“The Internet is the Petri dish of humanity. We can't control what grows in it, but we don't have to watch either.”

I try not to get too serious on my blog. I mostly write about recipes, ventures with crafts and DIY, outings and a proverbial shitload of photos of my kid and dog...but in the last week, I have had enough of online bickering and wanted somewhere to express  my loathing for keyboard warriors and late night facebook lurkers everywhere. More and more often I am disgusted by the human race in general, one only has to watch the news to see why. The online environment seems to amplify this much more. I guess people forget their manners? Either that, or there are a lot more assholes out there than I was banking on.

I watched a video over the weekend of Russel Brand talking about his beliefs on life. I'm not a spiritual person by any stretch (or at least I don't think I am), but on the most part, what he stands for here speaks to me. Be kind, speak love, give, be happy. Not much different from Ellen's beliefs on the subject, someone I also wholeheartedly agree with in principle - "be kind to one another". I wonder why people can't just do this. I love a good debate as much as the next person (probably more) but I don't want to personally attack someone's ideas or beliefs...especially online where it's there for the whole world to see, forever.

We teach our children to 'say something nice or say nothing at all', but we can't do it ourselves? Online, people seem to forget this altogether. Earlier this week, I was reading this article about a woman who has spent a lot of money making sure her rottweiler gets the healthcare it needs and some of the struggles she's going through to make it happen. It was written from the woman's perspective and not subjective at all - she wasn't calling attention to the fact the vet bills are huge, she wasn't asking for money to help her with the debt she'd put herself in when paying for the bills, it was just simply her story. After reading the story and thinking about what I would do in the same situation - I'm telling you now, there'd be huge arguments between Mr. Man and I about what 'the limit' on money would be to save our Jake.

I foolishly decided to keep scrolling down and have a read through the comments, perhaps other people had been through the same thing and had some advice, or at least some words of love and encouragement. But boy was I wrong. Although many of the comments were love and support on what a lovely person she was for doing this for her dog, the vast majority were not. Ranging from slagging off the vets for charging so much to condemning her spending 12k on a dog when there are starving children in the world. How irrelevant!

So now,  here I am ranting. Forgive me! It's only once in a while.

My advice? Be nice to people, face-to-face as well as online. Heck, especially online. What you say and do tells us more about the person you are than anything else. Make 'em good things. Oh, and especially when you're commenting on my blog. Lol

xox