Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Using The Internet For Revenge

Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but in this day and age of the Internet, it’s all too easy to seek vengeance online when you’re blazing mad.

On the 'net, revenge is just a keystroke away (illustration: Boris Kulikov/Wall Street Journal)

In today’s Wall Street Journal, columnist Elizabeth Bernstein takes a look at examples of webtribution. Among the stories – a wife who outed her cheating husband on his Facebook page…and one from yours truly about a nasty exchange with an ex following my blog post about his engagement.

As I told Elizabeth, the episode taught me to think twice before lashing out online, no matter how irresistible it might be.

Have you ever used the ‘net to exact revenge against someone? You can read the full WSJ story here – hopefully without being tempted to recreate the same scenarios.

2 comments:

Erin said...

I agree! I think people tend to feel invincible at the keyboard. Lashing out at someone via web is a way of letting the cap off the bottle while remaining invisible. In any case, revenge or not, typing while you're angry/heated could cause you to write something you might regret later. Once it's on the internet, it's permanent.

Melissa said...

Well said. Think first, type later!