Internet experts....caveat emptor!

• Posted by Traci Lee O'Gara November 14, 2011 #  1,625 views
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  The internet blossomed with great potential.  It was to be a pipeline of previously difficult information that would would now be available to anyone with access to a PC throughout the world!  And it did blossom and has become a very useful tool to learn, communicate, and share...

  But over time, people began using it to create their own platforms to be heard.  Anyone with some decent communication skills, the ability to cut-and-paste, and an agenda began to spew tons and tons of comments daily.  It has reached the point where it has become overwhelming.  You search Google for a subject and the first few dozen entries are rigged to place messages up top in lieu of often what is valuable information.

  One is forced to sift and sort and make judgment calls on what is valid or not.

  At the micro level, or site level like Gender Society, this logic also applies.  Let me explain...

  So much information regarding transitioning, hormones, health, family issues, jobs has been posted throughout the years in here as well as our predecessor, TrannyWeb.  But have you ever wondered how many gathered this information to share?  Comments and advice have traveled from site to site that originated somewhere else.  We, as humans, tend to run with comments we agree with.  It gets posted on one site, picked by others, and spread to new ones.  Rarely are the comments checked for accuracy and even more rare are the people posting ever going to meet those that seek this advice.  Just because "MaryJane" says something is correct or proper does not make it so.  Personalities carry "weight" in discussions and can easily sway others into believing what they say is gospel.  Bad advice flows with good advice...again, it is difficult to sift and sort to learn the necessary answers.  

  So my point is be extremely careful when seeking information that could affect your health, your family, your career, etc.  Do your homework first and do not just rely on comments from someone that posts "it's OK, I do it".  I'm not pointing fingers at anyone in our community for we are all guilty to some extent in proferring our take on a subject.  But are we truly qualified to dispense critical information that can potentially harm another or worse?  How many MDs, professional counselors, psychiatrists, etc. do we have in here contributing to the conversation?  I personally was fooled by a phoney, a "girl" who posed as a "doctor" in TW that gave me loads of advice when I fisrt sought transition information.  Heck, we all believed in her and she put on a good show...but had I listened and followed her advice, maybe I'd be dead or divorced by now?  

  That said, there are many girls here who have trnsitioned, experienced the issues that developed from it, and all and there is much good to learn from them.

  But if it sounds too good to be true, if it appears to be an "easy" way to overcome a difficult scenario, or if the advice you get is just enthusiastic cheerleading with nothing to substantiate their claims, my advice (take THAT for what it is worth) is to back away...there are NO shortcuts to transitioning.  The cemetaries are lined with many girls who sought the "easy way", or acted "impulsively" without working out and thinking out a plan.  This isn't a game and the stakes are high...you ask a question, hear an "easy answer" to your problem, then act on it, you are going to get burned!  (literally)

  Best wishes always...

  Traci  xoxox