You can buy a body armor, but it's safer to additionally buy some body armor as well. Just to keep you safe from harm.TheDarkEricDraven said:
The worst attribute of the internet
- Thread starter That Greek Guy
- Start date
Dunno if this is necessarily the worst thing about the internet, but I'd say a damn bad thing is how easy it makes confirmation bias and how many kiddies thing that because Fox or Change.org said something or because they can find a study that supports their position/views/arguments on something, they absolutely must be right to the exclusion of any contradicting evidence. Even if it's just a community of like-minded people spouting similar ideas, people will take that as validation of what they believe. Consequently, many people become so sure of how right they are in their convictions that they are completely unwilling to accept that there may be flaws in them and arguing with them is impossible because they do not rationally argue--they argue from the assumption that they are inherently correct, so any argument against them is invalid.
There are, naturally, exceptions to that and yes, it's human nature to do that. But it seems like the internet just makes it worse. It's so easy to find things that you can find exactly what you're looking for and nothing else. And so, debates about any controversial topic on the internet are dominated by ideologues full of righteous fury at the mere existence of the other side and who refuse to be reasoned with (on all sides of the issues in question). Or, on highly complex topics, people think that the things they've read that define it in terms of their schema are all the information they need on the topic--"it's a conservative program, of course it's bad!" or "it's an expansion of government, there's no possible way for that to be good!"--and then argue like they're some expert on it. Though this one is less an internet thing and more of a people in general thing.
There are, naturally, exceptions to that and yes, it's human nature to do that. But it seems like the internet just makes it worse. It's so easy to find things that you can find exactly what you're looking for and nothing else. And so, debates about any controversial topic on the internet are dominated by ideologues full of righteous fury at the mere existence of the other side and who refuse to be reasoned with (on all sides of the issues in question). Or, on highly complex topics, people think that the things they've read that define it in terms of their schema are all the information they need on the topic--"it's a conservative program, of course it's bad!" or "it's an expansion of government, there's no possible way for that to be good!"--and then argue like they're some expert on it. Though this one is less an internet thing and more of a people in general thing.
Dunno if this is necessarily the worst thing about the internet, but I'd say a damn bad thing is how easy it makes confirmation bias. Mostly because it's very easy to find a community of people who agree with you on any given topic (from expansion of government control over industry to how many leaves a plant should have). Exposure to these communities makes one feel validated in their belief and feel little need to change them. In the real world, i.e. outside of the internet, it can be very difficult to find a group of people who have such similarly held beliefs. People have to exist side-by-side with people who will disagree with them about something, and will be exposed to those different beliefs which, after time, they will be forced to somehow come to terms with. Sometimes it's shutting them out, yeah, but forcing someone to spend lots of time around alternative viewpoints makes them somehow learn to deal with them. On the internet, you can insulate yourself from them, and not have to deal with them, so a lot of times people get very confused or very angry when presented with something that challenges their beliefs. For examples see any debate on the internet about drug legalization, gay rights/marriage, expansion of government, etc.
So your saying your life would be better if there was ONE thing out there that didn't have some crudely drawn penis and vagina pictures even though these things only came into your awareness after that fact you've become an adult?That Greek Guy said:
And that you most likely looked for these things because it's not like someone is campaigning specifically against you to send you perverted pictures of things you liked as a child.
I think the worst thing is that people are emotionally involved in what they read and get offended. I'm not talking about racist remarks, but "I don't like this." responds "WELL THEN YOUR TETARDSD EVERYONS IN THE WORLD LIKES THIESE TINGS" etc.
Trolls. They can only do shit when their faces cant be seen. They are the ones that raped all that u thought was pure and innocent as a kid.
Some memes, umad? and cool story bro are the worst. Profiles name with xx's, I mean things like xx sniper assassin 1894 Xx, although mine has better spelling.
4Chan and psychotic ponies. Oh and annoying as hell fans. OH! and little kids swearing on Youtube comments. OH OH OH!!! and failures of human existence. OH OH OH OH!!!! And let's not forget Call of Duty fans.
I can think of several negative attributes.
Piracy, Hackers/Identity Theft, Overused Memes, Troll Trending, Youtube Tryhards
Piracy - Hurts developers and musicians, large or small scale. Downloading music for free is now widely regarded as a normal practice.
Hackers/Identity Theft - Self explanatory. Obviously not all Hackers are bad but some of them have a God complex. Not to mention that there is no such thing as Hacker ethics so for the most part, normal people fall victim to their crap. Identity Theft is the extreme example of a hacker going too far.
Overused Memes - Also self explanatory. I like the occasional meme myself, but when people spout the same garbage over and over again, it becomes less and less enjoyable. What's worse is that these people think they are being genuinely funny.
Troll Trending - You ever notice how it is now fashionable to troll? This is going to sound a little weird, but I'm a firm believer in Troll purity. I believe a real troll would never identify themselves as such or say golden phrases like "I'ma going to troll this game for a bit, lol". Trolling is not supposed to be contrived or obvious, at least if there is to be any real effectiveness. But now, there is a strange sort of trend where trolling for a little while is cool. This wouldn't be such a bad thing if they actually did it the right way. There is no shock factor associated with trolling anymore, aside from the occasional over-sensitive/easily angered type. Like memes, I think this is done by people who believe they are being genuinely funny.
