Let me see, who’s in my vicinity that might be, interested, in hanging out with me here……….oh, I see that blinker, I’ll go there then! Translated…
The first year of iPhone for me was 2007, my very first smartphone was Sony Xperia from 2012, the prevalence of smartphones in Taiwan back in 2014 got to seventy-percent of the population. The smartphones combined with the GPS system, with the friendship apps were born, made the physical bodies into geography. This turned the friendships of gale males upside down. But, before-Smart to SmartPhones, the transitional phases, there’d been, a very short-lived website: GapMap. The site is active during the “with the needs, but when the SmartPhones weren’t prevalent enough” back in 2010. I was still not yet into my doctoral program, still lived with my boyfriend at a suite high up in a building. My desk was in the midst of that penthouse, and, perhaps, due to the fengshui, I’d not, opened my field of vision, nor my life, wide, enough yet.
One day, my good friend, Doobe told me, that there was a website, GapMap, that I could see those who are…close to where I live—I’d tried register online, the image was like GoogleMap, but, with every person a dot, like the tacks on a map. And, passing the Fuhe Bridge, there were, the highly inhabited region of Zhonghe and Yonghe, living up to its name of “first class warzone”, the map needed to be maximized, then, maximized, again, to see the gaps between the people. There was a headshot like a sticker that’s, stuck on my head, I can’t remove it—looking at the face more closely, it seemed like that gay man on the twelfth floor, the one with the French dog.
something that’s like…this! found online

The Fengshui programs told that if the walls aren’t with light, our minds will always and forever be, closed. And yet, there’s, only limited living spaces in the city. I’d turned on the GayMap daily, like I was, opening the window, to see a wider, world, to resolve the problems of fengshui of my wall over my desk. It’s just, that the location of the GayMap GPS, it’s based off of the individuals’ needs, I’d often seen Elvin, Dong, from someplace, hanging themselves above the Hsintien Creek often. From upstream to downstream, the heads floated, like the ships of an ocean, very interesting, and malicious. Looked like the people afloat, actually, they’d, swum out of the Red Sea, that was, a way of appearing too. I’d not cared about cheating a lot, but, going north to south, south, to north, scanning from the origins of the creek, to the exit, it seemed, that I’d, immersed, completely, in water then.
My “field” discoveries ended, with the coming on of the SmartPhones, the friendship apps automatically set up the priorities for me based off of my geographical location in relation to others’, from near to far off. There’s only a limit to the number of people whom you can see on this trial version of the app, there’s a dense population of gay people in Yonghe, I can’t get my cursor out of Anhe and Shuanghe Boroughs at all—the hands of the goddess that’s blocked up the Monkey King of the digital era. My friend, Doobe who is out of the engineering majors, told me, that this isn’t difficult, there’s the false GPS system software. We can be physically in Yonghe, but our minds, Thailand, before we travel abroad, we’d already, set up our location at the hotel we are to check in abroad, and, gotten along with those around us virtually, and, as we physically arrived we are, already, well, connected. I’m completely taken now, the desks, the walls, and now, my imagination, became, limited.
And now, iPhone got to the fourteenth generation already, and, I’d still gotten reminded time to time of GapMap. Maybe, it’s more like that gap, opening up this tiny hole in the times. Can drag it with my hand, or, imagined a false location, I’d wanted to know the gay population in Zhoushan Island too, if there are passionate boys like me in Hai Phong, Vietnam, if there are Dongs who are like me, holding my location above a lake in Vieng Chan, Cambodia………………
So, this is how the invention of the internet, of programs like GoogleMaps, help people stay, connected, especially in this day and age, when face-to-face contact is next to impossible, especially due to the outbreak and all of that, we longed to connect, establish that sense of hey, I know you, “friend”, let’s hang out online, and see what sort of troubles we can get ourselves into, yada, yada, yada. And these apps aren’t that bad, if you use them in the correct means, if you only use them for the sole purpose of socializing, and connection.
Promise Me, Do, Spare Those Under the Keys
As these words of ours that we’re all posting online, might be, damaging…translated…
Recently a friend started a diner, other than being in awe of his cooking skills, I’d hoped, that I can do something for him, to help his shop run smoothly. My friend didn’t ask for much, smiled and said, that if I’d used my articles to recommend his shop to the online community, that it may be the best form of, advertisement. And so, I’d, tapped into my editorial skills from my work from before, wrote an article for him, and gladly, the article got the attention of a group of hundreds had posted things.
As we were both happy over this, I’d suddenly found, that my personal page hits surpassed thousands per day too, but, most of the comments, they were like friendly like they’d been before, instead, the trolls trolled us for making the shop look and sounded good, that the shop my friend owned, seemed like it would cheat the guests. Some of those who made real troubles, left the messages of “the food, disgusting, and the prices, too expensive, while the owner of the shop was…well………”, then, my personal headshot got posted to the bottom of the posts, and, those “martyrs of justice” started attacking my “immoral behaviors”, criticizing about why I couldn’t do what I’d been “paid to” do, that I was, immoral in embellishing my friend’s shop, how I was, “cheating the people out of their money”, etc., etc., etc.
trolls online! like this, and this may be someone you know too! Illustration from online
It wasn’t that I’d never been bullied before, but, seeing how my headshot got cut, I started to panic for real, at the shortest time, I’d thought, that I had the photos of my family members on there too, could it be that they were also, attacked? I’d felt apologetic toward my friend too, my good intention, got abused by the online community.
In the past, our culture taught us to be courteous to one another, to be kind to those whom we meet, and yet, the online world became, a secret headquarters, betting on how you can’t see me, and I can’t, see you either, the anonymity, I’m not who I say I am, and you’re not who you say you are either, forgetting, that behind the keyboards, there are, REAL live, human beings, the hearts that are, working really hard, to make the lives, count. As our lives are, tied in to the internet, but, can we, in all the words we post online, put that empathy into what we’re, saying?
My friend did NOT blame me, but I’d still, taken a little more time, to get myself from under the glooms of the attack. And I will, never try to, help my friends in, anything, anymore.
And so this, is how the internet affects people in a negative way, because there will always be, TROLLS, those sour masses, that are, commenting on what they really got no clue about, and, these words of “you suck”, or whatever, it hurt, and, especially if these bad words can spread like a wildfire too fast, burn through the online world, damaging the reputations, hurt the feelings of someone who don’t even know those who are targeted by the online community! And this is really, B-A-D!
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Filed under Abuse, Abuser/Enabler Interaction Style, Cyber-Bullying, Interactions Shared with the World, Interpersonal Relations, Life, Messed Up Values, Perspectives, Properties of Life, Utilizing the Internet, White Picket Fence
Tagged as Leaving a Bad Comment, Rumors that Spread Like Wildfires Online, Trolls Online