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I miss people being decent to each other. I'd be good with experimenting with removing anonymity in certain contexts to see how different online spaces can be.

I miss people being decent to each other. I'd be good with experimenting with removing anonymity in certain contexts to see how different online spaces can be. I genuinely think it would lead to some interesting (and unexpected) results.

merpnderp 5y ago
It will never work. While your online words aren't ephemeral, the context is. So 10 years from now your rational, heart felt, and good intentioned argument will be used to show what a horrible person you are, simply because the context is gone. It would be perfectly fine to get rid of anonymity (in some situations) if those words weren't there forever to haunt you.
- beebeepka 5y ago
  You don't even need to wait 10 days, let one years. He who controls the media, controls the narrative. Also "Give me six lines written by the most honest man, and I will find something in them which will hang him." And so on. I'd bet some animals do this kind of shit to each to each other. We humans are not the only assholes.
seoulmetro 5y ago
People are already decent to each other. The problem is that your definition of decent is becoming warped. It would just lead to anyone with an idea they're not sure is agreed upon already not being able to voice that idea. Scary world.
onychomys 5y ago
One of the lessons of facebook comment sections is that people are totally willing to say absolutely vile things to one another under their own names and photos.
- Pyramus 5y ago
  That's a logical fallacy - just because people exist that are non-anonymous and vile doesn't invalidate parent's point. The question is whether non-anonymity might lead to less vileness and I agree it's certainly worth trying.
  - 0des 5y ago
    I don't think they were trying to invalidate anything the parent commenter said.
stronglikedan 5y ago
> I miss people being decent to each other. Do you mean, before the internet? Because keyboard warriors have been a thing since day 1. That said, I support the idea of anonymous and non-anonymous social media, as long as it's the company's choice, and not the government's. But I also support personal responsibility and accountability, such as the personal choice to participate in a community or not.
snarf21 5y ago
I agree we seem to have lost empathy. I think the thing the pseudonymous internet provides is lack of consequences for incivility. People will say far more hateful things in a FB post than they would to another human two feet away who can yell back. Same things happens in a car, yelling and screaming that we wouldn't do in person. We would just walk away and talk about the infringer behind their backs. However, that time and space is also a release valve; we move on and get back to life. In an online forum, it is non-stop and ever escalating. Truly anonymous or not doesn't seem to be the key. Most people in our social circle would probably agree with any bad take we had anyway. We've given everyone a microphone and everyone just screams over each other. And worse, we've made it infinitely profitable for companies to run the sound system on high. There is no easy path out of it as long as dissent prints cash.
ashtonkem 5y ago
I think the story of a lost decency is frankly, a complete myth. Was decency the norm during the 1950s when black people were excluded from political involvement and/or lynched? What about in the 1970s with the fights over Vietnam? Was it decency when gay bars were raided and beat up by cops on a regular basis? Was the Gingrich revolution decent? What about in 2012 when people put up signs about not “re-<slur deleted>“ because of Obama? The past was only civil/decent if you’re either viewing it with rose tinted glasses, or if you’re (purposefully or accidentally) very tightly constraining your analysis to very specific in groups. In fact, if you read historical narratives you’ll discover that for any given lost “decent” time, you’ll find people of that era hand wringing over the loss of decency and civility, and pining for their own lost decent time! Coincidentally everyone seems to put this lost “decent” time to be right before they began paying attention to the way people treated each other in public[0]. This of course doesn’t mean that violence and sectarian strife don’t vary; they obviously do. But the idea that people were once decent to each other in a way that doesn’t exist anymore is not really supported by the evidence, and frankly seems more like a “kids these days” type of statement; common but without merit. 0 - To paraphrase a boss of mine “they just happened to make the best music right when I was the most emotionally vulnerable. What a coincidence!”

merpnderp 5y ago

It will never work. While your online words aren't ephemeral, the context is. So 10 years from now your rational, heart felt, and good intentioned argument will be used to show what a horrible person you are, simply because the context is gone. It would be perfectly fine to get rid of anonymity (in some situations) if those words weren't there forever to haunt you.

beebeepka 5y ago
You don't even need to wait 10 days, let one years. He who controls the media, controls the narrative. Also "Give me six lines written by the most honest man, and I will find something in them which will hang him." And so on. I'd bet some animals do this kind of shit to each to each other. We humans are not the only assholes.

seoulmetro 5y ago

People are already decent to each other. The problem is that your definition of decent is becoming warped. It would just lead to anyone with an idea they're not sure is agreed upon already not being able to voice that idea. Scary world.

onychomys 5y ago

One of the lessons of facebook comment sections is that people are totally willing to say absolutely vile things to one another under their own names and photos.

Pyramus 5y ago
That's a logical fallacy - just because people exist that are non-anonymous and vile doesn't invalidate parent's point. The question is whether non-anonymity might lead to less vileness and I agree it's certainly worth trying.
- 0des 5y ago
  I don't think they were trying to invalidate anything the parent commenter said.

stronglikedan 5y ago

> I miss people being decent to each other. Do you mean, before the internet? Because keyboard warriors have been a thing since day 1. That said, I support the idea of anonymous and non-anonymous social media, as long as it's the company's choice, and not the government's. But I also support personal responsibility and accountability, such as the personal choice to participate in a community or not.

snarf21 5y ago

I agree we seem to have lost empathy. I think the thing the pseudonymous internet provides is lack of consequences for incivility. People will say far more hateful things in a FB post than they would to another human two feet away who can yell back. Same things happens in a car, yelling and screaming that we wouldn't do in person. We would just walk away and talk about the infringer behind their backs. However, that time and space is also a release valve; we move on and get back to life. In an online forum, it is non-stop and ever escalating. Truly anonymous or not doesn't seem to be the key. Most people in our social circle would probably agree with any bad take we had anyway. We've given everyone a microphone and everyone just screams over each other. And worse, we've made it infinitely profitable for companies to run the sound system on high. There is no easy path out of it as long as dissent prints cash.

ashtonkem 5y ago

I think the story of a lost decency is frankly, a complete myth. Was decency the norm during the 1950s when black people were excluded from political involvement and/or lynched? What about in the 1970s with the fights over Vietnam? Was it decency when gay bars were raided and beat up by cops on a regular basis? Was the Gingrich revolution decent? What about in 2012 when people put up signs about not “re-<slur deleted>“ because of Obama? The past was only civil/decent if you’re either viewing it with rose tinted glasses, or if you’re (purposefully or accidentally) very tightly constraining your analysis to very specific in groups. In fact, if you read historical narratives you’ll discover that for any given lost “decent” time, you’ll find people of that era hand wringing over the loss of decency and civility, and pining for their own lost decent time! Coincidentally everyone seems to put this lost “decent” time to be right before they began paying attention to the way people treated each other in public[0]. This of course doesn’t mean that violence and sectarian strife don’t vary; they obviously do. But the idea that people were once decent to each other in a way that doesn’t exist anymore is not really supported by the evidence, and frankly seems more like a “kids these days” type of statement; common but without merit. 0 - To paraphrase a boss of mine “they just happened to make the best music right when I was the most emotionally vulnerable. What a coincidence!”