After writing here on xanga for a while and reading one too many blogs about "emo kids" written by "xanga celebrities," I figure that it's time for me share my point of view and observations regarding various subjects, some of which are fairly controversial and may not be favored by many. I am not a person who is afraid to voice his opinions on what he really believes in, and it's fine if you disagree with me. I know that a lot of people will, and I don't see how anyone can find my views to be offensive in any way. Feel free to give me your thoughts and opinions if you read anything below.
Many people on xanga endlessly rant about the things that bother them. Well, here are my rants.
Blogging for Eprops
December 30, 2005
There's a good chance that many of us can recall a time when we cared about getting eprops from people. Many people still do. Many people dream of having enough eprops to qualify for the Featured Content list one day, which, admittedly, was once a dream that didn't seem feasible to me. Knowing that there are still many people who blog for the sole purpose of getting eprops, this is what I think about it.
I can almost assure that anyone who blogs for the sole purpose of getting eprops or becoming more popular in the eyes of others will not be on xanga for long. Throughout the years, I've seen many people come and go, and in the end, it doesn't matter what the person's excuse for leaving is - usually, it's either directly or indirectly related to the amount of eprops that they have, regardless of whether the person had too many or too little of the virtual currency. For instance, there are many, many, many people who leave xanga because they believe that they no longer have time to write blogs or are no longer interested in blogging. Sure, a lot of them leave in favor of other websites, such as Myspace, but what if the person had more eprops? Would the person continue to write if he or she had more people reading his or her blog? It seems that in most cases, this is the reason why people stop blogging on xanga. On the other hand, what if a person had many eprops? Perhaps the person didn't enjoy the inevitable time constraint that was placed upon him or her when it came to writing new blog entries on a regular basis and possibly the process of writing back to some of the people who were so eager to write to him or her. As a result, the person became frustrated and no longer wished to continue blogging.
It seems that the desire of acquiring many eprops will change in accordance to the usual amount of eprops that a person receives. For instance, I'm sure that most people on xanga would be overjoyed if they were to receive 50 or more eprops for one of their blog posts. However, if somebody consistently receives that many eprops for his or her posts, that amount of eprops is likely to become meaningless to the person. Have you ever achieved something that you've always wanted to achieve yet weren't so proud of yourself when you finally achieved it? This is how it would feel. Having that amount of eprops is no longer a big deal to that person - if he or she could acquire so many eprops, then it's possible for anyone else to do the same. The person will either no longer care for eprops or will want more than his or her usual amount. Eventually, the former will happen.
Then again, I know that there are also a lot of people who like to collect eprops, and this is perfectly understandable. Some people have renamed their eprops to other things such as "cookies" or "broken hearts." There are also people who think that it's fun to see their count of eprops go up and there's nothing wrong with that either. After all, eprops are an indication, although quite unreliable, that our blogs are being read by people. I also recall reading from somewhere a long time ago that an eprop is a token of respect, which is something that I do agree with. I just don't think that people should be blogging for the sole purpose of eprops.
After blogging here for a while, I can certainly admit that I don't blog for eprops. And I don't blog for popularity. I know why I blog and it's because I want to.
"Emo kids" on xanga
March 26, 2006 (Updated)
It's been nearly three months since I've written these thoughts about the treatment of "emo kids" on xanga. During this time, I have learned even more about the behavior of "emo kids" on xanga and I don't retract any of the statements that I have previously made about them. By writing about this subject, I know that I am risking any "reputation" that I may or may not have. Before reading this, I would like to make it very clear to you that I have nothing against "xanga celebrities" or "emo kids" and that the reason why these two terms are in quotations is because I simply disagree with how they are used by people.
Having blogged on xanga for quite a while, I've seen many people voice their opinions about "emo kids," and not once have I read a blog entry about these people that didn't criticize them in a strongly negative way. Often the butt of jokes of "xanga celebrities" and many others who are easily irritable and offended, "emo kids" are obviously disliked by many people on xanga and even more so throughout the internet. Failing to see the satisfaction that one receives from picking fights with a group of people who often can't stand up for themselves, I am left to wonder why so many people hate these "emo kids" and if their hatred for such people is even justifiable.
I have had little interaction with "emo kids" and have only conversed with them during the rare times when they write to me. To me, these "emo kids" seem to be rather ordinary people who write about things in an entirely different way than others, yet the meanings of their words are not much different than the words employed by others who may or may not have a larger vocabulary bank. Having possibly read more than a thousand blogs on xanga by now, I can attest that the meanings behind their writings are not much different than those of the average person on xanga. They are no different than other teenagers who rant about the injustices in their lives, and they are no different than the "xanga celebrity" who exclusively blogs about the events in his or her life. Everyone's words are written differently, but they all lead to the exact same point. For this reason, I cannot understand why people would want to rant about a group of relatively harmless people whose writings are simply written in a different way. But such is the beauty of language, for it is amazing how it can so easily give people a bad impression of others.
