galeteia
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- May 9, 2006
- Messages
- 1,794
Late night ponderings...
I've been lurking on a fair number of forums lately, just reading, and it seems like the ratio of mean:nice posts is strangely high compared to real-world, and also compared to here.
You do find nice people and not so nice people everywhere on the internet, of course, but I'm really curious as to what about the internet brings out the vicious streak in some people? Is it just that it's hard to read tone into things, so people are easily offended by what they percieve as an insult when none was meant? Is it the anonymity, that you can say baldly what you only think to yourself in the free world? Is it that you don't have any investment in the person you're responding to so there is no need for niceties? Is it that, normally, mean people stay indoors and don't venture out into the street to accost the nearest person and abraid them?
(Ok, seriously exaggerating on that last one.) Is it just easier to be unequivocably nice to people in person?
Since Irina's (Leonid's?) thread discussing moderation styles and the trouble with 'groupthink', I've been really noticing that in other forums.
Just curious to hear people's thoughts on this.
I've been lurking on a fair number of forums lately, just reading, and it seems like the ratio of mean:nice posts is strangely high compared to real-world, and also compared to here.
You do find nice people and not so nice people everywhere on the internet, of course, but I'm really curious as to what about the internet brings out the vicious streak in some people? Is it just that it's hard to read tone into things, so people are easily offended by what they percieve as an insult when none was meant? Is it the anonymity, that you can say baldly what you only think to yourself in the free world? Is it that you don't have any investment in the person you're responding to so there is no need for niceties? Is it that, normally, mean people stay indoors and don't venture out into the street to accost the nearest person and abraid them?
Since Irina's (Leonid's?) thread discussing moderation styles and the trouble with 'groupthink', I've been really noticing that in other forums.
Just curious to hear people's thoughts on this.