Further Researches Into the Greater Internet F***wad Theory

Is Social Media Breeding Monsters?

There are days when I dread getting onto Facebook or Twitter. As someone who monitors a very wide variety of feeds for news and information that are outside of just my own select follows, I probably see more than I'd like to. It often devolves out there into a sewage pit of trolls, infighting, harassment, stalking, crime and just generally repulsive behavior. But there are plenty of positives about social media, and it's up to us to be vigilant and help make sure that those positives continue to shine through.

I contributed my thoughts to that, here.

How I hate the endless point-scoring on the internet. I don't mind argument -- argument is about something greater than self. When I knock the Tea Party, and someone argues with me, we're actually discussing something other than ourselves.

But when someone trolls in to play the point-scoring game.... When it's obvious all that's going on is some idiot seeking to prove, in the space of one comment, the perpetual topic A of the Internet -- I'm better than you -- it infuriates me.

I imagine you're not fans of it, either.

This is so obvious that it hardly needs stating, but: The Internet is egalitarian... and that is both its boon and its bane. The downside of the internet's egalitarianism is that people who have no social peers in their own lives -- because, most likely, they are insane or too repulsive in character to attract real-life friends -- flock to the internet. They've alienated everyone they've ever known in real-life; now it's time to try out their off-putting schtick on the millions of new potential victims at their fingertips.

posted by Ace at 06:45 PM

| Access Comments