I grew up in rural Missouri. I can’t really tell you the first time I used the internet, but I do know that I had dial up for a very long time. I spent my fair share of time in the AOL chat rooms. Heck I remember even writing letters to a few people that I met. The Internet was great. I never really got into deep discussions boards or comment threads, heck I didn’t really surf the internet regularly until I moved to college. To me, the internet was awesome and people were nice. I did a little online gaming starting with Phantasy Star Online on my Nintendo Gamecube. That’s right, I was one of the 100 people that bought the dial up modem that attached to the bottom of the little purple lunch box. Sure people talked trash in Halo 2, but I played sports, that’s what it’s all about.
Now that the vast majority of the U.S. has internet it’s become a breeding ground for hate and people bashing. What started as a great way for people to express their opinions was quickly taken over by the trolls spitting profanity and boldfaced lies. An opinion that goes against what someone else believes is quickly followed by name calling and straight up bullying. There is hope though.
IGN is where I experience most of my comment threads (and Yahoo, but that place is dominated by religious fanatics). Recently IGN has started cracking down on personal attacks against other users and encouraging people to “not feed the trolls”. Surprisingly this seems to really be having an effect. Attacks, racism, sexism, and profanity are being removed very quickly and all we are left with is good discussion and the (frequent) troll looking to get a rise out of someone. A host of another podcast brought up a good point, why do people always have to hate things and make it their personal goal to make other people hate them. Stating your opinion is fine, encouraged in fact, but just because something isn’t for you doesn’t mean it won’t appeal to someone. State your opinion, have a nice discussion about it, and move on. If someone else enjoys something, let them enjoy it. Something to think about as we begin the journey here at Six Socket Media.
@TheTimWelsh
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