RANT: The Downturn of Society

Discussion in 'Serious Chat' started by Mark, Jul 13, 2011.

  1. #21
    Benjamin

    Benjamin LPA team LPA Super VIP

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2010
    Messages:
    6,398
    Likes Received:
    7



    I don't really find that to be a question that doesn't have an obvious answer (which is yes).

    Mark is absolutely right.
     
  2. #22
    Vriska

    Vriska Wiki Staff LPA VIP

    Joined:
    Apr 17, 2007
    Messages:
    1,777
    Likes Received:
    2



    I think what is really the case is that the Internet is new enough to not have an established set of manners yet.

    Movie theaters managed to beat into our heads that having your cell phone on in the theater is rude. SOME people are aware that using your cell phone when you are with friends is rude, but not everyone. But that's something that didn't come from our parents. We're dealing with issues that didn't exist in our parents' time, so our generation has to set these rules. To do that, these people have to realize it's rude to begin with.

    So, take the movie theater approach: drill those norms into your friends and children along with the normal stuff.




    Something else missed here was the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. Proposed by Penny Arcade but then actually inspired real psychological studies.
    Though lately, after seeing an Internet troll I encountered once appear in the news after committing a murder-suicide, I think there's more to this story. The Fuckwads were always fuckwads, but the internet just allows them to bring it out.

    What the Internet does at least for me is provide an easy way to communicate (easy enough to allow people to speak on their impulses), but without the faces of those I'm speaking to. End result = I'm a lot less self-censored on the Internet than in real life. Without even intending to be.
     
  3. #23
    Blackee Dammet

    Blackee Dammet Feminism Is My God Now

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2006
    Messages:
    2,241
    Likes Received:
    156



    I'm still not seeing it. People trolling obituaries online today were out probably vandalizing cemeteries yesterday, the kid grieving you on Xbox could just have well been that ugly freak shooting small, domesticated animals with a bebe gun a decade ago, and while I'm not going to argue that this generation is a particularly articulate one, I'd say that started a bit before our shiny new computers and text messages.
     
  4. #24
    Benjamin

    Benjamin LPA team LPA Super VIP

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2010
    Messages:
    6,398
    Likes Received:
    7



    So instead of vandalism we have trolling/cyber bullying? Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
     
  5. #25
    Blackee Dammet

    Blackee Dammet Feminism Is My God Now

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2006
    Messages:
    2,241
    Likes Received:
    156



    I can tell that's sarcasm, but it's really coming across as unusually petty. Mean words over a screen is not only on the same par as real life destruction of property, but considerably worse than it? Which of course says nothing about the rest of my post, mostly being about how youths in the past weren't exactly renown for their exquisite social etiquette (up to and including real life, sometimes violent face-to-face bullying...), but sure. Internet trolling, that's humanity downward spiral right there...
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2011
  6. #26
    Benjamin

    Benjamin LPA team LPA Super VIP

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2010
    Messages:
    6,398
    Likes Received:
    7



    I'd say they're about equal, actually. And cyber bullying can be much more than "words on a screen." It can ruin people's lives unlike a little property damage. And the more I think about it, I don't think the internet is really replacing any kind of violence in real life. It's more like an additional outlet for people who like to troll/cyber bully. For instance, a kid can get picked on at school and come home and get picked on the same kid online.
     
  7. #27
    Mark

    Mark Canadian Beauty LPA Administrator

    Joined:
    Jul 14, 2002
    Messages:
    24,864
    Likes Received:
    463



    Bingo.

    I would go as far to say people are shittier to each other online than they are in real life. That's a major issue.
     
  8. #28
    travz21

    travz21 Muscle Museum LPA Super Member

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2010
    Messages:
    4,000
    Likes Received:
    5



    Cyber bullying isn't anywhere near as bad as real bullying.
     
  9. #29
    Jesse

    Jesse Out of the abyss. LPA Über VIP

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2007
    Messages:
    11,617
    Likes Received:
    588



    This isn't about bullying, but there's been a couple times where I felt like just punching a wall and then instead relieved myself by making a rant online, which might have transferred into a bit of a angry tone with someone if they had bothered me offline... So I'm just saying, online is good to relieve stress sometimes.
     
  10. #30
    Mark

    Mark Canadian Beauty LPA Administrator

    Joined:
    Jul 14, 2002
    Messages:
    24,864
    Likes Received:
    463



    Tell that to the friends and family of Tyler Clementi, Ryan Halligan, Phoebe Prince and Megan Meier.
     
  11. #31
    Dean

    Dean LPA Addict LPA Addict

    Joined:
    May 8, 2004
    Messages:
    18,858
    Likes Received:
    140



    Past a certain point yeah, I would probably have taken "real bullying" over cyber bullying when I was a kid. People underestimate what verbal abuse can do to younger people sometimes.
     
  12. #32
    Brandon

    Brandon I was Ree's 100th follower on Twitter.

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2010
    Messages:
    2,362
    Likes Received:
    124



    I'm going to have to agree with this. I don't think society is regressing at all. We've elected an african-american president in the U.S. Gay rights is becoming more widely supported. As someone mentioned earlier, Egypt helped take back control of their country. When you look at the big picture, society is definitely not regressing.

