The Internet And Responsibility

The internet and responsibility go together. Many years ago, when I was a young lad, a wise man gave me the best advice that anyone has ever given. “Richard”, he told me, “Never lose your integrity.” I’ve followed that advice all of my life, and it has served me better than just about anything else. Here on the internet, we webmasters have a substantial amount of power. Because of that power, we also carry a burden of responsibility.

My late wife was very sick for several years. In fact, in 2001 she went into a coma for 5 days and came within seconds of dying. It’s a major league miracle that she survived. Life was  tough on her, both because of pain and because she had trouble leaving the house. In order to make things more tolerable for her, I gave her all of the tools she needed to become a webmaster along with some training and help.

She became a very good webmaster. She created a site about how she survived asthma and another about how she survived diabetes. These sites explain her experiences, give some advice from her heart and attempt to give people hope.

Once, she got an email from someone who just stumbled across her site and was greatly moved. In fact, that person had been contemplating suicide, read her site, and decided to live. Another person was able to get help based upon my wife’s advice. Many others have sent in emails explaining how their lives were changed or in a few cases even saved.

Wow. Now that’s power. And along with that comes an incredible responsibility.

I Believe in the Internet and Responsibility

Now, on one of my web sites I give people advice on the web, the internet and other related topics. I give people insight on how to create sites which look good, produce results and perform their task.

I’ve received numerous emails from people explaining that I have changed their life in many ways. Some people have had their interest rekindled, others have learned things they didn’t know. And still others began to get an understanding of how to be ethical on the internet. In fact, some people even said they’ve learned that it’s important to be ethical at all!

I humbly submit that we webmasters have a high responsibility to the internet community.

• We need to communicate clearly.
• We need to communicate accurately.
• We must not tolerate unethical behaviors.
• We must not promote scams and frauds.
• We may make money, we must do it honestly.
• We must respect others opinions.
• We must not flame, spam or engage in other unsocial behaviors.
• Before hitting send or post, ask yourself, would you

Before hitting send or post, ask yourself if you’d say that to their face. If not, then spend a few more seconds modifying your message to be more friendly and polite.

All of us need to understand how much power we have and use that power in a responsible way.

Richard Lowe Jr

Richard is the Owner and Senior Writer for The Writing King, a bestselling author, and ghostwriter. He’s written and published 63 books, ghostwritten 40+ books, as well as hundreds of blog articles.