Online anonymity lets users gets nasty

[ecstatic]

Poll question: Online anonymity lets users gets nasty

When a California woman recently gave birth to a healthy baby just two days after learning she was pregnant, the sudden change to her life was challenging enough. What April Branum definitely didn't need was a deluge of nasty Internet comments.

Postings on message boards made cracks about Branum's weight (about 400 pounds — one reason she says didn't realize sooner she was pregnant). They also analyzed her housekeeping ability, based on a photo of her home. And they called her names. "A pig is a pig," one person wrote. Another suggested that she "go on the show 'The Biggest Loser.'"

"The thing that bothered me most was, people assumed because I am overweight, I'm going to be a bad mom," Branum says. "And that is not one little bit true."

It was yet another example of how the Internet — and the anonymity it affords — has given a public stage to people's basest thoughts, ones that in earlier eras likely never would have traveled past the watercooler, the kitchen table or the next barstool.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070321/ap_en_ot/cruel_and_anonymous

Have you ever made a nasty comment to or about someone online?

[bryant69]

1. I think you need more gradations

I don't do it all the time; but I certainly have done it.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[ecstatic]

2. You're right

Might skew the result slightly but I went ahead and made the change. hehe

[TahitiNut]

4. Like .... "only in response to a personal attack"??

:shrug:

The phrase "when someone pisses me off" begs the question of "How?" There's a world of difference between an opinion into which one reads something inimical to one's own opinion and a direct attack or insult or some appallingly condescending snark.

[bryant69]

5. It also depends on what sort of attitude you are in

I know that there certainly people at DU that I will always look at negatively (and I know that there are people who read everything I write negatively), but most of the time if I go off the handle it has more to do with what's going on in my day away from DU. I'm not proud of that obviously, but I can't deny it either.

Bryant

[TahitiNut]

6. We're human. Sometimes the needle of our emotional resources is nudging "E."

Once upon a time on DU, it was a fairly common feeling in a political climate where little sanity existed IRL. DUers seemed to understand this and didn't regard DU as some "happy hunting ground" for their own Jihad du Jour. The ones who did usually didn't last long - except for Carlos, of course. There's been a clear shift to vigilantism and 'friendly fire.'

[rucky]

3. Does "smartass" count as nasty? n/t

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

7. I'm A Lot Funnier And Lighthearted In Real Life, But Anything I Say Online I Also Say To People's

faces. I got balls that way LOL

But my character online is definitely far more limited in nuance and personality than I'd be able to put forth in real life. That's always been the biggest shortcoming between communicating online and in person.