Online Behavior

I'm not going to make a long to-do about this, and it won't even really qualify as a rant. Why? Because I am entirely calm as I write this (albeit eager to get to dinner).

The point I want to make here is we so often type hundreds of things each week (assuming you browse ATS at work or home as a hobby, and don't just sporadically visit the web), and yet we forget that a lot of these people or services we address on the web are real people, and not just programs that we can vent our frustrations at.

Because it is impossible to email a roundhouse kick (unless you're Chuck Norris), and completely dehumanizing when it comes to emotions, the internet has undermined, to a very literal and absolute point, the value of human relationships.

Opinions have become cheap, thoughts have become factory-model, and all communication is now electronic...to the point that we have forgotten what it is to look someone in the face and say, "**** you, you dumb little ****, you're just a ****. Why don't you cry to mommy and break your computer? You should drop dead." These have become nothing but words to us, sent over the cyber space connection that draws lines from person to person in the world.

What kind of demoralized creatures have we become? Where has respect gone in this technological age? Don't forget: just because there's a monitor instead of a face, doesn't mean there isn't a soul on the other end!

I won't say anymore here...just watch this video. Have a wonderful day/night, everyone.

Watch this, please.


Namaste.

This is something that needs to spread. We must all remember that what we say doesn't just get lost in space somewhere. Each poster is a feeling and breathing person who has emotions that are just as fragile if not more so than one's own.

We must take care to disagree respectfully and politely, least we invalidate the good and embrace the poison within our nature.

reply to post by Starchild23


You know what I love? Respect for others viewpoints.

Good message, but seems to be blaming the end results for the dehumanization of our culture. We are not born that way, it takes years of indoctrination and demoralizing to get to that point.

If you train a dog for years to be mean and bite people, that dog will probably bite people. Do you then get upset with the dog who bites a nice person but is just doing what it's been trained to do all it's life? I blame the TV and our government's lack of humanity. The apple always rolls downhill.

-ponders for a bit-

Well, I don't want respect for views to be the norm...I want tolerance for views, and respect for the person, no matter how stupid their views are. In a forum that is under the general umbrella of trying to seek out truth, ideas must be tried and tested...must be held to the fire, and smacked around in order to shake out any and all nonsense.

And such engagements can get extremely heated at times when people are passionate.
Also, if you have lots of emotional (or other) investment in your point of view, any attack on that specific view will feel (falsely) that its an attack on you. In this situation, a person needs to simply grow a thicker skin and realize its the idea or view that is being attacked, not the person.

But yes, respect the person behind the screen...most of us have no clue who we are talking to beyond a avatar name..for all you know, you might be debating viciously your best friend, your parent/child, etc...whom you love outside. You don't have to have mirror images with people you enjoy being with..hell, a bit of debate between friends can actually make for great friends..

I am a hypocrite btw...I do occasionally start sliding into the personal attacks when debating a view for long periods of time. I do try to avoid that slide, but it happens now and then. I think we are simply designed that way...but, if someone responds to my attack with a simple asking if its necessary, I feel like a total tool..if they respond with a counter attack, I then engage in a battle of wits. Point being, if you want to "win" at personal attacks..simply point out that the other side used it...that tends to quickly change the discussion to a more positive discussion.

Nobody is pure here btw..I have seen "enlightened" people all about the peace start going nuclear if you poke their heartfelt views enough times.

Originally posted by JibbyJedi[/i
I blame the TV and our government's lack of humanity. The apple always rolls downhill.

I take personal responsibility for my own humanity frankly.
I have always been into the violent media, games, music, etc etc etc.
If you met me on the street, you would think you met someone whom just transported from the 1850s style gentleman..ready to bend over backwards to make total strangers feel appreciated and safe around me...not because I am trying, just because thats who I prefer to be when out and about.

Now, get me in a discussion of substance and I will lace up and give a hell of a fight if its done with respect towards one another...

I see the idea that you are not to blame for your own behavior to be far more destructive than blaming media.