Choosing the light

You know, a digitally-resurrected Rod Serling should be the public face of the internet.

Serling was the perfect quirky guy to take something ordinary and extrapolate it into a story of bleak darkness or, occasionally, into a tale of human triumph. His “Twilight Zone” TV series showcased humans at the best and their worst – just like the internet. Enlightened inspiration and lurid chaotic evil lurk in equal measures on the web as the virtual anonymity encourages people to shed the carefully crafted mask most of their neighbors see.

It would have provided no end of inspiration to an imagination like Serling’s. Perhaps most disturbing, the inspirations would have their basis in fact, not imagination. Sterling observed and provided conjecture about the highs and lows of the human creature – his did not pursue them.

Serling would represent the laconic and dry-humored sunny side of the internet.

The dark side neither wants nor needs a face: it prefers to conduct its business in the warm, moist, decaying corruption that occupies the shadowed corners of the web. Perhaps H.P. Lovecraft could put a face to that…I can’t.

This post was prompted by some idle link-surfing last night. As everyone knows, the farther you get from the mainstream, the weirder things get. It’s like a Seven Degrees of Separation thing: depending on your proclivities, you can get to the depravity du jour from any point on the internet in about seven clicks. Of course, you can get there more quickly through a directed search.

There are many people blogging who have apparently decided to forego reasoned content for titillation and hard-won respect for instant popularity. I think it’s a juvenile choice, which leaves some hope for them…maybe they’ll grow up. These people dedicate their web content to tales of their sexual antics, death videos and other assorted perversions. They get a lot of hits on their websites, growing rapidly from birth and apparently convincing themselves they’re part of a mainstream, not a gutter.

I decided when I started blogging in July that I would bypass that quick route to popularity. I’m not going to post any sex quizzes, naked pictures of myself or gory video of someone’s misfortune – I’m not interested in writing for the crowd that swarms over those posts. I think posts should be honest, from the heart and presented with fairness and a bit of decorum. Please don’t misunderstand me – I’m not a prude (very far from it), I just prefer to go with the good side of The Force and I’ll leave others to pursue the Dark Side.

The internet showcases all facets of the human existence, and that’s its real virtue. It’s all out there for people to see and the opportunities for learning are limitless.

But I’ll take Rod Serling as the face of the internet in which I’d like to dwell.