HomeFeatureThe Internet: Our Double-Edge Sword Ms. Bels Friday, October 2, 2015 Feature, Lifestyle (via NYPost/MySpace) Photo of Chris Harper-Mercer, the gunman who went on Thursday’s rampage at an Oregon college, idolized the Nazis and the IRA, despised organized religion — and talked of how killing could bring a person fame. The dreadful Oregon shooting yesterday got me to thinking. The internet is a powerful tool that works as a double-edge sword. What I mean by this is that the internet serves the good and the bad. It is helpful in its capability to be a gigantic search engine and/or virtual meeting place. On the other hand, cyberspace contains a lot of evil ideologies and anonymous individuals who sit in their dark spaces and spill hate through keystrokes. The imbalanced environment of this digital world – that we all have grown to love – leaves our social landscape in chaos. What is also perturbing is that many of us internet (and social media) junkies LOVE this sh*t! We wake up each day rushing to our favorite websites and apps. We want to know who’s dating who, who wore it better, and other meaningless things that take our attention away from the predators, terrorists, and such. The Oregon shooter, for instance, made his thought process known on several websites, whether it was in the comments or his personal profile. This young man had an issue. But did anyone pay attention to it? Probably not. Could his followers on MySpace have prevented 13 innocent people from being killed? Possibly. The gunman, 26-year-old Chris Harper-Mercer, idolized both Nazi’s and the IRA. And guess what?! He wanted to be famous like Vester Lee Flanagan, the guy you recently murdered two reporters on live television in Virginia. “A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems like the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight.” Harper-Mercer wrote this sentiment on a blog post that people could see. The internet gave us this open door to read it, but why didn’t we pay attention? This double-edge sword gives us the ability to be proactive and reactive. Unfortunately, our proactive approach outweighs the other because we simply don’t care or turn the other cheek. Senseless crimes that are many times planned out right on our screens – has to end at some point. We have a responsibility to protect one another, especially our young ones. Those kids had no idea that this would be their last day in a college classroom. Their parents are devastated. It was clear that this man was a very hateful person. And it’s unreal how the internet played its part in this tragedy. Acts of violence are being forecasted each day online. But, can we wake up long enough to see one them?