Youtube Tryhards - My god, does internet entertainment suck the big one. I actually find myself longing for better TV as a means of escaping some of the terrible yet somehow popular Youtube personalities. This doesn't stay within the confines of Youtube either. Sites like That Guy With The Glasses is the worst culprit of poor entertainment. I'm not object to Doug and Spoonies stuff, but ever since it became "Doug and Friends" it's been one shitty reviewer after the next. People who have no position being in front of a camera at all. Not because they aren't photogenic, but because they have no concept of pacing, editing, charisma, or engagement. Yet these are the same people who criticize movies or games for being less than perfect. Pot calling the Kettle black anyone?
Piracy, Hackers/Identity Theft, Overused Memes, Troll Trending, Youtube Tryhards
Piracy - Hurts developers and musicians, large or small scale. Downloading music for free is now widely regarded as a normal practice.
Hackers/Identity Theft - Self explanatory. Obviously not all Hackers are bad but some of them have a God complex. Not to mention that there is no such thing as Hacker ethics so for the most part, normal people fall victim to their crap. Identity Theft is the extreme example of a hacker going too far.
Overused Memes - Also self explanatory. I like the occasional meme myself, but when people spout the same garbage over and over again, it becomes less and less enjoyable. What's worse is that these people think they are being genuinely funny.
Troll Trending - You ever notice how it is now fashionable to troll? This is going to sound a little weird, but I'm a firm believer in Troll purity. I believe a real troll would never identify themselves as such or say golden phrases like "I'ma going to troll this game for a bit, lol". Trolling is not supposed to be contrived or obvious, at least if there is to be any real effectiveness. But now, there is a strange sort of trend where trolling for a little while is cool. This wouldn't be such a bad thing if they actually did it the right way. There is no shock factor associated with trolling anymore, aside from the occasional over-sensitive/easily angered type. Like memes, I think this is done by people who believe they are being genuinely funny.
Youtube Tryhards - My god, does internet entertainment suck the big one. I actually find myself longing for better TV as a means of escaping some of the terrible yet somehow popular Youtube personalities. This doesn't stay within the confines of Youtube either. Sites like That Guy With The Glasses is the worst culprit of poor entertainment. I'm not object to Doug and Spoonies stuff, but ever since it became "Doug and Friends" it's been one shitty reviewer after the next. People who have no position being in front of a camera at all. Not because they aren't photogenic, but because they have no concept of pacing, editing, charisma, or engagement. Yet these are the same people who criticize movies or games for being less than perfect. Pot calling the Kettle black anyone?
No, you didn't "win" anything. You will never "win" anything by being a snobbish smartass on the internet.Odbarc said:
The hatred for humanity (especially the young'uns) that so many forum users have.
"Durr hurr, we should set all teens on fire because one or two were being a bit of a dick."
"Durr hurr, we should set all teens on fire because one or two were being a bit of a dick."
The lack of the ability to have fun on the internet.
Sometimes, we all need to let our hair down and have a good laugh and not say we need to clean the gene pool because someone made a bad troll/joke thread.
Sometimes, we all need to let our hair down and have a good laugh and not say we need to clean the gene pool because someone made a bad troll/joke thread.
As Penny Arcade and others have said, anonymity.
Now that people don't have to answer for what they say, they are free to do whatever the hell they want.
Why be civil when you can thrash and yell at everyone?
Now that people don't have to answer for what they say, they are free to do whatever the hell they want.
Why be civil when you can thrash and yell at everyone?
Using anonymity to pretend you have balls.
Also meme overdose. Memes would be funny if they were used sparingly. "The cake is a lie" would still be funny if it had ascended to meme status, then stopped being used completely except for an occasional, tasteful (excuse the pun) joke instead of people using it as a suffix to every sentence ever.
Also meme overdose. Memes would be funny if they were used sparingly. "The cake is a lie" would still be funny if it had ascended to meme status, then stopped being used completely except for an occasional, tasteful (excuse the pun) joke instead of people using it as a suffix to every sentence ever.
I think that's a pretty big misnomer. Anonymity isn't too blame, because people have been crap to each other in the past while they know the identity of each other.Twilight.falls said:
What's really behind it is the lack of responsibility that comes from behind Anonymity, as we're only held accountable for our specified actions - not those of our peer group.
In general, humanity is pretty civil. Even on the Internet. If there was more than about 20% asshole behaviour, then every thread would be full of vile curses, because each thread brings in multiple people.
What the internet does is give a voice to people regardless of their experience, and so it's often hard to differentiate the hierarchy of who actually knows what.
So, the real failing of the internet is white noise, imho; you can see a cartoon by Bill Watterson next to a video of Stephen Fry, with a soundtrack by Bach, that's animated by RubberFruit. No amount of people saying "Fag" will spoil that.
But finding it? That's the trouble. There's an awful lot of rubbish to dig through to find the diamonds.