Last week I posted a friendly
comment on a video. The video was about
a World of Warcraft movie being made. My
comment simply stated that a World of Warcraft movie would be bad (which was
also the opinion of the video) and then I asked what people thought would make
a good movie. I am disappointed in the
results I received. The comments were
not what I hoped for. I was hoping for a
good discussion on what they could do to actually make a good World of Warcraft
movie. I got two comments on my comment
which were constructive but the other eight comments stated things like, “They
can make it better by not making it” or “No matter what they do they will
$@&# it up”.
As I reflect on the reason for this
lack of constructive comments I begin to think about how often you here about
how negative and mean spirited the people on the Internet can be. I have always heard a reason for this can be anonymous
that coincides with the Internet. Yes,
you have a screen name and an avatar but usually you do not have in person
relationships with the people on the Internet.
I believe this is why people feel that they can curse, be negative, or
at time mean spirited on what they post online.
They get to become a different person because no one knows who they
really are. If I compare how people post
here to what I see on Facebook I see a big difference. People on Facebook watch what they post more
often. They are friends, family members,
or co-workers with the people they are friends with on Facebook. On this site if you do not want to you never
have to state who you ever are.
This week I decided to join my
fellow commenters and be a little more negative in my post. One a review of the movie “The Avengers” I
decided to post a comment say that I disagreed with the video poster and that I
think “The Avengers” is a bad movie. My
comment I posted read, “Is this guy an idiot!?
The Avengers was horrible. The
cast was bad, the villain was lame, and Thor is a stupid super hero.” I am hoping the get some good reaction
comments on this post. I will let you
know next week what happens.
I think the anonymity thing really has a lot to do with the negative way people sometimes speak on these forums. It is easy to trash someone else's ideas or even personal beliefs when there is nothing to connect you personally to the comments. It seems that anything that someone says or believes is open to attack from those who would never have the nerve to do such things in real life. The question I pose: Is this a sad commentary on the state of humanity or simply a harmless way for the few to get their kicks? Wow, I like that question...I am gonna go post it on my own blog!
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