On the Internet
I love the internet. I really do. This draws quite a lot of opprobrium from the "popular" (who have always looked down on nerds and introverts) and from the fine, upstanding and rather technophobic pillars of society (who, like most people, fear what they don't understand, and I guess this newfangled internet thing is a bit much for them). Strangely for righteously angry little me, I don't really care. The fact that most of the people who look down on me for liking the internet couldn't live without their phones doesn't hurt either.
I love the internet because it connects me to the people I wish I knew. It expands my knowledge and lets me reflect deeply on what I think I understand. I am far more honest with myself and others there, far more reflective; it brings out the best in me, which isn't what you'd expect but, for me at least, it's still true. I'm also a hell of a lot more sociable; part of that's because I get more of a choice as to who to be social with, which I don't get in the wonderful real world. People actually treat me as an equal, not a child or a pet or something to be hurt for fun and laughed at, three things which have made up most of my existence. Twitter, decried for being pointless, stalkerish, stupid and narcissistic, saved my sanity, and the causes I found on the internet educated me and fired me up. With the internet, I know there's someone out there fighting a fight I can join; without it, I've got work and more work and little way to channel it into something that helps others. With the internet, I know that there'll be at least one person out there who understands me, but without it, they're rarer than unicorns. With the internet, I can learn and change; without it, I'm having the same arguments over and over again. With the internet, I'm a full person and equal to others; without it, I'm treated as less of one. I might as well fade away and not exist. That's no sort of a life.
The internet is my link to the rest of the world, the way I know there's something out there to live for and people who make me smile.
After reading this, I just had to post a HEAR HEAR! As I can see absolute truth in what you say. The small town I live in, about 20,000 people, is 95% white, the County is 91% white, I'm 100% white, and I would venture to say the district is 99.9999999% Republican. I have a Republican Representative in my district, and three Republican state Delegates, whom all three just voted down(their vote was based on biblical principles they call it) marriage&family equality yet it passed anyway. Thank Odin for sanity on this issue from other delegates in the state and the Governor. I'm not gay, but a know inequality and descrimination when I see it. Often I write scathingly to my scumbag Reps almost cursing them out for their votes on so many draconian bills they vote yea on. Without the Internet, I'd have to travel up to 50 miles away to find almopst anyone who might agree with me on the issues, I understand what it means to be in a minority, religiously(I'm an atheist), and politically(I'm a Progressive Democrat, and Goddamn the rest of the party with its Bluedogs, New Democratic Coaltion members, and the DLC, assholes everyone almost). So the internet gives me connections to like minded souls. I can stand up for LGBT rights, animal rights, the environment, and against war, against the despicable corporate control, the NDAA and the Neocons, FOX noise and the rightwing nutjob machine, and rest of the issues are at hand. If I had only the over the air broadcasts to rely on for information and news, and that was all, I'd be as informed as a brick, but through the internet I am in touch with alternative news sources to get the Lowdown, along with publications I may not have learned about without the internet. So, I'm in agreement with you 100% on the Internet and its importance. Zeus bless the Internet.
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