Anonymous Internet
While I enjoy the facelessness of the internet for somethings, I find it quite frustrating that I cannot reasonably engage someone in a public debate on an electronic stage. Instead, I am bound to engage in kind of passive debate, arguing silently over the precise verbiage of a thing, providing edits, undoing revisions that someone has undone to my work because I do not believe the citation or source.
There is a level at which I am frustrated with the internet as a medium. It is contains a lot of content, but is largely devoid of meaning. I cannot hear the sarcasm in another's voice, the comfort of a gentle word, nor really understand the outrage or anger of another. All I have are cold calm electrons that bounce off my computer and leave an imprint on my retina. I think that I understand what people mean to convey, but I know in my heart that I am just guessing. Normally this capacity for misapprehension has me struck dumb, for I personally prefer silence to miscommunication, though others may interpret this silence as a lack of caring or connection.
Sometimes, though, I am moved to speak, or at least to type. However, in the world of the internet this is often too late. If you don't respond quickly, then you might as well not respond at all. The speed of light is nothing compared to the speed that a flame will follow you home after an off the cuff comment. Considered words are even worse. The carefully crafted, meticulously examined words are a lure to the hobgoblins of the internet, and will draw them in to offer their points of view, which will of course be phrased as "corrections".
Probably, people's egos don't like feeling like they're in a room with someone who knows more than they do. The internet is their playground, and today they don't feel like sharing. It's a sad truth that when left to our own devices, and encouraged by the idea that no one is truly capable of monitoring us or enforcing rules on us, we revert to the simplest, most egocentric, and most fundamentally selfish of moralities.
As much as I love the internet as both a means of communication and a source of constant (if not entirely trustworthy) information, I remain leery of it, and am always wondering about a lot of what I see that comes whizzing along as stray electrons, and leave their imprint on my brain.
There is a level at which I am frustrated with the internet as a medium. It is contains a lot of content, but is largely devoid of meaning. I cannot hear the sarcasm in another's voice, the comfort of a gentle word, nor really understand the outrage or anger of another. All I have are cold calm electrons that bounce off my computer and leave an imprint on my retina. I think that I understand what people mean to convey, but I know in my heart that I am just guessing. Normally this capacity for misapprehension has me struck dumb, for I personally prefer silence to miscommunication, though others may interpret this silence as a lack of caring or connection.
Sometimes, though, I am moved to speak, or at least to type. However, in the world of the internet this is often too late. If you don't respond quickly, then you might as well not respond at all. The speed of light is nothing compared to the speed that a flame will follow you home after an off the cuff comment. Considered words are even worse. The carefully crafted, meticulously examined words are a lure to the hobgoblins of the internet, and will draw them in to offer their points of view, which will of course be phrased as "corrections".
Probably, people's egos don't like feeling like they're in a room with someone who knows more than they do. The internet is their playground, and today they don't feel like sharing. It's a sad truth that when left to our own devices, and encouraged by the idea that no one is truly capable of monitoring us or enforcing rules on us, we revert to the simplest, most egocentric, and most fundamentally selfish of moralities.
As much as I love the internet as both a means of communication and a source of constant (if not entirely trustworthy) information, I remain leery of it, and am always wondering about a lot of what I see that comes whizzing along as stray electrons, and leave their imprint on my brain.