The Dark Side

So within the first what 10 seconds of this post, you have have to be intrigued.  From the post title to the cute/disturbing pic of Lord Vader tempting you to come to the dark side your initial reaction is probably that I'm going to launch into a full scale rant about how the first two episodes of Star Wars should have never been released (I still hate you Jar Jar).

"Me's a going to ruin a franchise"

Instead the focus of this post is about the dark side of the internet (all those who have been mislead of a Star Wars rant are dismissed).  This is a topic that we are set to cover in class (What up Tech 621!) this coming Tuesday night and to be honest I can't wait.  From some of the topics I've seen that are going to be covered I'm sure some interesting questions/perspectives/insight will be gained.  

My topic is porn at work.  Yep, that's right, I get to help open the Pandora's box lead discussion on what may or may not be seen as a taboo topic.  I've looked at several interesting articles about just all the repercussions and downfall of people who can't control their urges at work.  Some of the stats I've seen have been that before the recession only about 18% of people were glancing at porn at work, however during the current recession that number has jumped up to as high as 25% (Newsweek).  Why the increase?  A lot of people responded because they feel like with all the problems that companies have going on that their bosses have bigger fish to fry then their porn habit.  I even saw a video of a state senator from Florida caught looking at porn during a debate about abortion (I'm not even going to attempt to make a joke out of that....not touching it with a 10ft pole).  It's like the hits keep coming with just stories upon stories of people being caught with this.  I even got a great story from my future Mom-in-law who works in HR, about a guy who got caught there and his excuse...well it breaks the mold for worst excuses of all time (sorry got to wait for class to tell that one).  

My overall point is this, thanks to Al Gore and his invention of the internet has helped further man's quest of knowledge, from making shopping at home easier, to editing  reading interesting articles on Wikipedia, staying in touch with loved ones, following your fav sports team, etc.

you  better listen to him, he's super serial

At that same time this abundance of technology has also produced new evils.  Online social sites/chatrooms are making it easier for children to become prey for psychopathic (nicest word I could think of) adults (To Catch a Predator anyone?). It also has made it easier for people to cheat on their spouses, become addicted to the internet/porn, socially withdrawn, etc. As good as the internet has been to mankind, there are a lot of dark alleys that people need to be aware of both for their own benefit as well as those that they love.  To put it in Star Wars terms, the balance of the force is unstable from the light side/dark side of the internet.