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| Zkuq said: I think the internet not only reveals how terrible people are, it also makes them worse, because it seems to amplify all the negatives. Before the internet, if you had a hunch about what's wrong, I'm guessing it was a hunch. Now there's support for every vague hunch in the form of millions of people, pushed to you efficiently by algorithms, so now your hunch becomes your reality, regardless of whether's it's correct or not. Naturally I too am making this argument based on a hunch, reinforced by seemingly sensible arguments from others. |
The question is, does anonymity take the mask off, or do people get swept up in mob psychology?
Maybe a bit of both. Online gaming has shown how the mask comes off with people spewing things that they would never say on the street.
And there are plenty examples of mob psychology, eg the 2019 "Storm Area 51" Facebook event. For real... However instead of millions only a few thousand showed up so most people are not that stupid.
Ideas can spread far more easily thanks to the internet. When you had a friend 'in the old days' with some radical ideas you would set him straight. Now that friend can easily find like minded people online or get attention with a radical idea.
Of course whether that's good or bad depends on what those ideas are. Once refusing to sit at the back of the bus was a radical idea...
It's all so conflicting. The internet supports both positive and negative things for humanity. While I do feel it's on the negative side now, it's really just because how people choose to use the internet. Yet that can be fixed.
The biggest problem right now are the algorithms feeding you a dopamine drip with tidbits of sensational 'news' that matches everything else you've paid attention to before. The profiling of users needs to be outlawed. Make people choose for themselves again instead of scrolling an all you can see never ending buffet. The addiction to social media is destroying society.
