I'm probably naive. And frankly speaking, I try to keep myself that way, in some respects. (g)
Wandering through this curious digital realm of blogs and comments, I'm frequently amazed by the extremely varied opinions (not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes mindbogglingly different from what I've assumed was widely accepted), the "random acts of rudeness", the ignorance, and (often) the downright stupidity of people.
I suppose there has always been a certain number of stupid and/or rude people making things uncomfortable for the rest of us, but I have to wonder if the percentage is increasing.
Some of it can be attributed to our relative anonymity in our online lives. It's easier to be rude to someone when you think that no-one knows who you are. (It's also easier to say vicious, vile things about/to someone when you aren't looking him or her in the face. Well, that's true for most of us, at least.)
That aside, how much of this is due to the breakdown of long-held standards of decency and respect for self and others? Why is it ok-- or if not quite "ok", at least to the point that the rest of us just ignore it-- for someone to post a crude, angry comment about something as harmless (and completely unoffensive) as some random blogger's list of things they'd like to read?
(sigh)
It's discouraging. A little thing, to be sure-- or rather, many, many little things-- a thousand pinpricks, perhaps? Maybe it's not worth bothering about these little things when there are such bigger problems facing us... But then again, what good is defending our way of life from outside threats if we're slowly (or not so slowly?) rotting away from within?
I know I'm not the first to comment on the rudeness of the Internet Age, but I needed to vent! (g) Anyway, the grumbling is officially over, now, and I'll try to remind myself that the extreme rudeness is probably magnified by the fact that rude people tend to be louder than the rest of us. Not to mention that the ignorant and the stupid (separate groups, but both dangerous) likely spend more time blogging than our brightest minds. (I suspect that they're otherwise engaged.)
. . . Hm. Maybe I shouldn't blog so much, myself. ;o)
