A series of thoughts part 5: Intentions and Fear.

Never pick up strangers. Why? Why not? Because you don't know what their intentions are. You don't have any reason to trust them. You may know a little about them, but you don't understand anything about them. You don't know what their intentions are. Fear. You don't know, and it scares you. We, as modern society have become consumed with fear, and become more solitary as the days go by. We don't talk to our neighbors, we don't make friends with the locals at the market, we don't really do that sort of thing anymore. Not saying it doesn't happen, but it's far more rare now than it has been in the past.

We've become almost consumed with fear. Don't talk to strangers, don't look at them, don't pick them up, don't do anything to them. They might just attack you. Or be a terrorist. Or be a wanted murderer. Of course, because you know nothing about them. Might as well prepare for the worst and just assume they might be bad. In case. If they're great and nice people, it'd be great if you struck up a conversation. If they weren't, you might wish you never spoke to them at all. Better safe than sorry, right? But the thing that makes us so afraid, is we don't know what their intentions are.

Of course, this isn't EVERYONE, there's always exceptions to the rule (not that this is a rule or anything, it's just how the saying goes), but it's why we don't put out our personal information out on the internet, it's why we have multiple levels of securty for our bank account, why we have home security, car alarms, etc. Because there ARE people out there waiting to exploit us. There are people who do prey on the kindness of strangers. We can't tell them apart though, so it's better safe than sorry, and everyone is one of those people, until we get a chance to know them. But a lot of the time, we don't even want to go that far.

For some people, it's easier than others to openly trust people. And for some, it's easier to trust them online becasue it's not such a commitment. What I mean is, if they're an ass, you can just stop talking to them, block them, change your e-mail, etc. If it was in real life, it might be a bit more work. Changing your phone number and moving is a lot more work than backing up your blog, moving it to a new blog and changing your e-mail.