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This is what happens when you are on the internet for too long. You no longer want to be a part time anonymous troll but a real life one too except that can have some inconvenient side effects
The problem with Reddit and Lemmy too is that people are just mostly pretty strange there and it is hard to take it all seriously
Yeah turns out it wasn't anonymity, that was estimated because the internet has a greater amoun of dickery than real life.
But really, Assholes online are also assholes in real life. Same for kibd people. What the internet did was allow assholes find and network with each other, and make environment uncomfoetable enough that kind people leave. Only assholes are left.
Really like how the artist used the "? face" to symbolize anonimity and drawing the after with real faces to tell that anonimity is gone.
I always though it was anonymity, but its more likely the missing human connection. On the internet, our thoughts are transmitted without seeing the person before us in real time, so some may act different, forgetting there is a person on the other side.
There's obviously people who don't give a shit, but they were just assholes to begin with.
Fear of retaliation by the physical human in front of you as well. Some people are good because they believe in the value of goodness but a lot of them only act right when they can't get away with being awful.
Defederate from him.
But he's the dev. If we defederate we won't get support, and since the software is a janky piece of crap we need that support.
Raising $600k after going public about dropping the N-bomb on a child might have something to do with this.
A few incredibly racist billionaires are financing endless waves of bigotry and brutality. Until they stop, this is only going to get worse.
Hate is victimized now and it is a powerful tool for controlling the masses.
Don’t feed the trolls
Dead Internet Theory suggests these racist accounts are all just self-perpetuating whether you engage or not.
I thought I could feed trolls before midnight?
Good old times
People on Lemmy are getting bad too, you can’t disagree with someone in the most inoffensive way without getting a response full of hateful comments or name calling. Like if had a face to face discussion with a stranger I wouldn’t be like “you’re a brain dead idiot and you’re stupid” that’s rude as fuck, but that’s just how people respond to each other around here and it’s awful
This is completely false and not true. You’re a brain dead idiot and you’re stupid!! :@
But their mom says they're cool
One factor is that on the internet the only thing people know about you is your opinion that disagrees with them.
you can’t disagree with someone in the most inoffensive way without getting a response full of hateful comments or name calling.
That is by design. Debate and counter viewpoints are an existential threat to both extremists and propagandists alike.
I still blame the algorithms. Angry people click more => let's assure they always get more to click.
Yes and no, the main factor are bubbles. Even for the most asshole opinions you can probably find the right bubble where you aren't shunned for it but get affirming reactions. Algorithms do significantly ease the formation of bubbles but are ultimately not required for it
It's the for profit corporate capture really. When everyone started thinking of the internet as 5 websites and their bank.
I remember when people would get seriously angry if you posted commercial speech in a communal area of the Internet.
It killed Digg. It's slowly killing Reddit now.
I still blame the algorithms.
And I think that's a lack of memory. Where were those "algorithms" in flame wars on news groups, mailing lists, fora on the Internet & Web 1.0?
Even when the web became highly commercialized, there remained non-commercial sites of largely unmoderated, anonymized discussion & imageboards driven by the "hivemind": where were "the algorithms" there?
It's unrestrained people uninhibited from putting their unfiltered thoughts online to stir discussion: no "algorithms" required. "The algorithms" steer even the least sophisticated users to the content that captures their attention. And moderation maintains that attention by subduing those elements that would result in users ragequitting the Internet & missing those ads they scroll past.
Maybe we need to bring back ragequitting?
im chill with algoithms as long as theyre FOSS and don't manipulate people
You've misspelled capitalism.
I highly doubt a social network would ever lack incentive for increased engagement (via shock value and toxicity or otherwise) in a non-capitalist society.
They may gain popularity, societal influence, or whatever else instead of money. They’re still motivated to deepen that connection.
It was never just the anonymity, it was the lack of consequences as well. Combined those two often lead to people showing their worst selves.
Now though? Often those worst characteristics are applauded by others. It's disappointing.
Problem is, things are so divided right now that you can say anything and one half of the divide will support you just about no matter what.
People are extremely desperate to live in a black and white world with no nuance or shades of gray, they want to live in a world of Right or Wrong and believe everyone should agree with them or they’re stupid
Also the best, not just the worst. I agree but I hate to be pessimistic. Back then we used to dig to the shit to find a few hidden gems. The amount of gems stayed the same but the pile of shit got bigger. I liked the internet more when it was more like island with a lot of activity instead of bridges everywhere (I know the irony being on Lemmy). I miss active bulletin boards. Reddit really killed forums. Everyone wants convenience instead of quality. And everyone seems to be in a hurry
I kind of miss the anonymity of the internet. It's too easy to be ostracized now.
It's genuinely disturbing how many information these sites have about us.
Clicking on a Xitter link gives them enough information that they could probably direct a reasonably accurate drone strike against you.
And after browsing for a few hours on these sites they know you better than you do.
TOR walks into the room
“SHITCOCK”
(Quick edit: daaaamn that really was 21 years ago…)
I was there, Gandalf...
Yeah but also targeted advertising and invasive data harvesting.
The internet was definitely better before.
It's almost like a large-scale social experiment, with the result that there seem to be many profoundly evil people whose malicious beliefs are artificially pushed by billionaire "gatekeepers" to a point where they can appear socially acceptable, a few good people who have less and less say due to social media logic and content overload, and a large majority who just stand by and watch civilization go down the drain because they're too lazy to change their habits and just rely on someone else to fix this mess, if they even recognize the problem in the first place.
In this context, I think the definition of public opinion established by political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann back in the 1980s is once again highly relevant:
"Public opinion is the opinion dominant in public which can be expressed without risk of social isolation."
The spiral of silence : public opinion, our social skin (1984)
Noelle-Neumann emphasized that public opinion is not just any opinion, but specifically those views that are visible, vocal, and supported by the majority, making them safe to express in public. This ties closely to her "Spiral of Silence" theory, where individuals may refrain from expressing minority views due to fear of social isolation.
The great problem of our current media situation seems to be that these public opinions are increasingly artificially constructed since they just seem like majority opinions, even if they are not, because they get pushed so hard by the influential crooks controlling major parts of the Internet (social media and search engine monopolies and so on).
So I think today's web has become almost the opposite of what early Internet utopians had in mind.