Social Media Thuggery (world, kids, great, violent)

[texan2yankee]

Social Media thuggery should be an actual Olympic sporting event.

Do we speak with such vitriol to someone during a one-on-one, face-to-face discussion?

Is name-calling really a way to win any argument IRL?

There seems to be an ever increasing, almost exponential, level of meanness on anonymous sites or even sites where real names are shown.

I don't get it!

Why do you think this is happening? Or, do you disagree?

[dman72]

The internet is cold and impersonal. I've said things to people I've known for a long time in e-mails I'd never say to their face, and vice versa. A few of my friends have vowed never to settle disagreements any way other than face to face, because your tone is automatically much more consolatory.

So step it up another notch with anonymity and dealing with people you don't know and don't care about..you get the worst of human nature. For the most part I think the internet is a cesspool between all the nasty porn and how nasty people tend to be to each other.

[texan2yankee]

Good points, dman. I used to enjoy reading others' opinions here and other sites as well mainly because it gave me an opportunity to learn and hear opinions from others I'd likely never meet in real life. However, it seems now any opinion is met with a personal attack and no exchange of ideas happens . No one will even allow someone to have a different opinion from their own.

Maybe people who love to fight jump on social media when they have no one IRL to fight with. It is very tiring. Actually, it is becoming very disheartening.

[carterstamp]

Originally Posted by texan2yankee

Social Media thuggery should be an actual Olympic sporting event.

Do we speak with such vitriol to someone during a one-on-one, face-to-face discussion?

Is name-calling really a way to win any argument IRL?

There seems to be an ever increasing, almost exponential, level of meanness on anonymous sites or even sites where real names are shown.

I don't get it!

Why do you think this is happening? Or, do you disagree?

Because the internet is anonymous. It has no face.

[waviking24]

The internet, and social media in particular, is responsible for the dumbing down and violent nature of our once great nation. Period.

[dman72]

Originally Posted by texan2yankee

Good points, dman. I used to enjoy reading others' opinions here and other sites as well mainly because it gave me an opportunity to learn and hear opinions from others I'd likely never meet in real life. However, it seems now any opinion is met with a personal attack and little real dialogue or exchange of ideas happens.

Maybe people who love to fight jump on social media when they have no one IRL to fight with. It is very tiring. Actually, it is becoming very disheartening.

Don't forget you've got some kids now who don't know the world prior to the internet. They've grown up going on youtube telling other people that X/y/z sucks.

I'm GEN X so this anonymity thing didn't exist for the first 2/3rds of my life....if you wanted to talk to people you actually had to ....talk to them.

[Retroit]

No one is forcing you to be here, are they? If you don't like it, go out into the "IRL" and get cut off in the check-out line, middle-fingered in traffic, and have smoke blown into your face when entering/exiting a building.