You hear complaints about that all the time. Despite hundreds of news reports of accidents with injuries and/or fatalities, people still do it. Some states are making it illegal. In NC, it's illegal if you're under 18. But I've never seen or heard of anyone being pulled over for that. It doesn't stop anyone!
Once, I was walking across a parking lot, and saw a car pull in to a space, and the woman got out of the car, talking on her cell phone. Ok, talking's not the right word--it was shouting. Not angry shouting, just "I have bad signal and have to talk extra loud and repeat myself a lot" kind of shouting. There wasn't really a way to avoid overhearing her conversation. This lady...was a pretty epic hypocrite. I hear her say "Oh, I was almost rear-ended by some moron talking on his cell phone will driving! I don't get why people do that! It's not safe!"
Ha. Hahaha.....
Ugh.
Our modern world is just too distracting in general. I know I'm bad about not hearing things, especially if I'm on the computer. When I'm doing something on the computer, there are times you could drop an A-bomb on me and I wouldn't notice. I admit that.
But not paying attention to stuff you read...I mean, come on. You're taking the time to read it, would it really take that much longer to pay attention in the process? After all, you'll just have to read it again if you miss too much. So what's faster, reading it carefully once, or skimming it 6 times?
Though you can't tell from my typing (because I take my time, double check, proofread and spellcheck) I'm actually dyslexic. It's easier to get around it when typing, because I touch-type. So my fingers know where the letters are, and I don't have to look at them when I'm typing. That makes it less likely that my brain will see the letters incorrectly.
Sometimes if I try to read a little too fast, or if I'm tired, I'll misread things. I can understand how that would happen to people sometimes. To some more than others.
But it just seems that people don't pay attention to what they read anymore. You can type something on a message board/forum, and people will overlook half of what you say, or just ignore it.
Or people will make an account for something without reading the Terms of Use agreement. That's basically--no, not "basically", it is--signing a contract without reading it first. You're committing yourself to things without knowing you are. You're setting yourself up for possible account closure or even a lawsuit if you do something that violates the agreement, and you don't even know you're running that risk. But ignorance is not a valid excuse. You check the box that says "I have read and agreed to the Terms of Use", and if you're lying about that, then you're 100% liable for anything that you do wrong!
Or what's even worse, you could be giving up your rights to something and not know it! Have you read the Terms of Use for Photobucket? It states that in a public album, you waive all copyrights to the images you post. If someone can see it, they can take it! And yes--can they legally do that. Most image hosting websites you sign up for say in their Terms of Use that they own the things you upload. You own it too, but they can still do anything they want with what you post. I've never heard of any actually doing anything with someone's images. But they have to structure the agreements like that in order to have the legal right to publish what you upload. When you upload something that is visible to everyone, it's "published", just not in a paper or magazine or book. You "publish" things you put on the internet like that. Just like the button to put this very blog in the puplic eye says "PUBLISH POST".
If you want to put an image you own on the internet without giving up any legal copyrights to it, you have to upload it to an FTP server of a domain you own. If you host your images on any other site, you are giving them permission to use that image on their site. If you don't give that permission, it can't be publicly viewable.
It always amazes me how people can break a rule clearly stated in a ToS agreement, and they claim they didn't know. And then they act like because they didn't know, they should be cut slack.
If someone comes to America from another country and breaks an American law while they're here, they can be arrested, and even deported if the crime is severe enough. They don't get to say "Well, I didn't know..." and get away with it. It doesn't work that way. You're bound to follow the rules in any place you go, whether you like them, agree with them, or think they're stupid or not, is completely irrelevant, you're still bound by them.
Now, in a real-world scenario, you can try civil disobedience to try and get a bad law changed. But that doesn't work on the internet. A website, MMOG, message board/forum, blog or anything else you join is not a democracy. It's a business. (Usually.) The rules they enforce are intended to further the safety and enjoyment of all users. That sometimes means a loss of certain rights, such as free speech. At least up to a point. Such as censorship.
Companies don't censor things as a means to insult anyone. They do it to try and protect people, and themselves. If someone is able to slander, berate and otherwise say hateful, racist/biggoted things, the company is liable for that. They are more likely to be sued than the person saying the bad things. Simple reasons, really. You can't know for 100% certainty who posted those comments. You'd have a hard time finding out, let alone suing and proving your case. You don't know who they are or where they live, and it would be very difficult to sue someone if they're in another country, for example. So instead, the injured party sues the company for not providing a safe environment for them.
That makes it unfair for some people, yes. Censorship is very much a double-edged sword. I happen to be against censorship on the internet. Yes, there are kids online. Yes, they can see things they shouldn't. But that's the parents' problem, not the websites'. Unfortunately, that's not how the world works, so the responsibility falls on the websites, because the parents won't step up.
