Why Is Everyone on the Internet So Angry?

[Admin]

Why Is Everyone on the Internet So Angry?

 

By Natalie Wolchover and Life's Little Mysteries

 

A perfect storm engenders online rudeness, including virtual anonymity and thus a lack of accountability, physical distance and the medium of writing

 

With a presidential campaign, health care and the gun control debate in the news these days, one can't help getting sucked into the flame wars that are Internet comment threads. But psychologists say this addictive form of vitriolic back and forth should be avoided — or simply censored by online media outlets — because it actually damages society and mental health.

 

These days, online comments "are extraordinarily aggressive, without resolving anything," said Art Markman, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. "At the end of it you can't possibly feel like anybody heard you. Having a strong emotional experience that doesn't resolve itself in any healthy way can't be a good thing."

 

If it's so unsatisfying and unhealthy, why do we do it?

 

A perfect storm of factors come together to engender the rudeness and aggression seen in the comments' sections of Web pages, Markman said. First, commenters are often virtually anonymous, and thus, unaccountable for their rudeness. Second, they are at a distance from the target of their anger — be it the article they're commenting on or another comment on that article — and people tend to antagonise distant abstractions more easily than living, breathing interlocutors. Third, it's easier to be nasty in writing than in speech, hence the now somewhat outmoded practice of leaving angry notes (back when people used paper), Markman said.

 

And because comment-section discourses don't happen in real time, commenters can write lengthy monologues, which tend to entrench them in their extreme viewpoint. "When you're having a conversation in person, who actually gets to deliver a monologue except people in the movies? Even if you get angry, people are talking back and forth and so eventually you have to calm down and listen so you can have a conversation," Markman told Life's Little Mysteries.

 

Chiming in on comment threads may even give one a feeling of accomplishment, albeit a false one. "There is so much going on in our lives that it is hard to find time to get out and physically help a cause, which makes 'armchair activism' an enticing [proposition]," a blogger at Daily Kos opined in a July 23 article.

 

And finally, Edward Wasserman, Knight Professor in Journalism Ethics at Washington and Lee University, noted another cause of the vitriol: bad examples set by the media. "Unfortunately, mainstream media have made a fortune teaching people the wrong ways to talk to each other, offering up Jerry Springer, Crossfire, Bill O'Reilly. People understandably conclude rage is the political vernacular, that this is how public ideas are talked about," Wasserman wrote in an article on his university's website. "It isn't."

 

Communication, the scholars say, is really about taking someone else's perspective, understanding it, and responding. "Tone of voice and gesture can have a large influence on your ability to understand what someone is saying," Markman said. "The further away from face-to-face, real-time dialogue you get, the harder it is to communicate."

 

In his opinion, media outlets should cut down on the anger and hatred that have become the norm in reader exchanges. "It's valuable to allow all sides of an argument to be heard. But it's not valuable for there to be personal attacks, or to have messages with an extremely angry tone. Even someone who is making a legitimate point but with an angry tone is hurting the nature of the argument, because they are promoting people to respond in kind," he said. "If on a website comments are left up that are making personal attacks in the nastiest way, you're sending the message that this is acceptable human behaviour."

 

For their part, people should seek out actual human beings to converse with, Markman said — and we should make a point of including a few people in our social circles who think differently from us. "You'll develop a healthy respect for people whose opinions differ from your own," he said.

 

Working out solutions to the kinds of hard problems that tend to garner the most comments online requires lengthy discussion and compromise. "The back-and-forth negotiation that goes on in having a conversation with someone you don't agree with is a skill," Markman said. And this skill is languishing, both among members of the public and our leaders.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arpJM3DPIrA

 

 

[Methusala]

WHO'S ANGRY!!!!

 

 

[skeptic36]

But psychologists say this addictive form of vitriolic back and forth should be avoided — or simply censored by online media outlets — because it actually damages society and mental health.

If you want to see what's damaging the mental health of our youth, look at Facebook .

 

Regards Bill

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Then there are the trolls. People who go out of their way to log on to discussion threads just to insult people and rile them up. I think this sadistic behaviour falls into the category of the kid standing outside the junkyard fence poking a stick at the dogs inside; which is very much like Gina Rinehart saying that Aussies should work for $2.00 a day (while she reaps billions off their backs). Some people!

 

 

[pudestcon]

Trolls are only effective if you respond. It takes 2 to have an effect.

 

Pud

 

 

[facthunter]

That's good in theory Pud. Some are paid and persist forever. It's extreme rudeness as the insults are continuous and quite sick often. I think some of them are MENTAL!!!!. Nev

 

 

[P4D]

Dont reply to a reply. Its time for a phone call.

