"WHO IS BEHIND THE KEYBOARD?"

Do you remember sitting in a chat room,
watching people chat, or even chatting yourself?
Do you remember receiving so many forwards
that your mailbox was ready to explode?
How about receiving an e-mail from someone just searching for a friend.
Did you wonder who these people might be that are behind the keyboard?
Online we meet new people from all around the world.
Some we chat with just once and then we go on.
Others we chat with time and time again, and a friendship is made.
Others become our e-mail buddies,
and we look forward to their e-mails each day,
but have you ever really wondered who was really behind the keyboard?
Have you ever hid behind your keyboard,
pretending to be something you are not, just to boost your ego?
As you sat there and typed have you ever lied, thinking
"who cares, the person behind the keyboard, it is only a fake person?"
Did you ever hurt someone thinking "it's only a game"?
Well, behind each and every keyboard are very real people,
some might be heartless cold people, not caring who they hurt,
but then there are people that are caring, loyal,
honest and all kinds of people hoping for some companionship online.
Behind the keyboard can be someone
who is seriously depressed and their only hope is to make a friend,
maybe an aging person who once had a family,
but now they live too far apart to see one another,
perhaps there is someone that cannot walk anymore
or a person so ill they are in the house forever.
As we enter the world of the internet
we should remember,
it is a very real world and
behind each and every keyboard
is a person who has a heart.
No one has a life that is pain free,
so as we go online whether in chat or just e-mailing,
we must remember to treat each person
the way the we want to be treated,
to respect each others' feelings,
and to offer friendship, because the truth is
we really do not know who is behind the keyboard
or what kind of hurt someone may be feeling.
To be the best to others that you can
be should be the "key" to a good, honest life.
-Author Unknown-