Just a few weeks ago, I offered what I knew to be a futile message to the Internet:

I know it’s an almost-irresistible fantasy, that your cool little consumer products are also lawful good agents that allow you to shape history for the better without even having to leave your comfy seat, but social media sites are simply fulcrums and levers, indifferent to the moral nature of the mass opinion they leverage into action. Blinding speed of communication can just as easily facilitate the spread of rumors and lies. I almost can’t wait for some reactionary group to dramatically utilize Facebook and Twitter for their own ends just to finally put an end to all this inane boosterism.

Hmm. Well, I guess this will have to do for now:
An elderly couple have fled to a hotel room after their Sanford-area address was mistakenly linked to George Zimmerman, who shot and killed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin last month.
Director Spike Lee retweeted the false address to his more than 240,000 followers last week and the address has continued to spread on social networking sites. He later deleted the retweet.

The 70-year-old Elaine McClain and her 72-year-old David McClain began receiving unwanted visits from reporters and hate mail. The couple said they feared for their lives.

On the bright side, maybe Spike will be duly chastened now and get to work on trying to make a good movie for a change instead of inciting vigilante mobs. And with any luck, this kind of thing might disabuse the rank-and-file Twittards of their most self-important delusions of heroic grandeur. Yeah, I know. I cracked up as I wrote that.