Should tweets be taken seriously?

Should tweets be taken seriously?

While you might not personally be into tweeting, a young person in your life undoubtedly is.

When you are on Twitter or Facebook, you can say things, just about anything, without immediate consequences. You can try to limit your audience to those you want to be connected with, or you can simply express yourself to anyone in the world.

But again, I ask you, should tweets and status updates be taken seriously?

Here are some examples of recent news stories around the country:

• a 17-year-old Freeland youth is facing criminal charges in connection with a bomb threat made to the Freeland High School through Facebook.

• Sports reporter Erin Andrews has received multiple death threats from a Twitter user and is now calling for the social media site to enhance security.

• The U.S. Secret Service is investigating a tweet from a high school girl that may be considered threatening toward the president.

• Washington Redskins wide receiver Josh Morgan said he received threatening messages on Twitter after committing a costly unsportsmanlike conduct penalty during last Sunday's loss at St. Louis.

And now, if you would, move with me a bit closer to home.

The Leader-Herald's sports department from time to time publishes opinion columns. One this past week caused a number of individuals to respond. I received and responded to emails, and the paper received and published letters to the editor.

My question pertains to some tweets that were posted. These are some examples of the remarks posted by teenagers and adults in response to the recent column (I have deleted the names and expletives but I haven't corrected the spelling):

"I hope you develop a painful, deadly disease and die a slow miserable death, you gutless punk."

“biggest %^%#%, $%*#, mother$%#@&, %^%##^ *&%#%%, for the leaderherald. &^$^ you, and the leaderherald.

"The writer of that article about ___ and us can die now.

"How about I write an article on how over weight, middle aged %$#%$ writing articles for the leader %$#&@#$ herald are a waist in society.

"Hey ___ %$^# you, we get V’s you get D’s, please be at our next game so I can break your camera over your face.

"You're a %#$@ disgrace. Put your head in the oven and put everyone out of their misery. You are nothing but a gutless punk who hides behind freedom of the press.

"Hey %@$% who write that article about ___, who the %^@# are u? U write articles for the leader %^#@&%$ herald hahaha show respect you scum.

And once again, I ask you, should tweets be taken seriously?