Wow, so here's something I haven't done in a while. I kind of fell into a black hole of Reddit for a minute (or 525949, give or take) there. Arguing with people on the internet just seemed so important for some reason. Here's what I take away from it:
1. People on the internet are assholes. Anonymity breeds rudeness and anti-social behavior. It's disgusting.
2. I am an asshole. Seriously. I would get into these "discussions" and suddenly everyone else was a moron. How could they not see that my comment was clearly the correct one, and anything else was just stupid?
While Reddit seems like a great idea on paper, and maybe it was for about a half a second there in the beginning, all it does is promote narcissistic, anti-social behavior. The people there are either so self-righteous they delude themselves into thinking the upvote they just gave to some post about the crisis du jour is making a difference in the world or they're the worst kind of internet trolls. The idea of a news aggregating site that allows users to interact with not just the content but each other is fantastic. It's like an online town hall meeting, where everyone gets a chance to voice their opinion and contribute to the conversation. The problem comes from the fact that, unlike at a town hall meeting, the people voicing their opinions are not subject to the scrutiny and social stigma of having to do it in front of their friends, neighbors, family and, most importantly, clientele.
In a town hall meeting, if a person gets up and makes a hate filled statement, or perpetuates yet another rumor or myth or ridiculous idea, they're likely going to be laughed out of the room, if not asked to leave. At the very least, it will be known to all in attendance that this person is not quite right and maybe we shouldn't deal with them. On the internet, this is not the case. People like that can continue to agitate and instigate, often encouraging other like minded people to join in, until any hope of intelligent debate or conversation is lost. On Reddit, they can even create their own little forums of hate; echo chambers filled with the same bad ideas repeated ad nauseum until the members hear it so often that it seems as if theirs are the only voices heard. That's not conversation, it's insanity. It's the guy in the mental ward who keeps repeating the same things over and over to himself until he becomes hysterical.
So I needed to get away from it. Because it was making me into a bad person. Sure, it was informative. I learned things. But it was also degenerative. I became lost in threads and arguments about inanity and pedantry. I got angry about something some random person that I'll never meet said. Why should I care? If some 17 year old troll can get my goat like that, it's time to move on. So maybe I'll come back to this. Maybe I'll just let it go and find something productive to do with my time.
1. People on the internet are assholes. Anonymity breeds rudeness and anti-social behavior. It's disgusting.
2. I am an asshole. Seriously. I would get into these "discussions" and suddenly everyone else was a moron. How could they not see that my comment was clearly the correct one, and anything else was just stupid?
While Reddit seems like a great idea on paper, and maybe it was for about a half a second there in the beginning, all it does is promote narcissistic, anti-social behavior. The people there are either so self-righteous they delude themselves into thinking the upvote they just gave to some post about the crisis du jour is making a difference in the world or they're the worst kind of internet trolls. The idea of a news aggregating site that allows users to interact with not just the content but each other is fantastic. It's like an online town hall meeting, where everyone gets a chance to voice their opinion and contribute to the conversation. The problem comes from the fact that, unlike at a town hall meeting, the people voicing their opinions are not subject to the scrutiny and social stigma of having to do it in front of their friends, neighbors, family and, most importantly, clientele.
In a town hall meeting, if a person gets up and makes a hate filled statement, or perpetuates yet another rumor or myth or ridiculous idea, they're likely going to be laughed out of the room, if not asked to leave. At the very least, it will be known to all in attendance that this person is not quite right and maybe we shouldn't deal with them. On the internet, this is not the case. People like that can continue to agitate and instigate, often encouraging other like minded people to join in, until any hope of intelligent debate or conversation is lost. On Reddit, they can even create their own little forums of hate; echo chambers filled with the same bad ideas repeated ad nauseum until the members hear it so often that it seems as if theirs are the only voices heard. That's not conversation, it's insanity. It's the guy in the mental ward who keeps repeating the same things over and over to himself until he becomes hysterical.
So I needed to get away from it. Because it was making me into a bad person. Sure, it was informative. I learned things. But it was also degenerative. I became lost in threads and arguments about inanity and pedantry. I got angry about something some random person that I'll never meet said. Why should I care? If some 17 year old troll can get my goat like that, it's time to move on. So maybe I'll come back to this. Maybe I'll just let it go and find something productive to do with my time.
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