I suppose that I know little or nothing about what "emo kids" typically go through, but criticizing them in a harsh way isn't going to make things any better for anyone. In fact, doing so is rather childish and pointless. I often see people who enjoy pointing their fingers at "emo kids" in an effort to boost their self-esteem and to give themselves a sense of superiority over others who are thought to be inferior. What's sad is that these people feel the need to liven up their drab existence by putting other people down in order to make themselves feel important. That, and it's silly to base assumptions on a person by the way that he or she behaves or appears to behave on the internet. Remember in kindergarten when we were taught to get along with others? It's unfortunate how this basic, yet important lesson seems to go further out the window as we age.
Another reason why attacking "emo kids" is a dumb thing to do is that probably none of us have ever met the particular people (on xanga) in person before. Perhaps a particular "emo kid" has an unusual social life and must retreat to xanga in order to discuss their problems with people who might be able to help them. Unfortunately, there are many people who decide to give these "emo kids" an even harder time by harassing and even threatening them. Some of these people will go as far as to encourage these "emo kids" to commit suicide, which is where I feel that a line has to be drawn. Encouraging someone that you've never met before to commit suicide seems rather stupid to me. What if this person decides to give in to the pressure and actually commits suicide? What gives you the right to toy around with the life of another person? The ways in which some people treat "emo kids" are downright disgusting.
Many people dislike "emo kids" for always being on the Featured Content list. I can't help but say that this is a very stupid reason to hate these people for. The Featured Content list is a list that neither defines a blogger's popularity or the quality of the content in his or her blogs. Many of these "emo kids" are ranked higher than I am on the list every week, but I never lash out at them for it; in fact, I couldn't care less if all of them are ranked above me. I don't see why these people should be excluded from the list as long as they acquire their eprops in a fair manner. Also, treating these "emo kids" harshly isn't going to make them disappear from the Featured Content list. I think that many people will be hard-pressed to learn that most of these "emo kids" don't care about being on the Featured Content list. After all, what choice do they have? What choice does anyone have, provided that the Featured Content list is updated on time?
"Emo kids" are also disliked by many people because of their tendency to expose their sensitive side, which is generally viewed as a weakness by many. What's ironic is that many of these people are failing to realize that they behave or have once behaved similarly to these "emo kids." I am sure that most people, emo and non-emo kids alike, have written depressive blog entries on their xanga before. Again, the only difference between their writings is that they are written differently but lead to the exact same point. I would also like to know if you would honestly feel indifferent if your best friend betrayed you or if your significant other decided to break up with you. If you honestly feel indifferent about these things, I don't see why you would have to berate others just because they don't share your amazing threshold when it comes to handling such situations. We can all think of a time when we had to go through something rough in our lives. Rather than insulting "emo kids," wouldn't it be better a idea to help them instead? I'm sure that you think that this is a pretty bad idea, but I don't think that it's any worse of an idea as blatantly insulting them to increase your self-worth. Try to give them a hand in life.
I know that "xanga celebrities" occasionally address this issue on their blogs by attacking "emo kids," but I find it disappointing that such people, who are often very deserving of respect, would use their celebrity status to attack "emo kids" and encourage their readers to treat them harshly when it would be just as easy to ignore them.
If you have read all of this, I'm sure that you now see me as a humorless person, but this is far from the truth. I simply have common sense and know how silly it is to treat other human beings like this. But perhaps I am a little crazy, for I have a radical thought that it's wrong for people to encourage strangers to die. I am guilty of having this very thought that I wrongfully assumed would occur in the minds of others who have the slightest bit of common sense.
One last thing. Are these "emo kids" breaking into your house and ruining your life? Are they pointing knives at you and forcing you to read their blogs? The answer, I should hope, is no. If you really dislike them, how difficult is it for you to have the willpower to simply ignore them? I suppose that now would be the perfect time to conclude this entry with a very wise quote that was once told to me: "I really think we all need to get a life and stop worrying about what everyone else is doing."
Murderers and stalkers on the internet
April 25, 2006 (Updated)
If my memory serves me correctly, John, the CEO of xanga, was attacked by a group of strangers while he was walking home from work one night. The incident may have happened more than three years ago, but none of his attackers were ever caught by the police. None of them! Although the people who attacked John that night most likely weren't people that he had conversed with on xanga, it seems that few of us are aware that there are people among us who are capable of murder. Xanga is considered to be a safer place than Myspace is, yet there have been xanga users in the past who either committed murder or were victims of murder. Being stalked by strangers on xanga isn't likely to be a rare occurance, but being stalked in real life by strangers who know us through xanga, however, is a rare and very frightening occurance.
