Thanks for the post, Megan. I don’t think people as a whole have gotten meaner, but Twitter and the internet in general has given meaner people a louder voice. Being able to hide behind anonymity and an email address is the real issue — the software enables bad behavior, and the consequences are non-existent.

The saddest part to all this is the long-term effect. If women (or anybody, really) know they’ll be berated and belittled when the hit the spotlight, more might stay out of it. It may not keep actors out of Hollywood, but it is a problem for tech and journalism.

The good news is: for every 10 mean tweets and nastygrams you get, there’s one 13-year-old girl in Kansas who watches and listens to you and who wants to do what you do: host a tech TV show, or a podcast, or become a developer, or run a startup. If she sees successful women in tech, she’ll know its possible.

The criticism sucks, no doubt. Nobody should be treated like that. But we don’t do it for the trolls to like us. We do it for the young people who will form the future of our world. Eventually, the trolls will have nobody left to scream at, because we’ll all be busy doing bigger and better things.