But if everybody else is doing it, it can't be that bad, right!?

When I googled "stalking definition" there was no one specific definition for it. In fact, the closest definition that I could find was the 'legal' definition which read: "A form of harassment generally comprised of repeated persistent following with no legitimate reason and with the intention of harming, or so as to arouse anxiety or fear of harm in the person being followed. Stalking may also take the form of harassing telephone calls, computer communications, letter-writing, etc." (your dictionary.com) Personally I think it makes perfect sense why there isn't really one universal definition for stalking. I mean if you think about it the way the world is today people can follow people and look at people in all sorts of way. With every social network on the internet-whether it be myspace, facebook or twitter (just 3 examples of the many out there)- comes some form of what could be called "stalking". I myself have probably be guilty of this. I mean I get on facebook a ridiculous amount-probably about 10-15 times a day- and I only write to somebody or comment a picture or update my status maybe 5 times out of the15 i sign on. The rest of the time spent on facebook is what I like to call "creeping"-something that not only me but most of my friends & people I've met confess to doing- where I page jump from person to person to find out any new gossip of whats going on in their lives. The most popular ones I look at tend to be a guy that I have a slight interest in or find attractive, old friends from previous school years & even my friends, friends. I don't have any want to hurt them or cause them hurt in someway but is it really necessary for me to look through their pictures and what they have written to other people? I even have to admit that this has to be some form of stalking and I'm sure most everyone is guilty of doing it. But then it gets me thinking, if I can look into all of these peoples lives, who is looking into mine? It's scary to think of how pretty much anybody has access to peoples websites-even though my stuff is on super private mode I still feel that there is some way around it. My brothers girlfriends daughter, who is 12, has myspace and before I forced her to make it private she had it open to the world to view. With how many creeps are out in the world these days I'd hate to think of the kids who don't have their information private. In fact, this cyber-stalking has become so popular that some people have formed organizations in hopes to stop it (it's especially common in the U.S.). But is all stalking really bad behaviour? I don't think so. I think that as long as you aren't obsessing over a person, threatening them or trying to commit harm to them, a simple "creep" session is okay.

To find out a little more about how cyber-stalking is becoming an issue, especially in the U.S. heres a link to an article I read about some groups that are trying to put a halt to this form of stalking: Privacy Watch: Stalking Over the Web Is a Growing Threat by Andrew Brandt

"Self improvement, is masturbation."-Fight Club

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"1.	Masturbation
	The act of touching oneself to produce a favorable feeling in the groin area. Usually accompanied by some sort of mental, visual, or audio stimulation to assist in reaching climax. jerking off; spit-shining the old water pump; waxing the brass candlestick; beating off; playing cards with only one hand on the table; riding the quarter-horse; joining the mile-high club, solo-aviator division; giving in to the hand police; self-actualization; fully realizing your potential No honey, I don't want to tonight, I'm tired from watching Oprah. Why don't you just go masturbate? That dumb broad got me all worked up and left me; so I had to spit-shine the old water pump manually if ya know what I mean. .......
2.	Masturbation
	Mass murder of millions of tiny defenseless sperm."

...There are clearly many ways of defining masturbation, these two are the first two that come up on Urban Dictionary and I have to say they gave me quite a laugh. But why is masturbation considered such a taboo? In my eyes theres a lot worse things that a person could do then sexually pleasing themselves from time to time. I mean I find it so hard to believe that they used to perform preventative "treatments" on men and women so that they didn't crave that sexual need anymore or that they created harnesses and made people wear them so that they were physically punished if they did try to masturbate. We may not have harnesses anymore but masturbation continues to be something that many people deny they partake in. I know that at home in the states many of my girl friends still to this day deny the fact that they've ever touched themselves and crinkle their nose at the thought of somebody masturbating-"I would never do that"-they all say. But as we covered in class, masturbation is a natural instinct and we all in face have masturbated whether we remember it or not-since it's known that infants and children do so without even realizing it. After doing some research online I found an article that discussed the International Guidelines on Sexual Education. It discusses how the guidelines mention promoting masturbation as a way to get kids to wait to have sex, something that I think its just absolutely brilliant. Why would we not prefer our youth to holding off on sex by pleasing themselves? It's better then somebody that is young and immature getting pregnant at a young age or getting caught up in something that they aren't ready for and not using protection and getting an STD. The article goes on to discuss how many US right-winged news groups (such as Fox News) tried to make this seem like an awful idea by discussing teaching 5-8 year olds masturbation. Personally, I wasn't shocked by this at all being from the US myself I know that this happens much too often. Too bad the right-winged conservatives have to take something that will ultimately help our youth and twist it into something else. I think its time to open our eyes and realize masturbation is natural and quit hiding the topic from the world and promote: Sex can wait Masturbate!

If your interested in the article I was referring to its called: "Roundup: Masturbation as Natural as Breathing....Let's Ban That, Too"- by Jodi Jacobson ...I think its a pretty interesting read!