Virtual Virtues

I used to be terrified to enter a virtual world populated by what I perceived to be as pervs, peepers and perps. If I were single and looking for a date, and thank God I’m not, why on earth would I go online to find one? I considered it Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.

And then, over the past several years, I had an epiphany when I learned that many of my close friends, my hairdresser, and even my family have successfully found friendship, love, and marriage via the internet.

Come to think of it, the online world is probably a better venue for discovering genuine human being-ness than a bar full of drunks and ne’er-do-wells, or a church full of self-righteous hypocrites who are keeping their demons in check by quoting the Bible while buggering little boys in the vestry on a Tuesday afternoon.

So I guess you could call me a convert to the wonders of the virtual marketplace. I still have reservations about privacy issues on Facebook, and Google’s intrusion into our neighborhoods and homes with its Wi Spy invasion while billing itself as the company that promulgates the mantra, “Don’t Be Evil,” so trust us.

So play Frontierville (as I do) and hook up with your old high school classmates online (as I do) but keep a watchful eye out for the potential for Facebook to sell you out to the highest bidder, as Mark Zuckerberg has done time and again.

And never take your eye off Google, whose tentacles are reaching into the smallest crevices of our lives and shaping our existence in ways unimaginable to the least sophisticated among us. Beware the Octopus.

So my advice for all of us who are addicted to the wonders of the internet is, go forth, engage, indulge, and enjoy. But do practice safe text.