Dear Internet, It Was This Or Film A “Leave Patrick Stump Alone” Video.
I’ve tried to keep my lip zipped on the internet the last few days. I’ve been stumbling upon things I haven’t liked. I’ve noticed the nasty side of the internet, of course it’s always been there but it’s only just got to me. While searching on Twitter, I found myself unable to avoid timelines of Patrick Stump fans getting angry at supposed Patrick Stump fans. Initially, I didn’t think much of it, I shrugged it off as another melodrama of the online world. I mean Twitter isn’t real life? I’d stopped myself from doing a Chris Crocker about online haters before, and I could hold myself back again. I don’t want to be somebody who’s angry on the internet… at the internet. I don’t want to one of ‘those’ who’ll start a world war with Mark Zuckerberg every time he removes a feature from Facebook that they never used. I refuse to hide behind a computer screen and get angry, instead I prefer to embrace the backspace and restrain myself. However I can’t bite my typing tongue any longer, there’s something which I really need to say about the internet and all its nasties.
Patrick Stump is my favourite singer. Fall Out Boy is my favourite band. I was unaware that liking both was some form of contradiction. According to some ‘real fans’, I should be spamming @PatrickStump (and @petewentz, @trohman, @xvhurleyxv) demanding a comeback on my own personal terms. But why would I want to do that? And more importantly, why would I want to do that constantly – despite getting the same reaction that it will happen organically, not because of any amount of emotionally blackmailing tweets? I will not call these people the diehards, because that’s what they want to be called. Instead I’d describe them as extremists because that has far less positive connotations. I’m sick of these diehards/extremists/whatever-you-want-to-call-them but hey what can I do about them? I can’t stop them can I? Bullies will always exist on the internet, just as they do in real life but that doesn’t make any of this ok.
Well, as I’ve said before I was not going to write about this. In fact, I’m NOT writing about ‘that’ incident, or ‘that’ one, or the alleged news that many are hyperventilating about on Tumblr right now – I’m attempting to write about etiquette. I’m writing about etiquette because according to Klout, I’m influential about it. Seeing that made me think about the fact that maybe I should break my silence about my feelings. But can we really change the bullies – those people who harrass celebrities, schoolmates, workmates and strangers? Perhaps it’s too bigger task but we can do it one step at a time. Yes?
The internet is a wonderful place, if we use it right – just like Earth in general. You have a choice whether you decide to be a goodie or baddie in this world, and you have a choice how you react to either party. You can try to be big and fight against them, or you can be even bigger and just ignore them. If the bullies won’t follow the rules on internet etiquette, even if we enforce them, we’ll have to move on. Nobody wants to click the ‘Block’ button but it’s there for a reason. These spammers want a REACTION, a REPLY so don’t give them out and see them give them up on their sad little account within days. So I’m putting my video camera away, and resisting from making an ill-advised Vlog, it would only start an argument in the Youtube comments section anyway.
