Human Nature and the Internet

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

Oh interworld net. I found this video yesterday which has been around for awhile but I tend to avoid youtube because Rogers has such unreasonably LOW internet caps that it just isn't in thebandwidth budget unless I'm in that I don't care mode...but that's another blog.

Anywhooooo it's by Andrew Bravener and it's about youtubers whoring themselves out for likes and comments and subscribers and such and I couldn't agree more! Run over to the youtube and watch it. Let me just find the link...just a moment...duh duh duh.....here. No seriously, watch it. I'll wait...
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Welcome back! Now let me tell you a little tale about me. I blog (odviously, did I need to even say that??) I tweet, I facebook, I youtube and although I have no problem posting interconnecting links in my blog posts or my twitter or perhaps publishing my newest youtube video on facebook, I would not consider myself 'in it for the views' or the page hits. I genuinely post my crap on the internet because I enjoy doing it. I enjoy writing these pointless blog posts and connecting with old friends on facebook and twitter... well I whore myself out on twitter. Who doesn't?

But the moral of my story is this. I completely agree with that video I posted and just think people should start considering why they do stuff. Why did you upload that video on youtube? Did you think that people would genuinely enjoy it or are you doing it for views? Do you write blog posts with a gagillion tags so that a bunch of people will accidentally stumble upon it or do you write about what's in your head in the hopes that similar people might come across it and genuinely enjoy what you have to say?

In closing I'm gonna show you how all my blog posts COULD end :)
Byeeee
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