So, I have an internet stalker. She’s the ex-girlfriend of one of my friends. We’ve never met. I wouldn’t call her a troll because she doesn’t try to fuck with my life, but apparently she finds me REALLY interesting, as she’s come across me on several different sites. She’s probably going to read this. The most annoying thing though, is she spreads like poison. She had the gall to copy all of Amanda’s drawings from her art blog, post them to flickr, and claim them as her own. I should also note, that happened last year. You would think she’d move on out of pure embarrassment at doing something that a thirteen-year-old girl would do.
Obviously, this makes me annoyed and angry. I spent a lot of time this morning giving into this anger, I even contacted her husband to let him know what was going on (although I really don’t expect a response, and I realize he probably won’t believe me). But I was feeling really evil and that didn’t feel like enough. I mean, I know her name. I know what city she lives in. I was really tempted to pay $2 to one of those address sites just so I could mail her the most cheerful fucking postcard I could find. I could post her facebook, twitter, flickr, and all other accounts right here and publicly shame her. I could try to get someone to troll her.
But I won’t, for two reasons.
One, I was talking to a friend about this, who has been a cam girl for ten years, who gets trolled hardcore. She has a few people who literally spend hours of their week making up fake twitters about her, emailing her, telling her she’s a lousy person, etc. And she manages to live with all of that crap, so I think I can live with one grown woman looking at my pictures online.
Two, and I know this is a trite response, but I have a life. My life isn’t perfect or ideal, but my life is also not so empty that I need to spend time dwelling on this. This afternoon, I was out trying to wrangle my garden into submission, and I stopped getting pissed at her and started getting pissed at myself for wasting the entire morning worrying about how to deal with someone who really, is not doing anything TO me. The only person she’s really affecting is herself. I mean, i’m sure that she also could be doing other things besides following me around on the internet, and if she would rather do that than live her own life, that’s really not my problem.
Another option would be for me to lock down all of my internet accounts to private so she doesn’t have anything to look at, but you know what? That’s still letting someone else dictate how I live my life. I’ve been on the internet since 1995, and so far i’ve gotten by just fine.
