I am sick of the scams.  More importantly, I’m sick of spending my time trying to determine which are scams and which are real.  They come by email, by text and on Facebook.  Yes,  and speaking of Facebook, I can no longer tell which of my “Friends” are real and which are imposters who have hacked into friends’ accounts or mine.  It is all beyond annoying and I am beginning to weigh the benefits of computer usage against the daily disruption to my peace of mind.

Furthermore, “vexing” doesn’t half express my reaction to the fact that it seems to be up to individual users of the internet to protect themselves from the scammers.  I had a quick “look around” to see what, if anything, the internet, itself, is doing on our behalf.  Here was a typical “response” to my question: “People are losing more money to scammers than ever before. Here’s how to keep yourself safe.” And then… yada, yada, yada — mostly telling me who is most likely to get scammed,  I fully expected this to be us old folks… but no.  It’s Generation Z — those born between the mid-1990s and Mid- 2010s.  (The rise in Social Media seems to be the culprit here.)

And, I might add, if you want to really make yourself crazy, Google “Internet Governance” to learn more about this situation. The article begins:  “Internet governance consists of a system of laws, rules, policies and practices that dictate how its board members manage and oversee the affairs of any internet related – regulatory body.”  Almost immediately comes this sentence: “No one person, company, organization or government runs the Internet. It is a globally distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected autonomous networks. It operates without a central governing body with each constituent network setting and enforcing its own policies.”

Yep.  Crazy-making information that didn’t really reassure me.  In fact — the opposite.  Lists and lists of ways I must be ever vigilant which translates in my mind to hours and hours of time when I could be using my pre-electric typewriter, hand-delivering my copy to the paper or mailing my manuscripts to a publisher.  (Risking, of course, their refusal to accept such old-fashioned submissions.)

I’m still pondering.  It’s all beyond annoying.