Online Identities: Good and Bad

Wow. A Rape in Cyberspace was extremely deep. As I was reading it, I quickly jumped to the conclusion that this was a moronic column that was disrespectfully trying to compare these "minor" acts of online assault to the actual heinous act of rape. I was actually beginning to take offense to the fact that this writer was trying to compare the two but as I read on, I began to view the bigger, deeper picture. I began to realize that this was the story of the birth of a new form of assault. These assaults no longer had to be physical or verbal to be hurtful. These were cyber assaults on people with zero protection from them. This was a story not about a physical rape but an emotional and mental rape. During the debate which took place in the story over the Bungle Affair, young Quastro asked, "Where does the body end and the mind begin?" This question was in response to others stating that no real physical harm had been done because these were just words that should be discarded as meaningless insults from a mindless and faceless person.

Online identities although very beneficial for communication with friends and family, have made it possible for any hateful and sexual deviants to roam freely out in public, disguised by a simple name and/or picture of their choosing, enabling them to mix with all kinds of people, male/female, young/old. Most people in the United States refrain from such deviance whether online or in society and try to be "model citizens". But just as there are criminal citizens in society, there are also criminal citizens in the cyber world that we need to be aware of.

As stated later in A Rape in Cyberspace, the actions of Mr. Bungle were rooted to a NYU dormitory and were most likely performed by not just one person but just a bunch of young idiots not realizing the immense repercussions their acts could have. Obviously this was a much lighter assault than that of the tragic story of Megan Meier. I remember hearing about her story on the news. Lori Drew's intentional assault against 13 year old Megan are unfathomable. It's a shame that the laws put in place after this incident only came about as a result of Megans death. Unfortunately it seems the only time laws are made are because of tragedy.

Website Idea

When I was first asked in class what ideas I had come up with for designing my webpage I was a little caught off guard because I honestly had not thought about it at all. My first choice was to do a future employment opportunity such as about the FBI/CIA or some government related field. Then I decided to think of my passions in life. I thought of hockey mostly but I didn't want to do that, I've done things about hockey in school all my life. Then I decided on a future hobby of mine, Scuba Diving. I've loved the water ever since I was little and I have always wanted to scuba dive. I plan on getting my scuba certification before next summer. I will use this web design class to learn more about it and display my interest to everyone. Here are pictures of some of the beautiful things you can see and do while scuba diving.