There’s a twitter account you can follow called “Don’t read the comments”. Every once in a while a different tweet will appear in your feed saying simply that, in a variety of ways. It’s salient advice.
It’s been said many times, by many people that the impersonality of the internet brings out the worst in people, allowing them to vent spleen and prejudice in a way unthinkable in the normal course of human interaction, to this oft-repeated opinion I would add: particularly in comments threads. I attempt not to, really I do, but occasionally I get sucked back in.
The big problem is the urge to answer back, it’s human nature, you see a massively wrongheaded opinion and the urge to correct them, or to call them out on whatever blind prejudice they’re displaying is almost overwhelming. It occurred to me the other day, I was reading a review of Owen Jones’ new book, but said review was on a fairly liberal website, so, in the interests of balance, I wandered over to a right-wing one, just to see.
Still feeling cold now. You may be familiar with the idea of a closed ideology echo chamber, in essence a place where like-minded people repeat their ideas to each other, becoming more extreme as their brains become conditioned, their ideas reinforced. Brr. I couldn’t imagine knowing any of the respondents, the bile and rage seemed divorced from humanity. The lesson was learned anew, never, under any circumstances whatsoever, read the comments.
It’s been said many times, by many people that the impersonality of the internet brings out the worst in people, allowing them to vent spleen and prejudice in a way unthinkable in the normal course of human interaction, to this oft-repeated opinion I would add: particularly in comments threads. I attempt not to, really I do, but occasionally I get sucked back in.
The big problem is the urge to answer back, it’s human nature, you see a massively wrongheaded opinion and the urge to correct them, or to call them out on whatever blind prejudice they’re displaying is almost overwhelming. It occurred to me the other day, I was reading a review of Owen Jones’ new book, but said review was on a fairly liberal website, so, in the interests of balance, I wandered over to a right-wing one, just to see.
Still feeling cold now. You may be familiar with the idea of a closed ideology echo chamber, in essence a place where like-minded people repeat their ideas to each other, becoming more extreme as their brains become conditioned, their ideas reinforced. Brr. I couldn’t imagine knowing any of the respondents, the bile and rage seemed divorced from humanity. The lesson was learned anew, never, under any circumstances whatsoever, read the comments.
Comments
Post a Comment