Please bear with me on this one… I have a few stories to tell - they’re all pretty random but there is one common message. So here goes:

Story 1:
Recently, while waiting at O.R. Tambo International for my flight home, a happily married couple (well so they claimed) decided that I looked like a nice, friendly person to share their life story with (mental note: take a book and never look up). They went on to tell me about their wonderful life together, how long they been married, blah, blah, blah - must be honest I almost Dave’d in my mouth! To cut a (very) long story short they had no kids of their own but did have 4 “wonderful” godchildren aged between 7 and 15.

Then, out of the blue, they announced that the Internet is evil and it is corrupting our children … well, as you can image I/new age mum choked on my drink, all the blood rushed to my head and for once I was speechless (thank God cause I would have been rude, had I been able to breathe). I composed myself and asked why they would say such a thing and they went on to tell me how the Internet preys on young children and that it was causing the next generation of kids to be disobedient, lazy etc. I could honestly not believe what I was hearing and was hoping to get into it deeper when they turned to me and asked “so what do you?”… eMarketing I said proudly. And the conversation came to a grinding halt as they suddenly realised they had an urgent flight to catch!
Story 2:
About 3 months ago while doing my much loathed after-work-shopping ritual I saw the headline: “MXit destroyed my marriage” on cover of a You magazine. I got such a fright I rammed my trolley straight into the back of some poor shopper (oops!).
But, really! WTH (what the hell!) – Yes, I understand they are trying to sell magazines and MXit is a sensational topic but how on earth can anyone in their right mind think it is acceptable to make a statement like that? I obviously don’t know the couple involved but from where I sit it would appear that if a technology can ruin your marriage you should probably not have gotten hitched in the first place!

Messaging is nothing new … it’s been around for as long as I can remember all that MXit did was streamline existing technology and made it cheaper. The technology's awesome!
It really comes down to how we manage technologies!

Story 3:
A few years ago (8 or so) I collected my daughter, Sade from aftercare I noticed a massive bump on her head … after many questions I discovered that a 13 year old bully had told my precious Sade to climb a tree, hang from a branch and then let go…
Quite unimpressed I did what any protective mum would have and instructed the boy to climb the tree hang upside down and let go - don’t worry it was a tiny tree and the only thing he bruised was his ego! When he hit the ground I told him something which I hope he remembers forever: Bullies are not cool and if you bully you too will be a victim one day - there is always going to be some one bigger and meaner than yourself!

That was a long time ago and times have changed, now we have a new issue on our hands - cyber bulling. This is what it’s called when kids use cellphones with Internet capabilities to torture classmate through emails, websites and blogs. Typically (my nerves) the cellphones are getting blamed!!!!

My message is simple: The Internet is definitely not evil and MXit is an awesome low cost communications tool (something that is urgently needed in South Africa) and any way you look at it a bully is a bully online or off.
Moms, dads, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers… Peoples! Take the time to understand the technologies and appreciate the benefits as well as the risks before you blame the technology because ….HELLO… It’s not the technology, it’s us!