4 ms·

Because the sad truth is that a lot of people really aren't very nice, and the anonymity of platforms like Reddit makes them feel empowered to act in ways that

by entuno 3y ago

Because the sad truth is that a lot of people really aren't very nice, and the anonymity of platforms like Reddit makes them feel empowered to act in ways that they would never consider doing in real life. It would be a privacy nightmare, but if everyone was forced to sign up under there real name with robust identity verification you'd get a much less toxic community.

keepamovin 3y ago
Yeah. I guess I'm thinking, what's the psychology of this. Like, in real life, walking around the city where I grew up, I find people lovely. I mean, people are not bad, mostly. But it's like all of this stuff online is crazy. And sure, there's good there. There's a lot of good. But the amount of bad is surprising to me. I guess part of it, is the Internet is global. And not everyone is like where you grew up, so everyone's different. There are some places that are rougher than others, maybe that's what people there are like, but I kind of don't think so. I still don't get it, after all these years. And I don't get why we don't have a solution. Like, not even on an individual level. Like individuals don't even know how to deal with this kind of stuff. Like there's not some like (what's the word...?) "custom of a way of responding" that everyone just uses when they encounter that, to deal with the amplified amount of online that are hurtful. Which is so strange. Like we still haven't figured out how to nullify or reduce that hurt that gets caused between people online. Like nobody seems to have figured it out. Does anyone have any good ways of dealing with it?
- entuno 3y ago
  You lose a lot of nuance in written text and its harder to infer tone (especially for non-native speakers), so written discussions can often come across more hostile than spoken ones (even in a workplace between people who know each other). But I think a lot of it comes down to the freedom from consequences on the Internet. If people acted in real life like they do on Twitter or Facebook then there would be repercussions - whether social or legal or even physical. A lot of people hold views that are not considered socially acceptable - so they keep those views to themselves in public. But anonymity gives them the confidence to share and act upon. In terms of how you can fix it, I don't think you really can without making huge sacrifices. It's hard to change people's views, and stripping anonymity from the Internet would have significant downsides (and be technically very difficult). Although as is often the case, XKCD proposes an interesting suggestion: https://xkcd.com/481/ https://xkcd.com/481/
  - keepamovin 3y ago
    That's very true. There's so many other escalatory/de-escalatory signals you can send across many channels in Face 2 Face or even voice. I think it's also changing what's "socially acceptable" which in general I think is a good thing, by virtue of the internet making society more permeable to ideas. I don't want to change people's views...only the way they express them. I think a lot of it is maybe growing pains...hopefully we will all grow out of bad behavior online over time. Hahaha. I like that XKCD! Funny I use something similar when I'm suffering from a comment and don't know how to reply. It probably sounds ridiculous, but I will record myself reading the other person's comment, and then I will play that back, as if it were a conversation, and record myself speaking my response. Then transcribe that into the text of the internet! Haha I just find there's such a huge difference between how I express myself naturally in voice and in text, and in situations where I'll get stuck in text, I'm free in voice. It just simplifies things a lot! :)
msvana 3y ago
I don't think using your real name helps that much. Most people on Facebook use their real name and still many have no issues with insulting other people or even supporting violence against individuals or groups of people.
- entuno 3y ago
  It's not a panacea by any means - but the level of abuse that get on Facebook doesn't seem quite the same as on sites like Reddit or Twitter. Part of that may be down to the structure of the site, but you don't seem to get the huge mobs of people hurling death threats and abuse at someone on Facebook.
- CM30 3y ago
  I think it's more distance and lack of consequences that causes toxic behaviour. People will be nicer to their friends, relatives and coworkers online than strangers, since hurting or alienating said people will have actual effects on their day to day life. Meanwhile the average person on Reddit/Twitter/YouTube/whatever is someone you're very unlikely to ever deal with beyond a few passing comments online. So sadly, many people don't care much about being particularly civil towards them, since they're basically a non entity in the asshole's life. Regardless of whether that person has a real name or photo attached to their account.
  - keepamovin 3y ago
    Yeah, I'm interested in the psychology of that. Perhaps it's a little like "Stanford Prison Experiment". But I also suspect there's something fundamentally different. I don't know. I'm no expert on this.

