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I would argue it is not simly a distinction between online and physical. Online doesn‘t exist in a vacuum but is located in our physical world. Something in our

I would argue it is not simly a distinction between online and physical. Online doesn‘t exist in a vacuum but is located in our physical world. Something in our physical world drives us to go crazy online. Imagine a perfectly content physical world, would you imagine the people there go crazy online just because it is online? I would argue we simply live in a world where many people are frustrated, scared, unhappy or just bored. To change how they behave online we don‘t just have to police online better but affect social change in our physical realities. Change the dogma for what it means to be successful. Move from for-profit to for-positive-impact. Teach the benefits of cooperation + friendly competition over battle royale. Such change will carry over to the net. Imagine FB moving away from advertising and for-profit motives to a for-positive-impact poly-centric community governed network for communities, I bet people would behave differently there...

preordained 9y ago
I think this is very insightful. Agree, that the online experience basically allows an unimpeded vent for frustrations that are always there but are checked in physical social situations. It's kind of a negative feedback loop, though...in the sense that when you are seeing everyone's unfiltered thoughts, you feel even more justified in your own frustrations and prejudices. You're just blowing off steam, but these thoughts are genuine representations of these "other" people. Discontent would be expressed somewhere, but yah, it's definitely encouraged to escape (no friction!) through Internet discussion.
- ace_of_spades 9y ago
  Thank you! And yeah, I agree. However, the main point I wanted to make is that we won’t really fix this problem until we resolve the root causes in physical reality. Lot’s of discussion don’t seem to touch on this and are seemingly looking for bandaids to cure a broken limb...

preordained 9y ago

I think this is very insightful. Agree, that the online experience basically allows an unimpeded vent for frustrations that are always there but are checked in physical social situations. It's kind of a negative feedback loop, though...in the sense that when you are seeing everyone's unfiltered thoughts, you feel even more justified in your own frustrations and prejudices. You're just blowing off steam, but these thoughts are genuine representations of these "other" people. Discontent would be expressed somewhere, but yah, it's definitely encouraged to escape (no friction!) through Internet discussion.

ace_of_spades 9y ago
Thank you! And yeah, I agree. However, the main point I wanted to make is that we won’t really fix this problem until we resolve the root causes in physical reality. Lot’s of discussion don’t seem to touch on this and are seemingly looking for bandaids to cure a broken limb...