Stupidity and Social Networks

"Man is the inventor of stupidity." - Remy de Gourmont

How many times before have you gone on Facebook this month and received a friend request from a women who is half naked in a sexually provocative pose? So many times, I've been tricked into "friending" these beauties because they share some of the same friends, come from the same city and maybe even the same college, just to "unfriend" them later on after they tag me in a picture of fake Nike Air Jordans that some online company is selling.  These women (and men) have popped up all over the walls and newsfeeds of Facebook users across the world.

But they aren't even real.

In fact, malicious spammers and phishers steal the available pictures of men and women all over the internet.  The pictures are used to create fraudulent profiles that rely on the ... uh... physical features to lure gullible souls like you and I.They to steal our information or our identity in order to:

A) steal our financial information

B) get access to our friends and steal their information. 
C) advertise different companies on our social networks 

OR

D) Do all of those things at once while making some of us look like fools.

And what really makes me mad about this is that it plays on our naiveté, our lust and our weak security and discretion on the internet. Men will be flooded with invitations to buy viagra pills from these attractive fraudulent Facebook profiles because they all have the belief that they can "bang one of these women". ts the biggest sign of our stupidity online that you see ever day from our friends.

Using the internet to be stupid (or rather having the internet display one's stupidity) has become popular within the past few years or so especially with those who are in the spotlight. There are a multitude of cases of celebs who have sent lewd pictures to significant others or fans and have have to displeasure of having those pictures leaked.

Who can forget about former Congressional Representative Anthony Weiner, whose ultimate downfall was the twitpics of his wiener that he sent to a follower. Or comedian Tracey Morgan and his homophobic rant that was ultimately captured via camera phone and uploaded to Facebook. Did they believe that their actions on the internet were immune or exempt proper public discourse and that it was okay to not perform proper critical thinking? Yes, which is why they are looked at in the public's eye as stupid. 

The internet doesn't cloak or hid what you do on the internet; it magnifies it. Nor does the internet excuse and coddle naïveté; it is capitalized on it for someone's own profit. And as we come to depend more and more on the internet and it is integrated into our daily lives and social interactions, it is understandable that using the internet is changing the way we think and do. Just as the television, the radio and book changed the way that we behaved and socialized, the internet does the same and it is much more visible in the blunders that we make.