It is a phenomenon no doubt. Seemingly ordinary, mild mannered, well adjusted people, women, children, grandparents, all hiding behind the anonymity of their internet connections, ranting, raging, cursing, berating, insulting, bashing, criticizing and just plain being rude to the rest of the on-line community, who are all doing the exact same thing in return. What the hell is this world coming to?
Before the internet and email and chat rooms and myspace and online dating, we got our news from the newspaper and the TV, we got our mail from the mail box, we chatted on the telephone or in person, there was no world-wide narcissist network and we met our future lovers and spouses through mutual friends, at school, at church, in public! In short, we interacted with each other in more personal, face to face ways. We were a society, I would argue, of much more polite and socially mindful people, with a real understanding of cause and effect with regard to our words and deeds.
If a man made an inappropriate suggestion to a female at a bar, he got slapped, or a drink poured on him, and rightfully so. “Please” and “Thank You” were common phrases. If there was a difference of opinion, the way it was voiced was tempered by the possible response one would receive. Letters to the editor were signed (if you wanted any chance of getting them printed.) We took responsibility for our words. We had to. The person we were directing them at was standing right in front of us, or at the very least, knew from whom or where the words came.
Enter the Internet; the ultimate creator of cowards, or at least the enabler of them.
Now - with no possibility of repercussion - inappropriate, rude, and even downright belligerent comments are made online every second of every day. A whole generation of people living by the credo “The pen is mightier than the sword!” and right or wrong, they are getting away with it, because no matter how mighty, the sword needs a physical target.
Like those who feel a car (or better yet, the largest SUV on the block,) is well suited as an instrument of persuasion, so are those who hide behind the safety of their computer screens, mocking, ridiculing, insulting, berating, all without a single thought or worry of the consequences. If only the person they were directing their hate laden words toward were standing within arms reach, would they be so bold?
oh, I no ganja
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