Consider this a cautionary tale.
I spend an inordinate amount of time every day online.
I can tell you two things about the cyberworld: It is increasingly becoming an ugly place, where trolls and bullies are free to spread their warped view of the world in anonymity. Second, be very careful when you are online. It is very easy to get yourself in a lot of trouble very quickly with just a few seeming innocent keystrokes.
In other words, remember that while our impulses and thoughts are fleeting, and the decision to express them online may be as well, their impact is not. It is forever.
Take it from someone who knows. Once something is 'published' online, it is nearly impossible to retrieve.
Typo in a headline? I do it all the time. I scramble to correct the mistake, only to be reminded in an email with a screen shot of my error.
The other day I managed to send out a tweet to indicate that Upper Darby School District had joined the list of schools 'now' opening with a two-hour delay during the ice storm. Unfortunately that is not what I typed. Instead I indicated that Upper Darby is 'not' opening two hours late.
My Facebook and Twitter accounts exploded.
Those are simple mistakes. I always fess up to them and beg the readers' forgiveness. There is a Wallenda-like atmosphere in what I do in the early morning hours on DelcoTimes.com. In other words, it's a little bit like operating without a net. There is no other set of eyes to look at material before it gets posted for the world to see.
It can be a bit of a daunting experience.
Those are the easy ones. More serious is the anger, emotion and just plain threats more and more people are expressing online. Just as in the occasional typo, I am certain of one thing: Speed kills. We are all hell-bent to post something first, to blurt out our emotions. Too often instead of carefully considering the reverberations of those thoughts, we instead take to Twitter or Facebook and vent.
Often with disastrous results.
I am thinking maybe MaryKate Blankenburg might agree.
She used to be a guidance counselor at Central Bucks West High School. That is until she for some reason decided to go on social media and offer her thoughts on a "die-in" protest planned for a busy intersection outside Lincoln Financial Field after the Dec. 7 Eagles game vs. the Seattle Seahawks.
This is the message Blankenburg's account sent out to the world:
"If my child cannot get to the Eagles game due to protesters, I will personally SHOOT every one of them. You've been warned idiots."
Someone should have warned Blankenburg to think before she sent out that message.
It cost her her job. She will not face criminal charges, but Tuesday night the Central Bucks School Board voted to terminate her.
When I first heard of the protest planned outside the Linc, I kind of winced. I actually wrote in my blog that I did not think it was the best idea. I spent a lot of time in the 700 Level of the Vet as an Eagles season ticket holder. I know that one of the most dangerous times in what could be a wild and wooly day inevitably would be getting out of the parking lot.
But I never for a moment would consider posting anything close to the kind of invective Blankenburg spurted out.
I don't do anything anonymously. Every thing I write or post - from print, online, Twitter and Facebook - it has my name beside it.
And I know the peril that entails - and how easy it is to cross the line.
Clearly Blankenburg's post obliterated that line.
I have never met the woman. If I had to guess, I'm fairly certain she never had any intention of doing any harm to those protesters. But you just can't do what she did - and express the thoughts she spewed out. Actually, that's part of the problem. You can. It's real easy. Repairing the damage it not.
She has now paid a very high price for that fit of rage.
We all have them. I have them all the time. Ask anyone in this office. I can curse with the best of them and do so often. It is one of my worst traits, one I have tried to curb unsuccessfully for years. I can tell you that the invective I often regale my co-workers with is often tied into the technology we all swim in every day.
But lobbing a few verbal firebombs - or even another kind of F-bomb - is one thing. Tapping it out on a keyboard and expressing it in front of the rest of the world is another.
Maybe MaryKate Blankenburg knows that now.
The rest of us should take warning.
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