Mean people

I had an epiphany of sorts today.  I am tired of mean people online.  I am tired of people who hide behind the anonymity of the internet so they can be rude, bitchy, mean, nasty and generally unpleasant.  What ever happened to being civil?  To being kind?  To expressing your opinion without making the other person feel small, bad or hurt? 

What is it about this form of communication that seems to give people license to be horrible to each other?  I am fairly certain that if I was face to face with some of these people they would never speak that way to me in person.  So why do they feel it is OK to do it online?

And I am VERY tired of people who seem to think that it is MY problem if I don't like what they said or how they said it.  They seem to think that they have the internet-given right to be as "in your face", out there and "keeping it real" as they please and who the hell cares if they offend anyone else.  The simple rules of common decency seem to be completely missing from too many people. 

I worry about what this says for the future.  What kind of world will it be in a few years when we have a generation of adults who have grown up communicating this way and who don't seem to understand the importance of having manners? 

I shudder to think of it.

Mean people

I had an epiphany of sorts today.  I am tired of mean people online.  I am tired of people who hide behind the anonymity of the internet so they can be rude, bitchy, mean, nasty and generally unpleasant.  What ever happened to being civil?  To being kind?  To expressing your opinion without making the other person feel small, bad or hurt? 

What is it about this form of communication that seems to give people license to be horrible to each other?  I am fairly certain that if I was face to face with some of these people they would never speak that way to me in person.  So why do they feel it is OK to do it online?

And I am VERY tired of people who seem to think that it is MY problem if I don't like what they said or how they said it.  They seem to think that they have the internet-given right to be as "in your face", out there and "keeping it real" as they please and who the hell cares if they offend anyone else.  The simple rules of common decency seem to be completely missing from too many people. 

I worry about what this says for the future.  What kind of world will it be in a few years when we have a generation of adults who have grown up communicating this way and who don't seem to understand the importance of having manners? 

I shudder to think of it.