The internet is an amazing tool. There is limitless access to information about everything you could possibly dream of. Not only that, if you need more information there are forums for basically everything under the sun that range from interesting to downright stupid. However, human nature strikes again. These forums are plagued by what can only be called internet Nazis who have for some reason made it their life purpose to prove others wrong and make them look like morons. Every forum has it's unique set of rules that all members must follow lest they be ridiculed and insulted by other members who think having 7,000 posts on a forum about nothing makes them better then the 'noob' who just signed up. God forbid you post something in the wrong topic, or even worse spell something wrong. It kind of goes like this:
New Member: Innocent question about something that would probably do better in a different sub forum.
Member 2: Insults for posting in wrong forum
Member 3: Insults for misspelling 'your'
Member 4: Complains about the rules being broken -begin rant about noobs-
Member 5: Attempts to answer original question
Member 6: Ridicules member 5's answer
Member 7: THIS THREAD HAS BEEN MOVED
Right? Ya. This isn't contained to forums either. News articles are full of people who have nothing better to do then point out all the reasons why the journalist is a moron and god forbid a news article is missing a comma. Guaranteed several people will point it out to them whilst insulting the intelligence of the poor journalist.
What is it about the anonymity of the internet that brings out the worst in people? Why do we focus on the rules and not the content? I believe that being on the internet is like being in a car. We know we can do whatever we want and nobody can retaliate.
But who cares? Why does it matter? It matters because there are people who don't turn into complete idiots on the internet. There are some of us who sit on the sidelines and don't participate in forum conversations because we don't feel like dealing with all you morons waiting to pounce on us. We might be able to contribute to the conversation or even solve whatever your problem is but you're SOL because we're not getting involved. That's why blogging is so great! I can write whatever I want and nobody can say boo. Although I don't participate in forums and I rarely comment on news articles I put out this challenge to the internet: Be nice to each other. There's no need to mock and ridicule because you believe someone is wrong. There's no need to fight because you disagree about something that everybody has a different opinion about and there's no need to insult, degrade and correct every single journalist who writes something you don't personally care about. The world is a big place my friends, there will always be people with contrasting viewpoints to your own and being a jerk won't change their beliefs. Here's to positivity on the internet!
Do we all need to go back to kindergarten? Clearly.
-chris
