Words Are Weapons Sharper Than Knives - Even when They're on a Screen

Computers, we all have one, or have access to one, and through that we step onto the information super highway. The net. We surf, research, see to emails, send out files, swap ideas and form relationships. I'm not just talking about love connections, marriages, boy friends, cyber romances that might lead to real time marriages. There are other relationships, ones we often take for granted until they either turn on us, or we find we need those people more than we thought we did.

I'm talking about friendships.

Through the net we make friends all around the world, and just down the road. People we might never have spoken to otherwise, but the friendships, everything we feel toward them, about them and about ourselves when we're chatting to them, are very real. Entire online communities have been created around friendships, Face Book, My Space, Yahoo Groups, Blogger Rings and Live Journal.

We chat, spill our hearts out, play games together, share dreams all with people whom we may never see, or even hear their voices. The walls come down and we become vulnerable. I've known of some amazing friendships that have formed over the years, marriages that have been successful for eight years or more, my own marriage being one of those, friends who have banded together during times of crisis such as 9/11 and Katrina, to help those who were affected by disaster and tragedy.

Then there are others who use those friendships for cruel, or illegal causes.

Men and woman who search through the net to form friendships in order to gain illegal access to information, shipping addresses, credit cards, money, even trying to convince people to speak for them in the immigration process. Those are nothing compared to the personal cruelties that others use the net to inflict. The men and women who hide who they are, worm their way into other peoples lives just to spread lies, hurtful words and cruel blades into their hearts.

These are just words on a screen, but they cut deep. They can even push someone over the edge to their death.

Sounds dramatic doesn't it?

Unreal even?

Tell that to one family in St. Charles. Words, vicious nasty words via My Space, were the trigger that pushed their daughter over the edge. Their sixteen year old daughter became the victim of a nasty prank, via My Space, that ended up with their child hanging themselves in the closet with a belt. She thought she was talking to a 16 year old boy called Josh Evans. A boy she could relate to, who she liked the look of, and got to know through My Space.

She wasn't.

Instead she was the victim of a cruel, thoughtless prank by adults.

They say children can be cruel, but at the end of the day it's adults, you and I, who know the real cruelties of life. You see we have the knowledge and experience to remember what it's like to be on the receiving end of such lies, or cold words such as 'you're a slut'. 'No one likes you'. We've lived through it. We know better, don't we?

It didn't stop these adults, which the paper in the link offered, didn't name. The full story in provided in that link and this isn't an article aimed at rehashing of her families pain. But a way of, hopefully, reminding people to think.

You see we're coming up to a season of thanks and hope, regardless of what faith you personally practice, or beliefs you share, this is a time of year most associate with good will, wishes, family and friends. Yet there are things many of us will say or do via the net which are designed to be hurtful. Designed to stab, lash out and maim. Those words will be shrugged off by the ones who use them as weapons through the net. They didn't mean it that way, or we're supposed to know it's not real.

We're supposed to read minds when it suits others.

Jokes can hurt.

Cruel words can leave scars.

Friendships used and betrayed can harm the heart and kill in more ways than one.

And if anyone thinks that words have no power, remember. You're reading this now. You're on a site filled with articles that speak to you in some way. You've, no doubt, opened and read your email. You might have updated your My Space, Face Book, or Blogger account. Maybe you've hugged someone on IM already today.

How did you use your power, your friendships, your relationships today? The way you wish to be treated, with the respect you might even demand from others? Or were they a weapon?