 

 

[Tomo]

If you want to see what's damaging the mental health of our youth, look at Facebook .Regards Bill

Wouldn't limit it to Facebook, but video games, TV, phone games etc... just sayin'

 

 

[Guest SAJabiruflyer]

I dunno, Admin was pretty angry yesterday, but the entire post and replies were deleted. I'm guessing that this current thread is a more measured response to that.

 

I'd say that anyone who takes the Internet too seriously and gets angry over it, needs to take a big break from it, relax, chill, spend time with family and friends, and re-asses the value of ongoing Internet communications and arguments therein.

 

Forums (and BBS's in the earlier days) are full of Keyboard Warriors, intent on causing trouble no matter what.

 

The sad thing is - forums like this can and do have a LOT of good content - but sometimes the "good" disappears because the "bad" content (created by aforementioned Keyboard Warriors) is more visible, and it's human nature to view and sometimes respond to such content.

 

Me, I like flying.

 

 

[Guest SAJabiruflyer]

And I had a GREAT example of Angry Internet Issues today. An ANGRY email was received, a suitable reply was drafted. But then I became involved and said "why dont you call them?". Suffice to say, a PERSONAL interaction complete with the ability to convey feelings, resulted in a successful resolution.

 

And I still like flying.

 

 

[Sapphire]

Trolls are only effective if you respond. It takes 2 to have an effect.

Pud

 

Sure, if you move into their world you become one of them. Non response is the biggest insult to them.

 

 

[turboplanner]

And I had a GREAT example of Angry Internet Issues today. An ANGRY email was received, a suitable reply was drafted. But then I became involved and said "why dont you call them?". Suffice to say, a PERSONAL interaction complete with the ability to convey feelings, resulted in a successful resolution.

And I still like flying.

 

So why isn't my friggin Toshiba fixed after two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

[Guest SAJabiruflyer]

So why isn't my friggin Toshiba fixed after two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Should sent it to me mate, I would have at least told you WHY it wasnt fixed ;)

 

 

[Tex]

 

 

 

 

[Bruce]

I don't agree with the headline here. I've never had an angry reply or done an angry post, unless you count referring to a coroner as

 

a " stupid and uneducated woman who needs to learn some science".

 

I would argue that this was not an angry statement but a sad one.

 

Yep there are forums less civilised than the ones I visit, so the anger has other places to happen.

 

Bruce

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Trolls are only effective if you respond. It takes 2 to have an effect.

Pud

Soo true, but the trolls always seem to find someone to rise to the bait.

 

 

[Tomo]

It's probably more likely due to miscommunication - some things portrayed via text can be a lot different to a verbal encounter.

 

It always takes two for an argument, whether you like that or not! Some people find it hard to be mature enough just to let it go if someone annoyed them, but they rather have the last say and it then gets ugly.

 

My moto...

 

If I borrowed a mates car and it cost me nothing, and he said the terms of use are no food or eating in it, whether I think it's a good idea or not, you respect that. If he then accused you for eating in his car when you didn't, but one of your friends accidentally did and you didn't know it. Don't get all mad and deny it, don't go and chat to others in secret with all your exclusive friends about how mean this mate now is. Take responsibility and sort it out... admit you will do your best to get it fixed or something...even if you think he's the biggest clown on earth.

 

Maturity is not in waiting for the other to be mature, maturity is lowering yourself to a point where you don't need to bring that other person down, but through your maturity it sorts itself out.

 

 

[frank marriott]

I find then "ignore" button useful. It saves reading the same rubbish from the same people over and over.

 

It does make some threads a bit disjointed but enables you to read other views without getting annoyed by the same rubbish.

 

Works for me anyway.

 

 

[Bubbleboy]

I say "Take em out!...

 

 

[kgwilson]

Turn it all off for a while. I have just spent a large part of my waking hours since lunch time on Thursday helping people after the devastation of storms, rain and flood. On Friday we started at 7am and finished just after 2am Saturday rescuing flood victims. Next it was fixing roofs and other repairs, delivering food and medicines to help those suffering to cope. It was very hard work and no pay but some of the most rewarding experiences of my life. This is reality. Some of the roughest crudest humans I have ever encountered turned into meek mild lambs when they found they had been defeated by nature & someone they had never met came to help.

 

Sitting safely behind an electronic interface may provide some form of bravado and allow a difference of opinion to turn to nasty vitriol but cut the power supply, tear the roof off, ruin the comforts of life, communication and access to food and see what happens.

 

Like all advances in technology the benefits are incredible but there is always a dark side. How we deal with this is the problem that needs resolution.

 

 

[damkia]

I hate people like this...........

 

 

 

[turboplanner]

Should sent it to me mate, I would have at least told you WHY it wasnt fixed ;)

I knew you would, but I had to feel sorry for the technician though, Toshiba gave him an envelope of 3 to 10 days for the supply of parts.

 

For any business person, that sort of practice is a smoking fuse; cuts down Toshiba's phone bill, but I wonder what it costs when people buy their next computer.