World Wide WTF

So when I was 12 or so, this pretty cool thing happened. I created my first screen name, and sat and listened to the computer dial the internet for 45 minutes, and then there was AOL. I didn't really get it so much at the time, exactly how big and powerful the internet was, and it was still kind of a baby back then. I just thought it was cool I could talk to my friends in text, especially since I was one of the most awkward middle schoolers of all time.

Fast forward 16 years later, I'm an internet junkie. Most of us are these days. Even the rare few who abstain from being completely immersed in social media are still carrying a smart phone and Googling things. But with great power, comes great responsibility. And frankly guys, you're kinda failing on the responsibility.

Anything you could possibly ever want to know is on the web. Every possible variety of question about anything, you can find an answer to. So you might see why I find it completely insane that so many people are using this really awesome thing we take for granted to say, sift through 1000's of disgruntled cat pictures and watch YouTube videos of people falling down. Sure, we all have our assorted guilty pleasure entertainment - really fake reality TV, trash semi porn novels (I'm talking to you, 50 Shades Of Overrated fans), pretty much any daytime TV, truly ignorant hip hop, etc. But here's the thing, those kind of guilty pleasures are supposed to be between you and your couch. Not you and your entire friends list.

Everyday, the ratio on my newsfeed is pretty much 20 asinine meme's to 1 well thought out, intelligent post. News sharing is practically nonexistent. It's gotten to the point where I almost miss MySpace cuz all that dumb shit was mostly confined to your profile instead of flooding everyone with it constantly. I'm not saying you should give up these guilty pleasure habits, but holy hell- just once in a while, can you read something that even borders on enriching your brain? Can you share something that isn't totally mind numbingly designed for instant gratification? If I wanted to see every someecard ever created, I'd go to the website.

The other aspect of how you're failing on the internet responsibility, the kids growing up now are dealing with something kids my age never did - internet bullying. Make all the excuses you want, this is just bad parenting. You should be raising your kids to understand that whether or not it's said to someone's face or done in person, bullying is bullying and is unacceptable, period. You should also be raising them to know better than to bully someone that's already a victim (i.e. the Steubenville Rapes or the Nova Scotia teen who committed suicide last week), but that's already a whole separate variety of bad parenting.

So, if you must, keep your really horrible brain cell killing internet habits. But at least train your kids to know that there is actually useful information, if you bother to look. Even if you can't be bothered to do better, you can at least do the one thing required of us as parents - do your job and make them smarter than you are.