Social Media Brings Out The Worst in Us
Real people chewing out other real people without consequence
I just got done feeling the wrath of a man with nothing better to do than sit in his chair behind a screen insulting people he doesn’t really know. This happens all the time on Twitter and in the comment section of public posts on Facebook. Social media has a way of bringing out the worst in people and it’s been going on for many years.
The fact of the matter is, writing your thoughts on social media is a dangerous game sometimes. Unless you’re posting pictures of family, friends, vacations, or something else positive, then you’re inviting the devil to the dance. The absolute worst is when you’re on a public forum, meaning it’s not on your private page where only people you’ve chosen have access to your posts.
On Twitter, your posts are basically all public. There may be privacy settings that give you some privacy, but generally whenever you tweet, quote, or reply to something, then it’s public.
On Facebook, there are a great deal of privacy settings at your disposal, but what I’m talking about right now is public posts. You know, the stuff the media puts on your news feed, or some other public figure. It could be PennLive, or ComicBook.com, or some local news station. It may be Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson posting some updates on a movie, or Sean Hannity dishing out some partisan political opinions. People start to ‘like’ and comment on the story or post, and then replies start to flow in from people who either agree or disagree with you.
Public posts and comments can be pleasant & friendly, but they also invite toxicity from the lowest depths of the cesspool of trolls that exist in the world.
There are people out there who exist only to make others feel like garbage. There are also people who are genuinely good but they may speak out of turn or say something they didn’t really mean.
However, there is a third kind and it’s probably the most common source of toxicity online. These are the people who are not at all considered bad people, but they possess very conflicting and polarizing beliefs. They may have a very sound system of morals they follow, and they’re generally very safe and trustworthy to be around. However, deep down they have extreme bias or prejudice on some issues, but they don’t really talk about it.
Why does social media bring out the worst in us?
Before I say anything else, I need to tell you that I am not trained in psychology, this is just me speaking from the heart and drawing inspiration from past and present experience.
Social media gives people an outlet they never really had before. Sure, newspapers & magazines existed for many decades, enabling some people to write out their thoughts and have them broadcast to the world. However, social media is a completely different ball game. Years ago, your words were published one time. You may not have gotten another opportunity. The audience may have been a town, an organization, a state, or even a whole country.
With social media, assuming you live in a “free” society that doesn’t censor the internet, then you have access to anyone in the world at any given time. This access is instant, and it’s constantly changing. You have people from all walks of life joining the same online community, thinking we all have common goals and the same sort of standards. Most people don’t go looking for an argument or to be blasted by some stranger behind a keyboard. This is where social media is a big problem.
Social media provides a direct line to your thoughts, even if you don’t realize it. When you’re standing in front of someone in real life, there are things you will say and things you won’t say. There may be things deep down that you didn’t think to say, and probably shouldn’t say anyways. However, when you’re on social media, the gloves come off. People say what they want because there are usually no consequences, unless you’re a public figure. People take advantage of opportunities to say mean things, to insult others they don’t even know, and to spew garbage that they believe to be true even if there’s on evidence supporting their claims. Some people are just plan nasty. Real strength comes from those who can control themselves. Learn to hit the cancel button, or the backspace key. Some people cannot help themselves. It’s just too easy to rip into someone and then close the app and move on. That’s just cowardice.
I commented on a public post this morning about some mainstream news, and I unknowingly unlocked the door for a big time troll who clearly had nothing productive to do with his time. This man puffed out his chest and replied with some alpha male bravado & proceeded to insult me and a few others who replied to my original comment. He used personal insults toward us, and basically ignored any logic that we used to challenge what he said. Nothing was changing his mind or making him any less of a bully.
When I say “challenge”, we were being polite and not aggressive, but this man continued to escalate his game. Social media gave him the outlet to channel all his inner demons at the expense of other innocent users. He clearly has issues internally, and they will never get resolved. The worst part is, this guy was a military veteran, he has a couple daughters, he uses phrases like “God bless America”, but he feels the need to call this nurse “a lazy slob” because she didn’t feel the same way he did about the original issue.
Russia had recently admitted to interfering with American elections by sewing discord online, creating division and stirring up trouble between political factions. Do we even need some little dictator and war criminal overseas to divide us, when our own freedom-loving citizens are doing it all on their own?
