Blog Hopping....

So, if I understand the system correctly, the best way to aquire a following for your own blog is to start following other peoples.  With this in mind, I clicked the Next Blog link and I have been amazed/confused/worried by the connections the system found for me.

First I got shot to an uber-religious site - not a big issue - not for me but each to their own.  However, when I clicked to skip, I got another religious site, and another and another.  This went on for over 20 sites until I gave up, clicked on my own blog and started again.

Next it was Quilting blogs (I never knew people could quilt so much! - Half of North America must be knee deep in the things judging by how many blogs there are on the subject).

Back to my blog and try again - this time its everything East Indian - again, not an issue except I am not myself East Indian and therefore did not find them particularly relevant to me.

I think my biggest issue was the religious ones though.  Whilst I am all for freedom of religion and such, I do worry about how the digital age has changed the way fundamentalist groups of all religions and dominations can access people.  The more dubiously intentioned ones can recruit almost without trying, without doing anything that hints at true intentions, and then groom people to do their bidding.  It also scared me that one of the blogs I randomly came across was not in any of the above catagories, but was written by a 14 year old girl in New York.  I'm all for adults blogging about their daily lives, but it scares me that youngsters, female and male, put themselves out there so innocently sharing their thoughts and lives and there are predators out there who will use that information to prey on them.

I love the internet and the access it has given me to all sorts of things, from news and weather, educational information right down to who was that guy who had a bit part in CSI so I can stop trying to remember and get to sleep.  But, at the same time, as a mother of 2 small girls, I also fear where it sometimes takes us.  It is as easy to access inappropriate materials as it is to access any other kind of information ....  I wonder sometimes if we have created a monster...