One of the most prevalent issues in the world of digital interaction is the decline of civilized discourse. Whether it be in the comments section of a website, an instant message or even over the phone, people have become less concerned with being polite as the physical consequences have beeen eliminated. Meyrowitz talks about the formation of para-social relationships within the digitized global community, but one of the most destructive forms that can occur is a group of Internet "trolls".
"Trolling" is the act of posting controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant, or off-topic messages in an online community. It detracts from the work of the website and becomes a spectacle that can cause people to stop coming to certain websites. "Trolling" is not a concept that is new to the Internet. Prank calls can be considered a form of "trolling" on the phone. In times before the social space became something that was intangible, people were held accountable for their actions in a physical state. Now, phones and to a much larger extent, the Internet provide people with anonymity and the ability to say whatever they want without the fear of reprecussions and, and this is what I think makes it so prevalent, because they don't see a real life effect to what they are doing. The Internet has become a free for all forum of depravity, obscenity and ill-mannered ruffians who would do well with some finishing school.
The problem is and always will be : How can you police the Internet? The answer is that it is not possible to do a widespread solution to "trolling" without having a completely censored version of the Internet. And really, do we want to trade the purest form of free speech just so that mean people will stop saying mean things?
Here's a taste of what manners were in the late 90's for phones. Imagine what this lady would have to say about the Internet.
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