road rage on the information superhighway
I've been noticing something about the internet.
It can be a wonderful place to trade information, or to do research, or to discuss any topic, or to voice one's opinion.
But there is an ugly side that seems to be coming through.
Lately, any topic on any website is being attacked. Not only is the opinion of someone being attacked, but their character, their intelligence, their moral fiber, is being dragged through the mud.
An example, which I tried a few months ago. I went into a message board and typed in "Canada rocks!". In that little statement, is there anything offensive? Anything controversial? Anything threatening? Not in my eyes.
But when I came back only an hour later, there were so many hate filled posts that I couldn't understand. Posts stating that I lived in a communist nation (umm...nope.), posts stating that our military wouldn't be able to protect us from what they were going to do, posts calling me every name in the book (and a few that aren't in there). In short, my post got buried.
I can only imagine if I had typed in "Canada rocks...at (insert lame activity here)", there would probably still be people attacking my opinion. And me. And for what reason? Do these people feel that small that they have to start a fight over anything?
It seems like there's a barroom mentality coming into play on the internet. You know, the guys at the bar who start a fight against someone because they just want to fight with somebody. Maybe there are people who go on the internet looking for a fight just for that reason.
I'm not saying we should police the internet. But I think a penalty box needs to be built.
You want to fight, fine...but you're banned from this site for two weeks. It won't solve everything, but it will keep things to a minimum.
It can be a wonderful place to trade information, or to do research, or to discuss any topic, or to voice one's opinion.
But there is an ugly side that seems to be coming through.
Lately, any topic on any website is being attacked. Not only is the opinion of someone being attacked, but their character, their intelligence, their moral fiber, is being dragged through the mud.
An example, which I tried a few months ago. I went into a message board and typed in "Canada rocks!". In that little statement, is there anything offensive? Anything controversial? Anything threatening? Not in my eyes.
But when I came back only an hour later, there were so many hate filled posts that I couldn't understand. Posts stating that I lived in a communist nation (umm...nope.), posts stating that our military wouldn't be able to protect us from what they were going to do, posts calling me every name in the book (and a few that aren't in there). In short, my post got buried.
I can only imagine if I had typed in "Canada rocks...at (insert lame activity here)", there would probably still be people attacking my opinion. And me. And for what reason? Do these people feel that small that they have to start a fight over anything?
It seems like there's a barroom mentality coming into play on the internet. You know, the guys at the bar who start a fight against someone because they just want to fight with somebody. Maybe there are people who go on the internet looking for a fight just for that reason.
I'm not saying we should police the internet. But I think a penalty box needs to be built.
You want to fight, fine...but you're banned from this site for two weeks. It won't solve everything, but it will keep things to a minimum.
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