It’s a truism that on the Internet anyone can be anyone
else. Or, as is sadly sometimes the case, no one at all. I, myself, have never
used eBay and don’t pretend to know how it works, or why, though I know of many
people who are very happy selling and purchasing items from it and sites like
it (and I have no idea how many sites there are).
Despite being midway through the second decade of the 21st
Century, some classic Latin, Caveat emptor, seems to be a watchword wherever
you wander on the Weird Wild Web. I’ve taken to wearing a helmet and a condom
while also fastening my seat belt whenever I’m seated doing interweb things because
you never can tell.
Tuesday was Internet Safety Day which always makes me think of
Men
Without Hats for absolutely no good reason whatsoever (rivalling
only the video for that song which had even less reason to be than I might ever develop for my thought process). So perhaps it was
appropriate to learn of Paul Barrington, and how even on the Internet
anyone can serve as a cautionary tale.
All we have online is our reputation-not surprisingly all
we have in our person to person dealings with one another when we have no
mouse and keyboard. For better and as Paul learned sometimes for worse, our
word isn’t worth the flat panel screen it’s displayed on.
Yes, somewhere in the story you’ll
read how Paul will be made whole, in terms of getting his money refunded (and
probably being allowed to keep the printed picture of the Mac Book he didn’t
really buy), but there will always be a scintilla of suspicion and not just for
him (but for us who’ve read of his plight as well) when engaging in online
commerce.
As Steve Jobs once offered, “Technology is nothing. What's important is that
you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you
give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them.” Or sometimes, to one another.
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