I think people that have the most toxic behavior on social networks are like that because they feel deeply ignored.
They act like children that want attention, since everything failed, they go all-in in the desperate hope it gets a reaction, something that makes them feel even a little bit alive.
This is something that is really overlooked these days, in a world where attention is everything, there is a lot of people who feel left out, their situation denied.
They feel so lonely that even being harassed in their twisted mind would be something better than what they live.
A least when you are harassed, people recognized you are worth being harassed and you can find people who sympathize with you.
That doesn't mean I sympathize with them, harassing people on the internet is just horribly wrong, there is no reason to do it (whatever they have say or done).
But if you want to talk to abusers,keep in mind they feel like the biggest victim, and probably something horribly wrong has happened in their life.
They don't want you to feel bad, they want you to feel worst than them and trying to shame them (even if you thing they deserve it) will only make it worst for them and for you.
I think those that are liable to spew hate online simply do not get the emotional feedback they need to correct their behaviour. It is too difficult to learn to be a better human when everyone is just a display picture and a short bio. Having your messages deleted, reading angry responses, being banned.... These consequences are not positively didactic. They only teach one to abandon identity, to forego respect and intimacy, and to dissociate from the real humans behind the digital facades. Ethics must first be taught in person, in context, and as part of a community to which one owes something. The online world is like a reflection that can only be understood by a limited set of human senses.
People simply don't want to have an argument to learn something these days. They are dead set to either extreme. I regret every minute I spent online trying to bring things nearer the average, and I have deleted all non-technical articles from my site, because I am afraid that some opinion brings prejudice on me, and mostly because nobody reads them.
And I really regret not having created 4 pages ten years ago, with SJW, MRA, extreme left and extreme right themes, and secure my current retirement on this 4-pole perpetual motion machine of clicks and ads :)
There is no "bothsame" situation in the submitted post, and the attempt to imply otherwise suggests one of three things: you didn't bother reading it; or, you're somebody who's mistaken smug self-aggrandizing South Park centrism for a virtue; or, you're intentionally trolling.
In the case of online discussion in general, and of Twitter especially, there is zero motive to seriously discuss issues or thoughts. All the platforms I've seen (with the possible exception of HN irregularly, but occasionally) encourage those who can come up with the sickest burns, snappiest comebacks, funniest memes, etc. There is near-zero reward for coming up with intelligent, thought-provoking content in general and especially in comments sections (which I'd consider a twitter feed to be identical to a comment section).
I can't tell if this is a cultural issue or a technical problem, but it affects all of them almost universally.
Definitely a cultural disaster. Just think what it does to people to have said all this shit online. They have to live the rest of their lives knowing they were stupid raging assholes online, and it will always weigh on them if they ever engage in another medium thoughtfully. And those tweets will certainly haunt them if they ever enter the spotlight or try to get a decent job with even a trivial background check (if the account if not anon).
[+] [-] madnerd|7 years ago|reply
They act like children that want attention, since everything failed, they go all-in in the desperate hope it gets a reaction, something that makes them feel even a little bit alive.
This is something that is really overlooked these days, in a world where attention is everything, there is a lot of people who feel left out, their situation denied. They feel so lonely that even being harassed in their twisted mind would be something better than what they live. A least when you are harassed, people recognized you are worth being harassed and you can find people who sympathize with you.
That doesn't mean I sympathize with them, harassing people on the internet is just horribly wrong, there is no reason to do it (whatever they have say or done).
But if you want to talk to abusers,keep in mind they feel like the biggest victim, and probably something horribly wrong has happened in their life. They don't want you to feel bad, they want you to feel worst than them and trying to shame them (even if you thing they deserve it) will only make it worst for them and for you.
[+] [-] xmb|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] epx|7 years ago|reply
And I really regret not having created 4 pages ten years ago, with SJW, MRA, extreme left and extreme right themes, and secure my current retirement on this 4-pole perpetual motion machine of clicks and ads :)
[+] [-] crooked-v|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FussyZeus|7 years ago|reply
I can't tell if this is a cultural issue or a technical problem, but it affects all of them almost universally.
[+] [-] merpnderp|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BloodyHands|7 years ago|reply
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