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originally posted by: rukia
Hello good people of ATS!
I am writing a research paper for school, and I want your personal observations & experiences with how increased technology (like personal computers/smartphones) has increased rudeness in society--or not. I would like you to answer the question: Does increased technology make people rude?
Here's my introduction for my research proposal, for those interested:
For my research project, I am interested in exploring the issue surrounding rudeness and technology. While technology makes life easier in many regards, it also contributes to changing social norms and deteriorating values. New technology in the form of personal computers has made rudeness commonplace, especially among younger generations. Despite opening up new avenues to pursue literacy and self-education, cellular devices and online activities desensitize users to polite social interaction. Nearly everyone has a smartphone and a computer—technology has permeated every aspect of waking life. Today, there is an application for nearly everything. This level of distraction results in disturbing displays of groupthink both online and in public.
Thank you! I look forward to hearing your views.
Crowds
Le Bon theorised that the new entity, the "psychological crowd", which emerges from incorporating the assembled population not only forms a new body but also creates a collective "unconsciousness". As a group of people gather together and coalesces to form a crowd, there is a "magnetic influence given out by the crowd" that transmutes every individual's behaviour until it becomes governed by the "group mind". This model treats the crowd as a unit in its composition which robs every individual member of their opinions, values and beliefs; as Le Bon states: "An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will".
Le Bon detailed three key processes that create the psychological crowd: i) Anonymity, ii) Contagion and iii) Suggestibility. Anonymity provides to rational individuals a feeling of invincibility and the loss of personal responsibility. An individual becomes primitive, unreasoning, and emotional. This lack of self-restraint allows individuals to "yield to instincts" and to accept the instinctual drives of their "racial unconscious". For Le Bon, the crowd inverts Darwin's law of evolution and becomes atavistic, proving Ernst Haeckel's embryological theory: "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny". Contagion refers to the spread in the crowd of particular behaviours and individuals sacrifice their personal interest for the collective interest. Suggestibility is the mechanism through which the contagion is achieved; as the crowd coalesces into a singular mind, suggestions made by strong voices in the crowd create a space for the racial unconscious to come to the forefront and guide its behaviour. At this stage, the psychological crowd becomes homogeneous and malleable to suggestions from its strongest members. "The leaders we speak of," says Le Bon, "are usually men of action rather than of words. They are not gifted with keen foresight... They are especially recruited from the ranks of those morbidly nervous excitable half-deranged persons who are bordering on madness."
en.wikipedia.org...
originally posted by: VictorVonDoom
I don't blame technology. I just think good manners are not as highly prized as they once were.
originally posted by: Subrosabelow
I'm a huge gamer nerd and I play MMO's. I have to say... online, people treat each other like garbage in gaming. No one is a person anymore. You're nothing more than words on a screen. You have no feelings to these people. They have no empathy, no sympathy, and hide behind "but I'm just being honest!!!" while they ruthlessly tear you to pieces with racist slurs, vile sexual references and outright hatred. I'm not talking about just having a debate and the other side misconstrues everything said as an attack, ie SJW snowflakes looking for conflict. I mean those trollish peeps whose life goal seems to be to hurt others and drag them down.
I can bet you that many of these people would never dare to act or speak like that in real life. People online can't punch you in the face for being a douche.
It also concerns me how little people seem to know about others despite talking to them via text, chat, etc., every day. I remembering knowing my friend's birthdays, favorite things, what they don't like, etc., but my kids... they can't answer those questions. Why? We have unprecedented ability to communicate 24/7, but the average person seems more and more uninformed every day that goes by and we're more and more disconnected from humanity.
originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: olaru12
Amen to that. Sometimes it's stunning what people decide to say online. Imagine if the decline in violent crimes is because the 'cyber pressure valve' gives people a platform to scream?
originally posted by: Trueman
We used to go to the library, where you can read without noise or people interrupting.
Sitting at home and try to read or watch a music video is something irritating if you have family.
originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: rukia
In some cases, the rudeness online is perceived by the recipient when it wasn't intended by the deliverer.
When we talk in person with someone, we are able to pick up on very subtle nuances in conversation that are not conveyed in writing over the internet.