My story about the ongoing Detroit Street disputes is on the front page of today's paper. So, naturally, I've received some emails, Facebook messages and phone calls from angry people. More Facebook messages than anything though, ironic seeing as the story stems from a Facebook feud.

My blog yesterday about having your profession, or anything about you, insulted received a lot of hits and I thank all of you for reading. This in a way carries on from that blog, the social media blog and, of course, the ongoing disputes blog. 

The story has been online since the weekend and ran today in the paper. I came in this morning with two messages on Facebook saying that the media needs to stop writing stories about this situation and it will go away. Perhaps that is true, however, there is still social media ... the root of this issue.

People become addicted to social media. Have you walked down a busy street? People are either texting, facebooking, tweeting or something of the sort from phones several times a day. I'm guilty, too. But, hey, it's how we communicate.

So in honesty, whether or not I wrote the story, there was still going to be a feud. I just told people about it.

One insult I was honored to receive today was that I'm "sick individual" for writing about the story. Then, she concluded with, "You next story should be about how that needs psychiatric help."

Oh, really? My next story that I shouldn't write because I shouldn't have written this one? Geez, people, either like it or dislike it but it's confusing when you go back and forth.

No one really knows what's going on with the Petkov family vs. Rose family thing. There's been an issue that stemmed from a birthday party that someone was invited to a few summers ago. It apparently started on Myspace and the issues carried over the Facebook with the social media shift. Just a month ago there was still a hate page that "supporters" of the Rose family was constantly posting on.

Facebook, and social media in general (blogs, too!) give us a lot of opportunities to publicize private information. No one ever told you, "You are NOT allowed to post that you hate someone on Facebook." But I would think most adults know better than to do such a thing.

This isn't the only cyber-bullying story I've done in Trenton, either. The first story I ever wrote for The News-Herald was about a man who was trying to sue the city because they felt he didn't investigate his case well. He had multiple charges for cyber-stalking someone. The charges have since been dropped. But that was my introduction to cyber-bullying issues first-hand.

What prompts people to take Facebook and Twitter and every other form of social media to such obnoxious levels? Why would you want to use this tool to taunt people? Why?

So, no, angry readers...it's not me, or the journalists who have covered these stories before me that are to blame for the immaturity of people who are incapable of properly using the internet.

Social media is a right to speak your mind and make your own private feelings public. But that doesn't mean you should abuse it to the extent of intentionally harming someone else with it.

Come back tomorrow for an uplifting story about communities coming together to help a young soldier who was paralyzed in Afghanistan.

Catch ya later, Internet World.

"The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right."  - William Safire