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Not limited to Hacker News. Other forums I participate in have seen parallel shifts downward in civility. Some of it is generational. For better or worse younge
by jshaqaw 5y ago
Not limited to Hacker News. Other forums I participate in have seen parallel shifts downward in civility. Some of it is generational. For better or worse younger generations often see strident online discourse as totally different than how you would treat a person irl. Older folks have less of a sense of separate worlds there.
In general anonymous commenting was cool for a while but seems to be leading to negative results most places. I’m ready to engage with forums limited to verified real people ex specific situations where personal safety might be at risk (and I’m not in any of those myself now or in the past).
- rocqua 5y agoI hope the even younger people reverse this trend of treating online as different. They have grown up with social media, and know that digital communication has a real life impact. I could imagine them growing up with healthier norms about on-line behavior than my generation.
- lokalfarm 5y agoYour comment brought to mind this story written by the late, great John Perry Barlow: https://www.eff.org/pages/crime-and-puzzlement https://www.eff.org/pages/crime-and-puzzlement My impression is that the young generations are growing up in an environment where the lines between their "digital life" and "real life" are almost completely blurred. Whether it is socializing with their peers, dating, going to school, or getting a job - so much of "being online" nowadays involves people being groomed as both the consumer and the product. It did not feel that way to me in the 90's and early 2000's, although that might not quite fit the definition of "older folks."