internet flaming

Normally, I just shake my head and continue on with my life when I run across situations in which hundreds of internet plebeians hurl thousands of hateful, ill-conceived comments at someone. But now I've been assigned to comment on this stuff for homework.

When it comes to matters such as this, I pretty much always come to the conclusion that this is the internet, and this is what happens when people are allowed to hide their identity when they say things. On one hand, it's the epitome of free speech... but on the other hand, we see many people use their free speech to do stupid things, insult others, and complain about things that have no relevance to themselves, or that they know very little about. Here's the thought processes I see:

"No one knows who I am, so I'm just as qualified as anyone is."

"I can get away with it, so I don't see the problem with doing it."

"The more obnoxious I am, the more people will notice me."

"I am the customer, and I'm always right."

I don't think this is a gaming problem, I think this is an internet problem... and I think that this is an inherent, moral integrity problem among human beings. It's as the old saying goes "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." In short, the internet allows people to get away with saying things that would cause others to look at them in a very negative light, and deservedly so. My concern is what happens when the majority of people see and act this way so much when they aren't accountable become desensitized, and acting the same way in real life, or seeing such behavior as acceptable. I've seen it start to happen before with my friends... they're used to the ill-mannered, offensive behavior that they see online, and so they back each other when they start exhibiting the same behavior in a real life setting.

It's bad enough on the internet as it is. The harassment for some people never ends, and the only way to beat it seems to be embracing it with a "come at me, bro'" attitude. Personally, I think that in this sense, there does need to be some sort of policing going on. I don't mean for the usual bantering cases, but I do mean for the serious cases involving threats of violent crimes, viral attacks, and distribution of personal information. I feel that some of these people need a hard reminder that making a death threat against a child over the events of a game show is not only an enormous over-reaction, and a massive abuse of the freedom of speech, but also a felony.