Paul Poulton comments on the responsibility and consequences that come with freedom of expression on the internet

Paul Poulton

There's no doubt about it, people have to be careful what they write on the internet these days. A female who had a possible career as a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives wrote a status update on facebook saying, 'One day, I will have my revenge on your seeking so much revenge on me.' She says she was talking about divine intervention and went on to name a bunch of people who she would like revenge to be meted out to. In another post she said, 'One day you are sitting in your office...kaboom!' She went on to say, 'Yeah, I do believe that they will finally get it one of these days. Someday, somebody will, they will be sitting there and something will happen, they will finally get it.' The lady who had wanted judgement to fall on others had some swift judgement descend upon her with the local police arresting her and putting her in jail awaiting trial. It's become a regular feature of news - someone has got into trouble on some social network site for things they have said.

These are still early days for the internet and people are finding out how the land lies. I guess in 100 years time people will look back on us and call us the first generation of internet users and see all the mistakes we made and wonder why we didn't have the protocols in place that they have.

Of course with Facebook we have to, theoretically, be a real person and are not allowed to hide behind a fictitious name, unlike other sites where comments can be made by people who are hidden behind a pseudonym. It's here that all hell breaks loose. If you've ever wondered where the phrase, 'The nutters on the internet' comes from, take a look at some comments posted after a video. My friend is a drummer and a very good one too. He's been on TV and gets recognised in the streets, but he has had to disable the comments after some of his drumming videos. How can people find nasty things to say about a guy playing drums well? I don't know, but people do and with the invisible cloak of anonymity around them, all sorts of bile can spill out. We need to take care of what we say and remember that there are real people with real feelings on the other side of a computer screen. There's a proverb that says, 'Reckless words pierce like a sword but the tongue of the wise brings healing'.

The book of Revelation talks about a day when the books will be opened. What we have said and done will be visible for people to see. Future generations may look back at us as 'first generation web users' and wonder what kind of people we were that banded reckless words about just because we could. We could even be case studies in future university courses. Our cyber words are being recorded and are held in databases, and it's easy for your latest post to get spread all over the world; trying to get rid of something that's been on the internet isn't easy. There's a saying that goes, 'Those things which proceed out of the mouth come from within the heart; and they defile the man.' It's something that Jesus said and it's true for words that come out of our mouths or words we write on screens as both sort come from our hearts.