before you type your heart out”
”,October 2010, published in http://cybervictims.blogspot.com/
