Internet Cowardice

[Laharl]

People that use the internet as an outlet to say what they think without ramifications from their peers in the real world vex me greatly. I find that act disgusting.

It is very true that I am simply incapable of being anything but honest. It's both my greatest strength and greatest weakness. I realize that about myself, and know that bears a great deal into why I feel the way I do.

With that said, let me get into my reasons why I particularly disdain this practice. Mostly, I feel that people who need to rely on the anonymnity and/or distance from peers in their life to say what they have to say are cowards. They are afraid of what they believe. They are afraid their views will be shunned, and because it is human nature to shun people who have some ideas we feel are too distorted out of reality, that they themselves will be outcast. As I have stated in other threads in the past, I believe humanity is a social animal that needs other people, as much as we might try and deny it.

I see a level of hyprocrisy in living life one way except when one can get away with following a different set of ideals in a different situation. Let us say, someone who is friendly with everyone they encounter in person yet go out of their way to be rude, obnoxious, and down-right meanspirited toward any and everyone they know online. Why is it okay on the one hand to be, for lack of a better word, a complete jackass to people whom you will never meet face to face and yet it is something you just won't do in person?

I realize I am as guilty of doing that as anyone. (I am not, however, guilty of saying one thing online while living another in person.) Probably why I felt like bringing up the topic, or at least one of the many reasons. I have met Rai in person, and thought (still think, actually) he's a pretty cool guy, yet his manners here on FFR grate on my nerves. I personally don't like feeling that way.

Something else that crossed my mind while I was typing this, is that internet manners were almost entirely decided by younger generations. Message boards, chat rooms, etc. are a domain of the youth. I can't really think of anyone over the age of 50 that uses the internet for the social aspect of it, 'cept for maybe e-mail. I wonder how much the fact that people in their twenties more or less defined nettiquette has affected the subject on which I am writing.