Neil Taps Into the Often Frightening Online World At His Fingertips

Neil was about to make one of the worst decisions of his life.

He inadvertently became enmeshed in high drama on the often humiliating social media hotbed of You Tube. He'd always steered clear, because it had the reputation of attracting a lot of unbalanced, angry and nasty miscreants, whose lives must be utterly broken to be as cruel and sadistic as they are. It's so easy to become enmeshed in deplorable traps that can and do, lead weak and fragile souls to suicide.

"Well, how bad can it be? You and I have been dealing with idiots who, for one reason or other, build themselves up to try demolishing and unsuspecting targets. Of all the social networks, You Tube is brutal and dangerous."

Neil Tennant had always attracted people who like to bend his ear when there's no-one else to do it. He often wonders whether or not he's got a sign on his back proclaiming "If you ever need someone to listen to, I'm here to do it!"
I'm calling the police and let them know that you've been stalking me for months now! Are you with the CIA? Are you God?"

Neil was getting frustrated. He never went on any of the social media sites anymore (Twitter was becoming an obsession) particularly not You Tube until today. It would turn out to have tragic consequences.

He opened his laptop and got onto You Tube. He and Chris were bemused to see the Pet Shop Boys videos splashed everywhere. The You Tubers's comments ranged from "Great, guys. Wish we still lived in the 1980's" to the less-than-endearing "They sound gay."

Chris chuckled. "If they only knew."

Remember Usenet? It was wildly successful in the 1990's when the grunge sensation was at its peak. Seattle bands, like Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden, to name a few dominated the radio stations. One of the enthusiast heralded bands from Athens, Georgia, REM. Personally, Michael Stipe, Bill Berry, Mike Mills and Peter Buck were not typical musicians. I loved all of their music and wore out four cassettes. Intelligent, witty, they were a band for disenfranchised youth, with anthems like Everybody Hurts, Losing My Religion and Automatic For the People. Generation X, having moved on from Duran Duran, Cheap Trick and other colourful groups to the ironic, pessimistic, depressing and often rage-consumed "slackers." This monicker came from a novel by called Generation X by Douglas Copeland. Squeezed between Boomers and Generation Y, they were unable, for the most part, to achieve the American Dream.

Anyway, Usenet had a newsgroup for literally every musician, writer, death penalty, all religions in the world and was "the place to be." The Nirvana fans, who'd suffered the death of one of the most heralded grunge bands to emerge from Seattle. Kurt Cobain shot himself to death in April of 1994, leaving behind his wife, Courtney Love and their baby, Frances Bean Cobain.

I spent a great deal of time on the REM and Nirvana newsgroups. Probably too much. I soured on the REM newsgroup, because of the unending "Is Stipe Gay?" On and on, day after day it choked the relevant and intelligent posts as they were squelched with this immature nonsense. Michael Stipe himself stopped reading, understandably. Yes, he's gay and what's the problem with that? I never understood idiots who get tied up in knots about someone's sexuality.

But there was no You Tube back then, which could be a positive influence on those who spent a lot of time watching music videos, TV shows and films. However, the dark side of the Internet appears to be winning the race. People were uploading terrible stuff, racist, anti Semitic that turned my stomach. There are good, intelligent, personable people and nobody is looking for trouble by talking with those horrible sickos.

But Usenet was tame as hell compared to You Tube. Anything goes, it seems and there are many "Trolls" all over the place. These are people who deliberately sneak into video commenters and say things in order to shake things up. And they usually do.

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I logged on and checked out You Tube first. This was a fairly new practise. This was done before reading my emails and checking Facebook.

I was dismayed when all hell had broken loose on one of the Pet Shop Boys videos comments. This was pretty rare, as most of us tried to prevent any kind of high drama. But this went far and beyond any kind of attention-mongering any of us could have drummed up.

This poor guy is, obviously, mentally ill. You Tube is filled with any and every kind of personality in the entire universe. I won't respond anymore to this unfortunate soul because he is clearly in need of medication and someone who understands and cares about him. I know a lot of people like this in real life and it's so sad. Even if I were to respond with a kind and compassionate message, he would still think I was making fun of him. He likely doesn't have a happy family life, both in childhood and when he reached adulthood. His palpable rage has me worried. I know, he and I are just random you tubers, but when I come across someone like this, I thank my lucky stars that I have people that look out for me and love me. This person has neither. This collection of stories will attempt to make sense of an increasing spate of men, women and even children who show us a world unavailable before the Internet phenomenon. It's unstoppable and both a good thing and and an insidious one.

It was so annoying when Bobby Mason got on his soapbox and spewed, amid expletives, long and tedious monologues to anyone who actually spent any time with him. Needless to say, he had few friends---only one that wasn't snickering behind his back and laughing at his awkward behaviour. It should be told that all of this takes place online instead of a real world in shopping malls and high school halls. You either conform or are quickly tossed out. Battle-weary Bobby had a website---one that could and did have the potential ability to attract like-minded subscribers. And it would end up amassing an impressive legion of followers, who were willing to join and pay $70 per month. After two years of struggling financially and hiding his ill-conceived online business from both family and the token few in Bobby's circle of friends they hit pay dirt.

And had you not being one of "the Chosen", well, you can be assured that you'd end up alone, disappointed and your self esteem takes a nosedive. It reminded Neil of those snotty fraternities he stayed away from as well. One black ball and you're toast. How shallow and childish to measure your self-worth via the company you're hanging with. We all do it. Some more than others.

But then, there were a very small number of kids who adored high school. In fact, wished that it would go on forever. These people fascinated the hell out the majority of us who couldn't imagine what bizarre creatures they were, to have wished they could stay there even longer. They need to refocus, because it's been my experience that the schoolgirls and boys who just loved high school, were the ones who peaked at eighteen.