Star Wars Kid, internet & public stupidity as art

Easily one of the most internet famous videos of all time, the "Star Wars Kid" has spawned numerous remixes and has even been parodied in prime time shows like Family Guy and South Park. However despite the popularity of the video it has apparently caused no end of grief to it's star, a then pudgy 15 year old who didn't realize his pals were going to upload it after the filming. Because of the attention the boy received after it was revealed how he felt many people began to feel that the internet was an unfair invasion of privacy and could be used to exploit people and destroy lives etc.

Steven Streight counters this by explaining that the internet doesn't force any of these things to happen and is simply a tool that we use as we choose to, whether for good or bad means. He notes that "It wasn't the Internet that made that boy act stupidly. It wasn't the Internet that videotaped him. It wasn't the Internet that posted the video to YouTube. Why blame the Internet for anything?" He concludes by saying that we should simply just learn to take advantage of the resource that is the internet, rather than complaining about it.

I really have to agree with Streight on this one and I feel that in some ways this ties into what I'd be dealing with as I promote my own video. Once it's out there I'm simply at the mercy of the crowd, so it really pays to know what you're getting into ahead of time.