Sex, Lies, Murder and Blogs

Alright, so this wasn't supposed to be another jeremiad on the challenges we face with integrating blogging into society.

It was supposed to be a light-hearted followup to my "Won't Someone Think of the Children?"
entry, illustrating the potential risk of revealing too much personal
info online by pointing to one of my favorite comic strips:

This is an excerpt of Sunday's Pearls Before Swine, where Zebra explains how he blogs about avoiding the attacks of his crocodile neighbors, who are trying to eat him.

This information is very popular with other Zebras, for obvious reasons.

But what happens if the crocodiles find out? You'll have to view the comic to get the punch line. [Update: The comic is no longer accessible, so I'll spill the punch line: The crocs are too dumb to figure out how to use the computer, which is not necessarily a luxury you'll have when you blog.]

I was reminded of something said by commenter reachingperfect,
who explained how some teens he knew suddenly lost interest in blogging
when their English teacher started reading and commenting in their
blogs. (Presumeably, until they created password-protected blogs.)

Part of what's going on here is the old "look at me/don't look at me!" dynamic, where you want to be out there and you want people to see what you have to say -- you just don't want the wrong people
to see (where the "wrong people" is an ever-changing and growing list
of people that could include your mom, your mortal enemy, your friend
you made snarky comments about, your future employer, your parole
officer, your high school classmates who you made "terroristic threats about", etc.)

However, information is information, and it can be used by all kinds of people -- good, bad and indifferent.

There was a story last week (as seen in Blog Herald) about how a killer may -- very important, this is speculative -- have used info on his victim's blog to track her.

Now,
again, we don't want to overreact to things that could possibly happen
if the bad people see your blog. But we also don't want to understate
things.

I mean, the Terminator
used the phone book to slaughter a bunch of Sarah Connors, but you have
to judge for yourself if you want to get an unlisted phone number to
protect yourself from time-traveling cyborg assassins.

Similarly,
if you're a murderer, or at least planning a murder, you probably don't
want to write about it in your blog, unlike this Japanese high schooler and suspected mother-poisoner. (via Waxy.org)

Anyway,
I want to end this entry on a positive note, so I will also how the
blogosphere is also good at unmasking deceit, such as a David Cross impersonator,
who uses his resemblance to comedian and 'Arrested Development' star
David Cross to score free drinks and starstruck co-eds (though fellow
comedian Susie Felber notes that it was probably less the co-eds and more the drinks.)



Included for your reference is Gawker's Guide to Telling David Cross Imposters, featuring tips from the man himself.

Talk to you later. Thanks. -- Joe

Tag: Busted for Blogging