I remember my very first job after college, I was an admin in the customer service dept of a bank. All the CSRs were miserable as all they did was take phone call after phone call from irate rude customers. Somehow I got stuck indefinitely filling in for the receptionist, and I found myself in the same situation (the customer got to yell at me before I transferred them to the CSR). This was 1991, no internet for people to go to first, we'd typically take in a thousand calls a day. At lunch we'd all sit around crying about our miserable jobs, and one common phrase kept coming up: "I hate people!" I finally found a better job one year later, and that "hating people" feeling went away.
After 20 years I frequently see that feeling creeping back into my psyche, and i dont like it. It happens only when I'm online.
Why, oh why, are people so rude and crude and insulting when hidden behind a keyboard?
I've had some very bad experiences with online forums, whether they were political "debates" or simply looking for technical assistance with my computer. Strangers love to call you "*******" for no reason, and I think that's sick.
I once posted to a free legal forum when someone used my email in the "from" field of their spam (it's called "spoofing" and its very easy to do). I traced the spam to the company responsible and posted to this legal forum asking if I have any legal rights. The response I got was: Did it ever occur to you to invest in an antivirus program?
Now really, how was that a helpful response? I responded by explaining that I do indeed have AV software, I do not have a virus, it does not require a virus for one to manually enter someone's email into the "from" field of their message, and I don't know why I expected anything but rudeness from an online forum. I then deleted the thread.
Everyone's response to me has been "get thicker skin." Ya know what, my skin is just fine, I'm not going to change who I am just so some stranger can call me an "*******." Instead of letting these jerks off the hook it would be nice if we made everyone else start behaving like civilized human beings (hence I created that forum about bringing civility back into cyberspace...no surprise that nobody wants to join).
The past few months I encountered a few particularly bad experiences, and I decided that's it, I'm removing the internet from my life; like that Timothy Leary quote...turn off, drop out (or something like that)...
That worked for about 24 hours. Seriously, how do you remove the internet from your life? I've concluded it just can't be done.
Or can it...?
Thoughts?
After 20 years I frequently see that feeling creeping back into my psyche, and i dont like it. It happens only when I'm online.
Why, oh why, are people so rude and crude and insulting when hidden behind a keyboard?
I've had some very bad experiences with online forums, whether they were political "debates" or simply looking for technical assistance with my computer. Strangers love to call you "*******" for no reason, and I think that's sick.
I once posted to a free legal forum when someone used my email in the "from" field of their spam (it's called "spoofing" and its very easy to do). I traced the spam to the company responsible and posted to this legal forum asking if I have any legal rights. The response I got was: Did it ever occur to you to invest in an antivirus program?
Now really, how was that a helpful response? I responded by explaining that I do indeed have AV software, I do not have a virus, it does not require a virus for one to manually enter someone's email into the "from" field of their message, and I don't know why I expected anything but rudeness from an online forum. I then deleted the thread.
Everyone's response to me has been "get thicker skin." Ya know what, my skin is just fine, I'm not going to change who I am just so some stranger can call me an "*******." Instead of letting these jerks off the hook it would be nice if we made everyone else start behaving like civilized human beings (hence I created that forum about bringing civility back into cyberspace...no surprise that nobody wants to join).
The past few months I encountered a few particularly bad experiences, and I decided that's it, I'm removing the internet from my life; like that Timothy Leary quote...turn off, drop out (or something like that)...
That worked for about 24 hours. Seriously, how do you remove the internet from your life? I've concluded it just can't be done.
Or can it...?
Thoughts?