Parents today are so negligent! I see and hear about kids doing all kinds of things that would've been beyond conception when I was a kid. I'm only 22! I was a kid not that long ago! Aside from the internet related stuff, not a whole lot has changed.
Whoever told kids they could sue their parents is a complete and total idiot who deserves to have kids who sue them over something stupid. And the kid should win, no matter how ridiculous it is.
I'm so serious! Parents are afraid to punish their kids today. Now, I don't condone domestic violence or beating kids in any way. But sometimes kids respond to corporal punishment! If a kitten does something the mother cat doesn't like, she'll knock him over and/or bite him! Better a light slap if the kid tries to run across the street than letting him do what he wants and get hit by a car. >.>
Parents almost can't do anything to control their kids today. If the kid gets wind that they have the option to sue their parents if they don't get to do whatever they want, they totally will. And let me say with absolute 100% certainty: No matter what the threatened consequences, children will lie to get their way. They have no real concept of the consequences of lying, nor do they really understand what would happen if they got busted for purgery. Kids lie. All the time. No matter how honest and angelic you think your kid is, they are lying to you. In fact, the more honest and angelic you think your kid is, the higher the probability that they are lying to you about something!
The psychology of kids is all about the Id. Period. They haven't developed their Ego or Super Ego enough yet. All they know is they want what they want and they want it now and if they don't get it, they get upset.
I'll be honest. When I was a kid, there were numerous times that if I didn't get my way, I'd storm off to my room and rage in to my pillow how much I hated my family, and how unfair they were, and how unfortunate I was. Poor little me. That's what kids do. That's how they think. They don't know what the real world is like. If they don't get the toy or game they want, they have the worst parents and the worst lives in the world, and nothing you do or say can change their minds about it. You might be able to show them some poor starving Ethiopian kid and guilt them in to greatfulness, but it would only be temporary. The very next time they didn't get their way, they'd bemoan their fates and how unfair life is.
Kids can be bought.
My paternal grandmother tried to contact me last year...I have no contact with her or her misbegotten son. (No offense to my grandpa, who might read this. :]) The last time I saw that "grandmother", I was 2 or 3. What do I remember? I remember eating an ice cream cone from McDonalds that Mom had told her I wasn't supposed to eat. So right before we pulled up to the house, she took it from me and threw it out the window so Mom wouldn't see it.
I wasn't happy about her trying to communicate with me. I told her in no uncertain terms to leave me alone. She tried to tell me "Oh, we were so close!" Yeah. Right. Because I was a toddler and you gave me ice cream and candy and toys after my mother told me (and you) that I couldn't have them. Kids can be bought off. You can buy their love very easily. Especially if you give them things they want after they were told they couldn't have them! That makes you the "big hero" in their eyes.
So yes, I do believe that if a kid actually thinks they can get their way by lying, they will. They don't know that claiming their parents are abusive could result in being taken away from their parents and put in foster care. Even if they have a vague idea of that as a possibility, they couldn't possibly know what that would be like.
Parents who are truly honest with themselves know that full well, which is why they're scared to punish their kids now.
So because kids aren't being properly disciplined, they run amok and do what they want. They get in to things they shouldn't, go places they shouldn't, and do things they shouldn't. They go to websites and play video games that aren't appropriate for them, and the parents blame the websites and the game companies instead of stepping up and taking control of their damn unruly brats! YES, I SAID IT.
The parents who have kids who do bad things and claim it's because of TV or video games are bad parents who aren't monitering their kids appropriately and aren't maintaining discipline, and are too pig-headed to admit it's their fault, so they lay lawsuits on people who have already clearly stated "not for kids".
What the heck is an 11 year old doing in a game store in a mall alone and buying a video game?! Grand Theft Auto is a $40 game! Why does an 11 year old have that much money, unsupervised in a mall?!?!
I've heard some parents say "Well they saved their allowance, so we let them spend it how they want." Bullshit. What the fish kind of logic is that?! By that logic, you're saying if your 16 year old girl has saved her allowance for her whole life, she can go out and get a boob job because she "saved her money well". Just because your kid was "responsible" enough to save up enough money to buy something, doesn't mean everything they can afford with that money is appropriate!
What if that 11 year old decided to go to Adam&Eve and buy porn and a dildo? Is that "OK" because they saved their money "should spend it how they want"?
I suppose the parents of that kid would then sue the dildo company when the kid became addicted to masturbation, right? >__>
It all comes back to paying attention. Parents don't pay attention to their kids and what they're doing, and then they're surprised when something bad happens to their stupid little brat, who is a stupid little brat because the parents were negligent!
My mom was, and still is, pretty strict. I don't like it. But I respect it. (Gods save me if she reads this. XD)
Because of her, I never have and never will drink, smoke, do drugs, have unprotected sex, shoplift, take nude pictures or break laws. Period.
/End rant/
Ta-ta, people~<3
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