For heaven's sake, woman, will you get off the computer before your retinas melt

[dreamer_easy]

Normally I wouldn't read an inch of Paul Sheehan, but his column on the Ascham cyberbullying scandal does have a ripping quote from "the editor of a heavily trafficked beauty site for young women", who told him: "Women seem to find the anonymity and forums of the internet a thrilling way to be their nastiest, bitchiest, most insincere self, without any form of repercussion or damage to their reputation. It's vicious and disturbing the way they cluster to attack the blogger, or each other." Sheehan connects this to the use of sites like Twitter to create what I think of as virtual flash crowds - which can turn, in seconds, into a dogpile involving millions.

A while back, I mentioned teh net.stupid, and I want to explain exactly what I mean by that. Not people being idiots online, but the specific ways in which the Internet impedes our thinking and our interaction. The confusion between public and private, formal and informal, casual and serious, trustworthy and flaky; the quick, shallow reading and the hasty, un-thought-through responses; the loss of almost all the information communicated IRL; and the terrible power of the thing, its ability to flood us with noise, with falsehoods and trivia and gossip.

There aren't many defences against teh net.stupid. The assumption that everything we put online is for public consumption helps, as does a firm, healthy scepticism, and - this is the one I'm trying to learn - being a forgiving online conversationalist. These may help avoid being dogpiled on, but IMHO, more importantly, we need to watch out we don't turn into dogs ourselves: gullible, careless, easily led, snotty, and mean.

Comments

[ashamel.livejournal.com]

I got caught up in amazonfail, even. The different responses to that were interesting.

I can't read a Paul Sheehan article without thinking of Magic Water. (And usually that article with a belly dancer as well.)

[drox.livejournal.com]

"Women seem to find the anonymity and forums of the internet a thrilling way to be their nastiest, bitchiest, most insincere self, without any form of repercussion or damage to their reputation. It's vicious and disturbing the way they cluster to attack the blogger, or each other."

Just women? Really? I'd have thought this was more a human problem than just a woman problem.

I understand that the site in question is "a heavily trafficked beauty site for young women" so the gender ratio of the praticipants there will be rather skewed. I hope the above quote stems from that, rather than a belief that men are above that sort of thing.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

If you page back through my "gender" tag, you'll find a bunch of notes I've written up on the difference in men's and women's typical styles when it comes to Unpleasantness on the net and off it. Very briefly, and of course generalising: boys and men are more openly, directly, and physically aggressive; while girls and women are taught not to express aggression, and so it leaks out in indirect and social aggression, such as backstabbing, gossip, spreading rumours, anonymous hate, harassment, etc.

[subsequent]

Hi, a little off topic but interesting none the less.

Merlin Missy, over on Firefox News, has always written some brilliant articles and pieces about fandom. They're well thought-out, but fun at the same time. I'll link you to a really beautiful piece; written in honour of a friend who died - entitled Dances with Penguins, and one called The Outer Culture is You about Racism and Sexism in fandom.


I've actually been meaning to link you to her for a while, but always forgot. :/

In any case, enjoy, and make sure to check out the rest of her articles too. :)

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

I can assure you dogs are much much sweeter than this :-P

Extremely interesting article on the cisco post, though. (Is it worth nothing that until I read it I'd assumed the OP (OT?) was a man? Ouch.)

But yeah, net.stupid has been with us always. There are some usenet battles I recall...

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I do not mean to impugn the character of the actual real-life dog, merely the flea-bitten online pack animal. :)