Posted by sleepygirl2 on July 25, 2011, at 22:59:04
In reply to Re: Amy Winehouse, posted by Dinah on July 25, 2011, at 8:04:35
> I don't get it. I really don't.
>
> I can't imagine anything more likely to be "face to face". At least if you're being b*tchy and gossiping with friends, you can look around and make sure you're alone. You can assess the feedback of your friends and see if you're inadvertently hurting them with comments that might strike too close to home.
>
> On the internet, you are talking on a forum that might directly reach her family, friends, people who look like her, people with issues of addiction and mental health, people who have lost loved ones to those issues. The audience is larger and the potential for harm is larger.
>
> I am not sure there are "harmless" trolls.
>
> They cause harm to me, even if they hit no issue buttons with me. Hate and cruelty hurt me. They make me ashamed to be human.
>
> If they do happen to hit my own issues, they make me feel ashamed, alone, and sometimes hopeless. Reading comments like those makes me feel despised by the world and deserving of any harm that comes my way.
>
> The internet is just a way for people to lash out and hurt a larger number of people with a smaller chance of consequences for themselves. How is that harmless? Why do the major sites allow it to happen?It's a good question Dinah.
We've seen a bit of this issue play out here.
I don't know that we've caught up yet with our technology. The internet offers greater ability to say what you otherwise (hopefully!) would not say.
a literal (blank?) screen that we can throw all our crap at.
poster:sleepygirl2
thread:991725
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20110722/msgs/991865.html