I have just had the unpleasant experience of having my Twitter account hacked last night, causing untold mayhem amongst myself and my friends!
No matter how savvy, how sophisticated we think we are, we are quickly reduced to wide-eyed children when something goes wrong…as it often does.
Having received a message from a friend, I opened it and was promptly hacked. The little blighter’s then proceeded to work through my contacts by sending out the same intriguing message. Oh dear, what a mess! Several apologies and changed passwords later and I think…think, the matter is sorted. But it got me thinking…
Firstly, an obvious point here, but as so many of us are increasingly reliant on the web for everything from social media, to banking, insurance even mortgages, we are also SO vulnerable to these sorts of random attacks. With identity theft on the increase, are we really safe on the web?
And secondly, it got me thinking about the individuals that do these sorts of things. Now, I’m well known for having a bit of the anarchist in me from time to time, daft as a brush, anti-establishment to a degree, and certainly non-conformist, but random hacking just seems so utterly pointless. They are not hacking a fat-cat company swindling the masses, they don’t even seem to be trying to fraudulently take people’s identities…they really are just doing it for the sake of doing it!
A friend said it was the modern equivalent of a ‘brick’. That there will always be vandals in society and these are just that…mindless vandals.
Yeap, I agree…but again, why? Why vandalise the area you live in? Why destroy when you can create? Vandalism may be in the eye of the beholder when it comes to graffiti – being a Bristol gal, I happen to love Banksey, but I know others don’t. But one thing everyone agrees on, is the utter mindlessness of a brick through a window, a concrete block thrown in the path of a train (yesterday a teenager threw a bicycle at on oncoming train). The consequences could have been utterly horrific!
Disaffected youth? Yes. But why have we as a society so completely failed to inspire these people to do something more creative with their energies? It sounds so old-fashioned, so parochial to say “Get a hobby!”. But in a strange sense, that is what a lot of our youth needs. In a climate where unemployment is spiralling out of control and our youth simply cannot find jobs or even training apprenticeships, if they had a creative outlet, be it art, music, writing, sport etc it would open up their potential and channel their energies in a far more positive direction.
But…I’m probably just a naive dreamer. All I know is that life can be damn hard, and if I hadn’t of had a whole host of interests and hobbies to occupy and inspire me, I’d be in a very different place!
😀
Sophie E Tallis - Author/Illustrator 
Well said Sophie, but one thing I might add: The non-punishment of children has led to the younger generation we are dealing with. Scolding and threatening does nothing, all they do is thumb their noses at you and laugh as they walk away. The old saying ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’, not sure you’ve heard or would remember that, but it is the truth. If the parents today were ‘allowed’ to discipline their own children without fear of reprisal or being arrested, wouldn’t the children grow up to be the productive adults that we did? My children are now 30 and 24, and even as the parental rights were slowly chipped away, I did my best to raise them as my parents did me. My son even threatened to call the police on my once for slapping his foul mouth…little did he expect me to knock him on his ass and as I straddled him on the floor, yanked the phone off the wall and held it under his nose…screaming ‘do you want me to dial the police now?’ His eyes wide, he said, ‘no Mom, I’m sorry!’ He was 19 at the time………No rules we end up with the society that we are facing now, God help us all!!!
To be honest, I don’t think the endless hacking problem is the kids who are out throwing sticks, and playing in the nice healthy outdoors like we were all taught to – it’s the ones quietly in their rooms spending hours on the computer, who grow up to be adults quietly in their offices spending hours on the computer, trying to keep the business competition down with little bits of industrial sabotage. I’m glad when I see kids doing normal kid stuff like climbing trees – it means they’re not being sucked into the vacuum of ‘thinking they’re doing something clever on the internet’ – until the police come knocking, that is. Which is as likely to happen to them as it is to the ones outdoors breaking stuff nowadays 😉
Thanks guys, some really interesting discussion points there.
I’m probably somewhere in the middle here, not a position I’m often in!
I DO think that punishments for anti-social behaviour should be far more robust, so it acts as a REAL deterrent to thugs who really can make people’s lives a total misery. A lot of these hooligans also have a tendency, in a rather insidious way, to hone in on the most vulnerable in society. There have been so many stories about the elderly, or the poor, or the disabled, being persecuted by gangs of mindless thugs, sometimes with heartbreaking consequences. Very distressing and distrurbing.
Also, yes, it is the kids at home locked in their rooms all day, which are a worry, as well as the gangs outside. 😉
Having said that though, I’m very wary of physical restraints or punishments being used. I’m rather sensitive on the whole violence issue, and believe that physical discipline tends to be a self-defeating method. But I DO understand parents total frustration at being told how to parent. Parenting is such a tricky topic, where every individual has a different method of raising their children, how can any government truly legislate a ‘correct way of disciplining’? A very very interesting topic though, thanks guys!
Food for thought! 😀
I guess I’m from a ‘different era’, before parents’ ‘parenting rights’ were taken away. I never faulted my parents for the way I was brought up, and even after all the toe-to-toe battles I had with my own children, they wouldn’t be the responsible people they are today if I’d changed to the non-discipline stance that’s now being upheld. If there are no negative consequences for any action, then do whatever you please, nothing will happen to you, you’re SAFE! I’m sorry, I see the unruly children today, the shallow-threatening of the parents and I’m disgusted by it. I’m too old-school, I suppose, and my bumper sticker relays how I feel:
“Politically INcorrect and Proud of it!”
🙂
Lol! I LOVE that bumper sticker! I want one too! 😀
It is a very emotive subject though. Certainly I think there should ALWAYS be consequences for bad behaviour. Unfortunately, a lot of the behaviour you see, is when the parents simply ‘give up’ and negate their responsibilities of being a parent altogether.
It’s difficult because I was always a good kid, but having witnessed a lot of domestic violence in my home life, as the result of an alcoholic and violent father, I’m very touchy on the subject of physically repremanding children. As a teacher, I think perhaps I find it easier than others though. I’m so used to having to discipline large groups of children without the use of corporal punishment, that it’s second nature to me. It helps to have a booming voice like a fog-horn though! 😛
Twenty years separate us, and society has done an about face in those two decades.
Wish I could get you one of those bumper stickers…can’t remember now where I got it, in my travels ‘somewhere’ if my memory is correct.
AC/DC on the cd, and that bumper sticker–in a red car–a ‘routine pullover’ waiting to happen.
I don’t condone abusive behavior either, but discipline is a different ‘egg’ altogether. The children lack discipline, which the parents have been stripped of, leading to the non-disciplined generation we now must tolerate.
Cell phones for eight-year-olds, $150 sneakers, designer clothes, all luxuries many adults aren’t allowed themselves, but the ‘give-me-mine’ generation no-discipline has produced, demands it.
Here I go again, spouting off…sorry Soph! 😉