Hi there
I'm sorry once again if my posting has not been as frequent as I would have liked it this week. There has just been so many things that has come up at the last minute - it's crazy! Also, there's been enough drama to contend with too, I recall writing a little rant post about why I did not want to be associated with any current drama on Twitter and other social media regarding the death of singer George Michael. As much as I idolised the man, and looked up to all the positivity (within reason) he spread to the people, my only request was that I was not dragged into any online debates about who he dated, what I believe was the sole cause of his death was, etc etc.
So far it's been alright, but there have been certain individuals who just love to spoil it for everybody else, cause sheer hell, and upset everyone and everybody that dares to disagree with them. The amount of people I have had to block so far is ridiculous. The fact I have had to lock one of my Twitter accounts for one person is silly, but that's how bad it's getting. All I did was state that I was not going to be involved in any of these debates, and I was blocked! The person even had the audacity to spread lies and completely roast me, despite not knowing what I looked like! The tweets have since been deleted in a cowardly act to play the victim and cover their tracks. It surely gets me questioning the legitimacy of fans when they start trolling others for their own personal gain. Honestly, I do not know what's going through their heads to make them act this way, trust me - I have heard it all up til now. I haven't received much attack from trolls yet, but the whole situation has triggered a chain of events that happened in my past, leaving me once again, feeling unsafe and unsure about whether remaining online is a good idea or not.
In a nutshell a couple of years ago I was somehow tangled up in a debate between Toto "fans" of whom they thought was the best lead singer, the original, or the lead guitarist. I tried to explain to these Italian fans that I did not like the band, and did not want to be associated with their disagreements. It resulted in me getting blocked by Steve Lukather (guitarist) for no apparent reason, and getting a rather patronising lecture about respect and love thy neighbour by the ex frontman. The fans were quite amused by my plight and would taunt me non stop about it, until I reacted it. Over time it got worse and one of the individuals started to harass me online, even resorting to threatening vendettas of every kind, and despite blocking her continually, she would come back with new false identities. I even lost friends because of her, god knows how they were convinced by her 'evidence' and broken English. Upon doing what I thought was the right thing by reporting to her to Twitter for targeted harassment. But guess what, they thought the things she was saying wasn't causing any apparent harm!
I am still disgusted that a huge social networking platform with millions of users doesn't take acts of cyber bullying seriously, people are getting hurt and they just don't give a shit! I know the main focus right now is cracking down on radicalisation and terrorism, but I just don't get it - what is targeted harassment to them? I think getting others to make your life a living hell surely is! I must be batshit insane wanting to stay at the moment, but overnight I realised people would genuinely miss me and I would be showing the trolls that they were winning, so by staying I wouldn't be making so big a sacrifice, and the idiots well, they can go to Hell for all I care!
Regardless of this I still want to continue this blog, share my love for a decade I would trade my soul for just to experience it, do loads more LP and music hauls, review things, the whole nine yards! It's gonna be really hard to remain neutral in some clashes, and there's going to be a lot of rivers to cross, but I feel if I stick at it, I'm gonna get there one way or another.
Sorry for complaining, I just wanted to get it off of my chest, there it goes! I know I promised I'd do a lot of things this half term and I've still got to get round to doing them.
Till then, see you around!
Sigourney