    That's the thing though. Technology has helped magnify the small details (as opposed to the big picture) about society that were already there to begin with. Many studies have been done, and it is a psychological fact that when a person is either a) in a large crowd or b) unable to be identified (like wearing a mask), they are much more likely to act cruelly and without inhibition. The internet acts as both. It is a huge, wide open community, and you do not have to identify yourself. So naturally, it brings out the worst in weak minded people.

    But those people without the internet would find their own ways to act like idiots. Whether it's being the bully at school, rioting after your favorite sports team loses or writing hateful messages on bathroom stalls, some people are just assholes.

    Someone earlier also mentioned we could be going through "growing pains" as a part of so much technology so fast. That makes sense. I completely agree that some people use the internet as a crutch so they don't have to interact with people in person. It drives me nuts when I see people getting all buddy-buddy with people they've never really met on a website like Tumblr. It's sad; you have real friends that give a crap about you, how about spending your time talking with them? That is one aspect of things that the internet has had a negative effect on. But overall, with the amount of information we can access, and how quickly we can access it, the internet has to be considered a plus overall.
     
  13. #33
    travz21

    travz21 Muscle Museum LPA Super Member

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2010
    Messages:
    4,000
    Likes Received:
    5



    Because that proves I'm wrong how?
     
  14. #34
    Vriska

    Vriska Wiki Staff LPA VIP

    Joined:
    Apr 17, 2007
    Messages:
    1,777
    Likes Received:
    2



    I agree with this, except

    Not all people are lucky to live in a world where they're loved or understood. One of my favorite aspects of the internet is that you can join a community with some theme that its members have in common. You know, like this forum. Or a forum for cancer pateints, or abuse victims, or gay people, or some other really rare thing that IRL friends just don't understand.
     
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2011
  15. #35
    MKH

    MKH Bat of Gotham LPA Super VIP

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2010
    Messages:
    3,311
    Likes Received:
    18



    Agreed. Wounds and bruises heal, but words stick to your mind, especially those that can be seen through stuff like e-mails and instant message logs and the sort.
     
  16. #36
    ThaHandyman

    ThaHandyman Banned

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2011
    Messages:
    642
    Likes Received:
    0



    Kathy's first post is good. I find myself on both sides of the stor here, sometimes i'll just be eating with my dad at a restaurant and be bored, so i'll pull out my phone and text or read something. Then other times it pisses me off when I'm at dinner with my girl and she's on FB or Twitter half the time.
     
  17. #37
    SuperDude526

    SuperDude526 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2010
    Messages:
    1,137
    Likes Received:
    9



    While I'd hate to instantly turn this thread political, this isn't the first time in history or even in the 20th century when the Muslim world was swept by revolutions and the toppling of tyrannical regimes. For instance it's already happened for Iran twice in the last 50 years.

    And to steer this mother back on topic, I agree but honestly there's nothing you can do. Also what Xero21 said.
     
  18. #38
    DaMU

    DaMU Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2010
    Messages:
    142
    Likes Received:
    1



    That's how it comes off in your original post. (a) The two largest paragraphs in your post are devoted to specific personal experiences with people being socially awkward in the present of online communication. The remainder acts as a support structure of apocalyptic preamble, melodramatic transitions, insubstantial supporting evidence (Youtube comments), and fears you admit to having for a long time. This last point especially puts your whole method of inquiry into question, since it implies you're searching for support for a long-predetermined conclusion (the regression of humanity). (b) Your writing implicitly condemns the Internet. You use phrases like "the negative consequences of this digital world, "the Internet has devolved," and "the Internet has opened a portal," all of which emphasize the "digital world" as the subject. Perhaps it's unwise to personify the Internet this way if your intent is not to devalue the Internet.

    Stay frosty.
     
  19. #39
    Mark

    Mark Canadian Beauty LPA Administrator

    Joined:
    Jul 14, 2002
    Messages:
    24,864
    Likes Received:
    463



    I'm sorry you could not grasp the point I was trying to make like almost everyone else did.

    I already further explained what I meant in the exact post you quoted. Thanks for glazing over the other 90% of it. I do not feel like repeating myself.

    You've completely missed the point in an attempt to pick apart my sentences and quote them incompletely and out of context.

    Stay fastidious. ;)
     
  20. #40
    DaMU

    DaMU Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2010
    Messages:
    142
    Likes Received:
    1



    The way you word this, I'm not sure if you mean that (a) almost everyone else could grasp the point or (b) almost everyone else couldn't grasp the point. This is the kind of unclear writing to which I'm referring. Regardless, it seems that quite a few posters took your focus to be the Internet itself, among them Agent 0, Raymond, Dean, Benjamin, and Xero.

    People don't "glaze over" text. Their eyes "glaze over" while reading text. Nitpick. Sorry. I read your full post, tacitly agreed with your better-wrought, more specific line on language devolution, and I chose to focus on our point of disagreement, which was your defense that your original post isn't misleading. It is.

    No, I highlight examples to explain how a reader might be led to misconstrue your original points.

    Love the avatar!

    [​IMG]
     

Share This Page