In the old days, if someone ruined your reputation by spreading false information about you, you could sue them for defamation of character. Since the internet came about, however, finding those people who say horrible things about you is not always as easy.

Blogs, websites, Facebook profiles, etc. give everyone with an internet connection the ability to create their own stories and share them with the world. And they can do so without ever telling anyone their name. It happens on Juicy Campus every day, and on other sites all across the internet.

So what do you do when someone starts spreading rumors about you online?

Liskula Cohen, a model in New York, decided to fight back after one blogger anonymously called her a skank and an old hag. (Editor’s Note: Seriously? This woman is smoking!) Since she doesn’t know who it was, Cohen has decided to sue Google, the owner of the blogging site the comment was posted on.

Sure, it sucks when people call you a skank (welcome to my life as a CC blogger), but isn’t a lawsuit a bit much? It’s not like being a skank will prevent her from futhering her career, or that anyone is taking this blogger seriously. Plus, think about what could happen if Cohen wins; this could change the face of the internet and freedom of speech forever.

What do you think? Is Cohen justified, or is she just a bitter skank?

The summer of 2008. A summer drowning in recession, debt, ridiculous gas prices, and boring, trashy television (I mean, Greatest American Dog??). Lots of things seem to be going wrong…or at least…discussed to the point of having us all believe they’re going wrong…and many teens and twenty-somethings are turning to the web to air their grievances.

Because 2008 isn’t just the summer of expensive corn and Obama-rama, it’s also the summer of TMI. Over-sharing has become a form of communication for our generation; from blogging about bad dates, to blogging about our self-indulgent issues, to blogging purely to become famous. No matter who we are, we can become stars overnight by uploading naked photos, name-dropping about a wild party, or simply having an ounce of literary ability and a snarky way with words.

By late July, 2008, the percent of people in the US who haven’t seen a celebrity vajayjay flash or heard someone say, “dude, I’m gonna blog about this!” is monumentally small, and it seems like every day a new gossip or 24 hour news site pops up. However, amidst the clattering of fingers on keyboards and snapping of flashbulbs, I can’t help but wonder if this constant need to be seen and heard is actually doing us any good. Read More »

Maybe you’ve heard about this criz-azy Youtube video by actress and now jilted ex-wife Tricia Walsh Smith (her used-to-be man owns a bunch of big Broadway theaters in NYC). Smith was so angry at her grandfather of a husband for dumping her, that she recorded herself going on a giant tirade about the whole thing (which included her breaking down into tears and calling his secratary to question her about “con-domes” [seriously, that's how she said it] she found at their shared apartment) and then uploaded that tirade onto YouTube.

Maybe she was so pissed off at getting dumped she just went black with rage and couldn’t think of any other way of getting the attention she needed. Maybe she thought the best revenge was one served to millions of Internet users all around the world. Who knows what made Smith share her very dirty laundry with the general populace. People get irrational when they’re kicked to the curb. The thing that’s important about this weird story?

She’s not the only one.

According to this NYT article, it’s becoming more and more acceptable to spill your guts to the world via blogging, and more and more acceptable to include really intimate details about your relationship (or current lack thereof). Read More »

I’m risking my life to get this out to you. Seriously. According to a recent New York Times article, blogging can cause death. Don’t believe me? Well, here’s the evidence:

Two weeks ago, 60-year-old technology blogger, Richard Shaw, died of a heart attack. Only a few months earlier, in December, another tech blogger, 50-year-old Marc Orchant, died of a massive coronary. Also in December, the well-known blogger, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack.

I told ya. Of course, there is no official diagnosis that blogging caused these incidents, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised. Blogging can be majorly stressful. According to the article, “bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.” Read More »

Sometimes, all you want to do is procrastinate. On the Internet. You want to laugh a little, be horrified a little, catch up on the latest gossip a little…basically, you want to spend a few glorious minutes simultaneously doing nothing and everything before Poly Sci 105 starts up and sucks out your soul for the second time this week.

Here are some sites that have helped us become amazing.

…They should do the same for you.

1. TMZ.COM In all of their smack talking glory, we f*cking love them. And their snarky ways.

2. DListed.com Any site that has “crackheads” as a category is pretty awesome.

3. Fark.com I couldn’t resist when I saw this headline, “Pregnant woman arrested after drinking eight beers, which to her credit is four less than it took to get her pregnant“

4. Recapist.com I don’t have the time to sit in front of a TV all day, but they do, and Thank God cause I need to know what’s happening on The Bachelor.

5. Pajiba.com Reviews and such from witty writers.

6. Bookslut.com This site makes me want to start my own site called linkslut…or…foodslut…or maybe Candyslut? Slut sounds good with a lot of words, books included. Read More »

Admit it: you love Facebook. And MySpace. Maybe you have a blog, or you comment on one. Blogs and social networking sites are a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, post pictures and pontificate on your latest drama.

But who ELSE is keeping track of your online persona?

Well, for one, your future employer. By now you’ve probably heard that many HR people head straight to Facebook or MySpace after that big interview you thought you nailed. Maybe you never got around to removing “getting wasted” from your interests, or de-tagging that picture of you with a cigarette in one had and a drink in the other. Things like these are warning signs to future bosses–if they think you spend most of your time drinking and smoking, they’re going to wonder whether or not it will affect your job performance.

What about a work blog? My friend, lets call her…Jonie, kept a blog while working as an assistant for a crazy financial guy. It was juicy and hilarious and a great read and…she got caught. She didn’t get fired, but she pretty much had to resign soon after. She never used her own name on the blog, nor did she use her boss’s name or the company’s information. But somehow her boss got a hold of the link, and he knew right away who it was about. Busted, big time. Read More »

In junior high, I wanted pink hair. Actually, maybe wanted isn’t the right word. I was more or less obsessed with having pink hair, and basically anything pink in general.

However, my mother – who let me get my tongue pierced at 14 – thought that Bubblicious-colored locks were just too radical for my upper-middle class suburban town. So I reluctantly settled for a bright, Ronald McDonald shade of red and completely embarrassed myself for the rest of 8th grade.

But my obsession with pink hair – and every girl I ever encountered sporting it – never ended.

So when I stumbled upon this website, created by a tattooed beauty who at the time of my discovery donned the exact shade of pink hair I so longed for in my wannabe punk rocker days, I developed my first-ever girl crush. Not to mention the fact that I was insanely jealous of not only her looks, but her success.

Gala Darling, the writer and sole creator of iCiNG, deemed “a tattooed Miss Manners with pink hair” here and “a local yet globehopping fashion genius” here is exactly what I would be today….if my mother hadn’t crushed my poor little teenage heart almost 7 years ago.

Except Miss Darling is from New Zealand, is much more insightful, and probably has better hair than I could have ever dreamed of pulling off with some Manic Panic and my 8th grade friends’ “kewl hair skillz.” Read More »

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