by entuno 3y ago

keepamovin 3y ago

Yeah. I guess I'm thinking, what's the psychology of this. Like, in real life, walking around the city where I grew up, I find people lovely. I mean, people are not bad, mostly. But it's like all of this stuff online is crazy. And sure, there's good there. There's a lot of good. But the amount of bad is surprising to me. I guess part of it, is the Internet is global. And not everyone is like where you grew up, so everyone's different. There are some places that are rougher than others, maybe that's what people there are like, but I kind of don't think so. I still don't get it, after all these years. And I don't get why we don't have a solution. Like, not even on an individual level. Like individuals don't even know how to deal with this kind of stuff. Like there's not some like (what's the word...?) "custom of a way of responding" that everyone just uses when they encounter that, to deal with the amplified amount of online that are hurtful. Which is so strange. Like we still haven't figured out how to nullify or reduce that hurt that gets caused between people online. Like nobody seems to have figured it out. Does anyone have any good ways of dealing with it?

entuno 3y ago
You lose a lot of nuance in written text and its harder to infer tone (especially for non-native speakers), so written discussions can often come across more hostile than spoken ones (even in a workplace between people who know each other). But I think a lot of it comes down to the freedom from consequences on the Internet. If people acted in real life like they do on Twitter or Facebook then there would be repercussions - whether social or legal or even physical. A lot of people hold views that are not considered socially acceptable - so they keep those views to themselves in public. But anonymity gives them the confidence to share and act upon. In terms of how you can fix it, I don't think you really can without making huge sacrifices. It's hard to change people's views, and stripping anonymity from the Internet would have significant downsides (and be technically very difficult). Although as is often the case, XKCD proposes an interesting suggestion: https://xkcd.com/481/ https://xkcd.com/481/
- keepamovin 3y ago
  That's very true. There's so many other escalatory/de-escalatory signals you can send across many channels in Face 2 Face or even voice. I think it's also changing what's "socially acceptable" which in general I think is a good thing, by virtue of the internet making society more permeable to ideas. I don't want to change people's views...only the way they express them. I think a lot of it is maybe growing pains...hopefully we will all grow out of bad behavior online over time. Hahaha. I like that XKCD! Funny I use something similar when I'm suffering from a comment and don't know how to reply. It probably sounds ridiculous, but I will record myself reading the other person's comment, and then I will play that back, as if it were a conversation, and record myself speaking my response. Then transcribe that into the text of the internet! Haha I just find there's such a huge difference between how I express myself naturally in voice and in text, and in situations where I'll get stuck in text, I'm free in voice. It just simplifies things a lot! :)

msvana 3y ago

I don't think using your real name helps that much. Most people on Facebook use their real name and still many have no issues with insulting other people or even supporting violence against individuals or groups of people.

entuno 3y ago
It's not a panacea by any means - but the level of abuse that get on Facebook doesn't seem quite the same as on sites like Reddit or Twitter. Part of that may be down to the structure of the site, but you don't seem to get the huge mobs of people hurling death threats and abuse at someone on Facebook.
CM30 3y ago
I think it's more distance and lack of consequences that causes toxic behaviour. People will be nicer to their friends, relatives and coworkers online than strangers, since hurting or alienating said people will have actual effects on their day to day life. Meanwhile the average person on Reddit/Twitter/YouTube/whatever is someone you're very unlikely to ever deal with beyond a few passing comments online. So sadly, many people don't care much about being particularly civil towards them, since they're basically a non entity in the asshole's life. Regardless of whether that person has a real name or photo attached to their account.
- keepamovin 3y ago
  Yeah, I'm interested in the psychology of that. Perhaps it's a little like "Stanford Prison Experiment". But I also suspect there's something fundamentally different. I don't know. I'm no expert on this.