[Reaganesque]

I found this yesterday. Its a long read but the author makes some interesting points about how the Internet's anonymity can bring out the worst in some and that, as a result, there is a growing culture of people online with, as the article states, "a fluid morality and a disdain for pretty much everyone else online."

The author interviewed several of these kinds of people and the comments he solicits from them are, frankly, terrifying. They feel that they not only have the right to be cruel and inhuman to others they deem to be "inferior" in some way, shape or form, but the duty to tear others down. In fact, those interviewed actually thought they were doing people a favor by being so heartlessly viscious.

So, the article raises a good point; where do you draw the line between vigorous comment and cyberbullying? Is anonymity a blessing or a curse online? There will always be those who abuse freedom and those who treasure it. How do rational adults draw a balance in this new, online world? Opinions?

[cripplecreek]

The nice thing about longtime FReepers. Even in disagreement we still tend to have a certain degree of respect for each other.

[Dengar01]

Trolls here are easy to spot they usually have a signup date within a week of their post.

For online video games we call it "nerd rage".

[Darksheare]

” there is a growing culture of people online with, as the article states, “a fluid morality and a disdain for pretty much everyone else online.” “

Has nothing to do with the internet or online anonymity.
It has to do with what they are taught and their base moral values.
Kids these days are taught that nobody matters but them.
And if their parents try to discipline them, they are told that is abuse.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

“They’d say, ‘Hi, this is Mitchell, I’m at the cemetery.’ ‘Hi, I’ve got Mitchell’s iPod.’ ‘Hi, I’m Mitchell’s ghost, the front door is locked. Can you come down and let me in?’ ” He sighed. “It really got to my wife.” The calls continued for a year and a half.

I don't know how these parents survived this ordeal.

[JoeProBono]

[DBrow]

With no net anonymity, FR and the similar sites will fold. The government sees many of us as dangerous Tom Paine types who must be watched, and with no anonymity, we’ll all be personally watched.

Imagine making a post here, and finding SEIU and CBS outside demanding “justice”.

The news people wanted to find the principals in the Rathergate discoveries, rather than find the source of the memos, to illuminate what their priorities are.

Yup net anonymity can be a pain in a very few cases, but it currently is what drives the existing Power To The People we’ve been enjoying.

[IYAS9YAS]

Interesting and sad.

A few weeks ago the local AM talk radio in Albuquerque mentioned a couple of different web sites that desecrate the highway memorials families put up. One idiot films/photographs himself with the memorial, and posts disgusting crap about the dead. The other documents going around and pulling down, or destroying the memorials.

In New Mexico, it is illegal to desecrate these roadside memorials.

Personally, I wouldn't put a memorial up. However, I'm never bothered by those who do.

As long as the family maintains or removes them if they can no longer maintain them, I have no problem with them.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

All I know is ‘there are no girls on the internet’....but for some reason...I’m still here. ;-)

Seriously, tho I feel so sorry for Mitchell’s parents. I can’t even imagine. I’ve seen the sick and twisted way ‘an hero’ deaths have been made fun of in this internet culture...and for the life of me, I don’t understand WHY. Sick, sick, sick.

I feel the NYT is a little slow, here. This behavior has been going on for quite a while.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Mitchell Henderson

[Spike Knotts]

So king troll is 32, lives with his mother and was molested by not one but four of his relatives? And he is thin and pale, with bird like features?

Shocked. Shocked, I am. I made it to the second page. I gave it up after mom started whining about how his intense emotional pain(presumably from the quad chestering) necessitates his online activities. Shoulda stayed anonymous, dude.

[struggle]

Re-read rules #1 and #2.

[LongElegantLegs]

Thanks for posting this! How very fascinating.

[In Maryland]

At the risk of massive flaming - when history is written I think this, and much else of what is destroying the culture of this country, will be traced back to the so-called "women's liberation movement".

Women became vilified for being "stay at home" moms (remember when Barbara Bush got booed at, what was it, Bennington?) so they entered the work force. This provided additional income for the government to tax (and, admittedly, additional productivity) and allowed goverment to tax at a higher rate until women had virtually no choice but enter the work force. So, from the age of 6 weeks, children are entrusted to strangers to raise, parents indulge them monetarily to assuage their guilt over spending little time with them, and no one teaches Johhny manners or morals.

Then we have a divorce rate of 50% as women "break free" of the chains of "male domination" (again, granting that some women should divorce, when they are abused mentally or physically). Then the children become pawns in a game of retribution between spouses, making it important to cultivate the child as a "friend" rather than doing the hard and often unpleasant work of parenting.

Then mix in schools more interested in indoctrination than education (from which profession males have been driven because NOW has successfully painted every man that works with children as a potential sexual predator) and you end up with really screwed up young adults. Some work on Wall Street - some becomes sports thugs - some become internet bomb-tossers and, by the grace of god, many still become well-adjusted, moral, ethical adults.

[TheRealDBear]

G.I.F.T. (Greater Internet F***wad Theory) in action

[liberty_rules_in_the_USA]

So, the article raises a good point; where do you draw the line between vigorous comment and cyberbullying? Is anonymity a blessing or a curse online? There will always be those who abuse freedom and those who treasure it. How do rational adults draw a balance in this new, online world? Opinions?

It's so frustrating because, as you point out, there are many elements to the issue. On the one hand, you don't want to set a precedent of restricting free speech. On the other hand, these are people who deliberately acted with the intent of causing extreme emotional pain, and it's hard not to have a "punish those jerks" reaction. But as the article mentions, laws addressing this will be largely unenforceable.

The only way to combat it really is to somehow produce people who aren't emotionally unhinged, but how do you do that? You can lay a part of the blame on the anonymity factor of the Internet (that no one would act this way if they had to see their victim), but there have been horrible people since the dawn of time so it's not all about that.

So ... yeah, no ideas here.

[Marty62]

I guess Fr has taut many of us to spot trolls and we can agree to disagree.

Parents need to give their children a lesson it the hard realities of the internet.

It can be an ugly place. Especially for the young and inexperienced.

[verity]

...for reasons unknown to those who knew him, Mitchell Henderson, a seventh grader from Rochester, Minn., took a .22-caliber rifle down from a shelf in his parents’ bedroom closet and shot himself in the head...

Seems to me that this should be the paramount issue.