I don't refer to my xanga tracker log very often, but I know that there are many people who read my blog on a regular basis and never leave a comment because they either don't have a xanga account or dislike leaving comments. Some of these people live thousands of miles away from San Francisco and have little or no chance of ever meeting me in person, so it's safe for me to assume that the likelihood of these people having bad intentions for me is slim to none. However, having read the xanga blogs of people who have either committed murder or were the unfortunate victims of murder has made me think about the people who may be reading our xanga blogs on a regular basis. After all, we don't know anything about the people who never leave comments for us because we don't know how they think or what their intentions are. A fair amount of these strangers may simply be people who are genuinely interested in our writings, but there are also the occasional stalkers and murderers that we need to worry about. Search engine keywords that are used to find my xanga site lead me to believe that a sizable population of the latter exists, showing that there are people out there who are completely sick in thoughts.
Many parents dislike social networking websites such as xanga and myspace because of the possibility that a stranger with bad intentions can access information about their children. I believe that it is ironic that schools promote the use of technology yet ban teenagers from being able to access such websites, which are defining the growing popularity of the internet, at school. I think these parents need to realize that we are living in an age of information and that there is little or nothing that can be done to keep strangers from being able to access information about their children or even themselves. There will always be a way to uncover that information. Just about anything is possible with computers these days, and with the knowledge that there are always dangerous people out there who have nothing better to do than to stalk people on the internet, we really have no choice but to accept the fact that the internet isn't at all a safe place. However, I believe that measures can be taken to reduce the risk of being a victim of an internet stalker or murderer. Instead of having schools brag in their monthly newsletters about how much they promote the use of technology, they need to do a better job of educating students about this subject because it is a very important one.
But educating others about the dangers of meeting strangers through the internet is nearly useless if they fail to employ common sense. I can attest that there are students in our schools who don't have the slightest bit of common sense because I went to school with such people and would not be surprised to hear from them again someday on the news. Anyway, I believe that school officials are underestimating the risk of meeting people through the internet because they didn't grow up with computers like us. They think that blocking websites from being accessed at school will solve the problem. It won't. People need to be educated about these dangers and it is paramount that they understand and apply the safety procedures that are taught to them, that is, if they are taught to them at all.
If a person desires to meet a stranger through the internet, both persons should meet in a public place in the company of friends. If a person continually receives provocative messages from an internet stranger, that person should either ignore that person or alert the authorities. The problem is that very few people alert the authorities and the internet stalker is free to harrass another person until someone with common sense comes along to turn him or her in. Many people are reluctant to alert the authorities because they're either afraid of the police or believe that their situation will worsen if the police are notified. What kind of society do we live in when people can't even trust the police and turn to them for help? After all, very few police officers are engaged in crooked activities and people should not have to worry about that possibility. People think that they can take matters into their own hands, yet things will almost always turn out worse for them.
I've written about internet stalkers and murderers thus far without mentioning anyone who either committed murder or was a victim of a murderer. Given that there are tens of millions of users on xanga, there's a very small chance that any of us will ever write to a person who is capable of murder, and there's an even smaller chance that we'll meet somebody on xanga who turns out to be one of these people. Although few of us may be aware of it, there are murderers among us on xanga. I only know of a couple xanga users who have murdered others in real life, but there are probably others that I haven't heard of yet. These xanga users who commit murder aren't always the middle-aged adults who have a sick, twisted desire to attack adolescents. Some of these people are our age.
One person who immediately comes to mind is Esmie Tseng, a girl from Kansas who stabbed her mother to death a few months ago. I have nothing against her, but it shows that there are people among us who are capable of murder and that we may not always understand the motives behind their actions. I'd always wanted to know what really drives a person to the extent of wanting to kill another person, and after reading some of her xanga blogs, it was difficult to find possible motives behind the killing of her mother. She wrote in a depressing way, yet there are many xanga users who wrote the way she did. Her xanga site has since been shut down, but her blog posts are not lost because there are methods of retrieving those blog entries and I don't think it's too hard to figure out.
One good thing about being a guy is that most pedophiles aren't interested in you. Indeed, there are many parents who express their concerns about pedophiles who use the internet to communicate with their children. Pedophiles definitely rank high on the list of internet strangers to be afraid of, but I believe that not enough attention is being given to psychotics. Yes, I know, there are a lot of people out there who think that they're psychotic, and I even have friends who claim they are. What I'm really talking about are the people who are truly psychotic. Some of these people are so deranged that they can literally stab you in the face while you're walking with your friends on a crowded street in the afternoon and not give a care in the world. Unfortunately, things like this are happening around the world at this very moment. Just a couple days ago, an entire family from Virginia was slaughtered by a random person.
As stated before on this post, there are no obvious signs that a person is a murderer. We could walk past a murderer and not know it. We could write to a murderer on the internet and not know it. Some detectives believe that there is always a motive behind every killing; but sometimes, there isn't a motive. This is when we really have to worry because there are people like this in our society. If you're going to meet somebody through the internet, please be careful and at least take some precautions.
