The Internet kind of eliminates our interaction with society and other people, or it sterilizes it, it something. Less personal, and so easier to not care about people, and this harder to feel connection and get to stages 4, 5, and 6. By design, of course.
People say this type of thing all the time. But really, if someone can’t get along with people online, they can’t do it offline either. The problem with the Internet is that the type of people we all avoid in real life are all online.
I dunno, I have admittedly gotten into arguments on the internet, but the only people I argue with in real life are my friends. I think it’s very easy to dehumanize text on a screen, and like I said I’m guilty of it, not a perfect person (thanks hoobastank, what a fucking stupid name for a band), and interacting with people in your everyday life changes everything. I think, in general, a lot of racism and xenophobia comes from the unknown, and online interaction is basically the unknown.
I think I’ve said enough times on here that the world has gotten too connected, and that there’s a lot of benefit to be had from interacting with the people in your own community. I’d go to war for New Jersey, or the town I live in, because I have so many connections with those people that ascend our stupid colors or our stupid beliefs. You just won’t find that online.
And the problem is that I feel it’s by design. Dial the clock back more than 20 years, I remember building some pretty strong friendships with some random posters on ebaums forums. Eventually we were skyping at night, and I was like a 15-16 year old kid, and we had men, women, black white yellow, really bridged a lot of gaps, and I dunno, is it because the Internet was less sterilized, more “go out there and have fun” than it is now?
I think that Facebook started it, with it’s algorithms, but everything we see is curated, and I just can’t help believe that my anger is bespoke, and that’s fucking stupid. But there’s no way to stop it, save logging off.
I think that Facebook started it, with it’s algorithms, but everything we see is curated, and I just can’t help believe that my anger is bespoke, and that’s fucking stupid. But there’s no way to stop it, save logging off.
I don’t use Facebook, but here, Reddit, and YT, I’ve found that the algorithms are just a mirror of who I am. If I comment or read a post in r/hitman or r/boomershooters I get more posts from those subs. If I watch a Brandon Tenold video or Oddity Archive on YT, I get more movie review recommendations and such.
I think one way to stop it, is to have no anger. The algorithm is a stupid machine. If you watch a video about Nazis, that’s like typing Nazis into Google. It’s going to give you Nazis. If you watch a video about cats, then your anger is no longer bespoke, and your joy and happiness is curated for you.
I don’t think it eliminates it, but rather adds an additional, new dimension to social interaction that follows completely different rules. Pseudonymous communication being the norm, for example (which of course, contributes to people being assholes online).
But there are still rules and conventions that govern social interactions online, as well as different levels of enforcement. For instance, if I replied to you with a comment full of abuse, then you could block me. Additionally, you, or someone else on this thread could report my comment, which might lead to me being banned from this community. If I went and complained about this ban being the result of power tripping mods, people would be able to check the modlog and call me out on my assholeish conduct. And if I was consistently abusive across communities, someone might contact my instance admins (and if there were many abusive users from my instance and the admins didn’t take action, then other instances might consider defederating from my instance). It obviously functions completely differently to offline communication, but online social relations are just as real as offline ones.
This is one of the reasons why I have been enjoying the fediverse so far. We get to have conversations about how we should handle people acting shitty. Even though big tech also provides ways of blocking or reporting abusive users, there’s a distinct powerlessness due to the lack of transparency and accountability in how moderation happens. And I definitely agree with you that when we look at how the vast majority of people interact online, it does make it easier to not care about people, and to feel more disconnected with society. It’s why I find it so fun and interesting to be in a space where we can have these conversations
The Internet kind of eliminates our interaction with society and other people, or it sterilizes it, it something. Less personal, and so easier to not care about people, and this harder to feel connection and get to stages 4, 5, and 6. By design, of course.
People say this type of thing all the time. But really, if someone can’t get along with people online, they can’t do it offline either. The problem with the Internet is that the type of people we all avoid in real life are all online.
I dunno, I have admittedly gotten into arguments on the internet, but the only people I argue with in real life are my friends. I think it’s very easy to dehumanize text on a screen, and like I said I’m guilty of it, not a perfect person (thanks hoobastank, what a fucking stupid name for a band), and interacting with people in your everyday life changes everything. I think, in general, a lot of racism and xenophobia comes from the unknown, and online interaction is basically the unknown.
I think I’ve said enough times on here that the world has gotten too connected, and that there’s a lot of benefit to be had from interacting with the people in your own community. I’d go to war for New Jersey, or the town I live in, because I have so many connections with those people that ascend our stupid colors or our stupid beliefs. You just won’t find that online.
And the problem is that I feel it’s by design. Dial the clock back more than 20 years, I remember building some pretty strong friendships with some random posters on ebaums forums. Eventually we were skyping at night, and I was like a 15-16 year old kid, and we had men, women, black white yellow, really bridged a lot of gaps, and I dunno, is it because the Internet was less sterilized, more “go out there and have fun” than it is now?
I think that Facebook started it, with it’s algorithms, but everything we see is curated, and I just can’t help believe that my anger is bespoke, and that’s fucking stupid. But there’s no way to stop it, save logging off.
So yeah. I dunno. We’re doomed, I guess.
I don’t use Facebook, but here, Reddit, and YT, I’ve found that the algorithms are just a mirror of who I am. If I comment or read a post in r/hitman or r/boomershooters I get more posts from those subs. If I watch a Brandon Tenold video or Oddity Archive on YT, I get more movie review recommendations and such.
I think one way to stop it, is to have no anger. The algorithm is a stupid machine. If you watch a video about Nazis, that’s like typing Nazis into Google. It’s going to give you Nazis. If you watch a video about cats, then your anger is no longer bespoke, and your joy and happiness is curated for you.
I don’t think it eliminates it, but rather adds an additional, new dimension to social interaction that follows completely different rules. Pseudonymous communication being the norm, for example (which of course, contributes to people being assholes online).
But there are still rules and conventions that govern social interactions online, as well as different levels of enforcement. For instance, if I replied to you with a comment full of abuse, then you could block me. Additionally, you, or someone else on this thread could report my comment, which might lead to me being banned from this community. If I went and complained about this ban being the result of power tripping mods, people would be able to check the modlog and call me out on my assholeish conduct. And if I was consistently abusive across communities, someone might contact my instance admins (and if there were many abusive users from my instance and the admins didn’t take action, then other instances might consider defederating from my instance). It obviously functions completely differently to offline communication, but online social relations are just as real as offline ones.
This is one of the reasons why I have been enjoying the fediverse so far. We get to have conversations about how we should handle people acting shitty. Even though big tech also provides ways of blocking or reporting abusive users, there’s a distinct powerlessness due to the lack of transparency and accountability in how moderation happens. And I definitely agree with you that when we look at how the vast majority of people interact online, it does make it easier to not care about people, and to feel more disconnected with society. It’s why I find it so fun and interesting to be in a space where we can have these conversations