Laurie4b Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 I shouldn't have been shocked in that this type of thing is all too common, but I was shocked at a moral level. Reading a recent article about a teen swept over Yosemite Falls after swimming above the falls, I was shocked by the comments section. I didn't read the whole thing, just the comments that were in view. Not one offered sympathy to the family of the victim. The article had mentioned that the teen was with a church group, so the comments on this particular tragedy were mocking religion as well as mocking his death. "Should have taught him about Darwinism, survival of the fittest." "Well at least he's out of the gene pool." Comments of that nature. It would have been another set of comments if he was identified as being with some other group, I'm sure, but the structure of taking a tragedy and using it as a forum to mock a group one doesn't agree with is all too common on the internet. Why is this? What is your explanation for it? Is it just a small percentage of sociopaths or does it reveal a general underbelly of human nature? Do people really hate at that level people they don't agree with? It is so inhumane to me, it's hard to conceive how anyone could say stuff like this. I get how anonymity can cause caustic comments that constraints of social etiquette would restrain in person, but what is the explanation for mocking the death of a teen? ( Ime, most of us are lucky to have survived until adulthood. I know I did plenty stupid stuff that could have gotten me killed. ) Why doesn't tragedy evoke sorrow? Why do news organizations not monitor better comment sections in those cases? I don't consider that free speech. It was sickening even glancing at the comment section. I don't think I know anyone who would write anything like that, but maybe I do... Who writes this kind of thing? What do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twinmom Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 Sick people who have nothing better to do, IMO. That's all I've got. I just try not to engage such folks whenever possible. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassenach Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 My personal opinion is that the internet, and particularly the comments section, allows our (human) sin nature to be displayed in a way that rarely happens in person. I don't think it's a select few sociopaths, but just a bunch of humans letting it fly. The more I experience humans, the more I worship Jesus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 I don't have any answers. Right now, I'm kind of done with humanity. I'm sure I'll get over it when I'm not so exhausted, but I am currently running low on hope for humans. I've just been encountering too many feral people who act like they are taking part in some darwinian survival of the fittest zombie apocalypse. I have to wonder if we have a SERIOUS mental heath crisis in this country though I suspect that likely, humankind has always been this ^$#^&*^#& awful to each other through all the ages. I think the collective "we" only appears more civilized than it actually is. I wish I knew why people get so much thrill and jolly out of being cruel. However, I think I'm done expending mental energy to figure it out. Faith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilaclady Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 I just posted to one of the threads about the biracial family that most people use the anonymity of the Internet to show their more debased side. People just have no empathy and they think it is ok to write stupid things for the shock factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigMamaBird Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 I don't have any answers. Right now, I'm kind of done with humanity. I'm sure I'll get over it when I'm not so exhausted, but I am currently running low on hope for humans. I've just been encountering too many feral people who act like they are taking part in some darwinian survival of the fittest zombie apocalypse. I have to wonder if we have a SERIOUS mental heath crisis in this country though I suspect that likely, humankind has always been this ^$#^&*^#& awful to each other through all the ages. I think the collective "we" only appears more civilized than it actually is. I wish I knew why people get so much thrill and jolly out of being cruel. However, I think I'm done expending mental energy to figure it out. Faith I think that society has always been nasty, but in the past we had a fairly rigid rule of manners and courtesy that just doesn't exist these days. I think folks hid their nastiness under the veneer of politeness and everyone managed to get along. These days, not only is there a void of formal manners taught to kids, but then you add in the internet where you're virtually anonymous and it all goes out the window. Comments sections that are linked to FB pages tend to be a great deal more civil because you aren't as anonymous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karmiel Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 People do use the anonymity of the internet to say really hateful things they would never say in person. I don't think humanity is worse than before, but there are more people on the planet, thus just number-wise more hateful people, and these people have unrestrained access to publicly display their ideas. So, it just seems like mankind is getting worse, because we have the ability to learn about all of the awfulness worldwide. The vast majority of people read an article like that, find it very sad, silently wish the family and friends well, and then move on to the next article without commenting. I also find there is a difference in the comments section between, for example, Yahoo! and The New York Times. I really try not to read the comments section. I wish they were better moderated and oftentimes wish it would go away. Long ago, when you had to send an actual letter to the editor, it weeded out such people. But, we're not going back to that, so we'll have to adjust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandelion Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 I think it's a number of factors that, combined, have created the perfect storm of degeneracy. Lure of a worldwide platform + relative anonymity + online "culture" that encourages people to share without filters + spreading desensitization to violence (due to constant exposure through our media) + search for ever greater shock value and one-upmanship = full display of the nasty underbelly of society in places like comments sections Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyhappypeople Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 I don't know why some people are so over-the-top nasty. I guess they're just showing their true colors, and those colors aren't pretty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 I'm always apalled when I read the comments section of news articles. People are so hateful and insensitive. Sometimes I wonder if mean people troll the news articles just to post mean things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Nyssa Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 It's awful, I agree. The only thing to do is contact the newspaper or website's staff and complain. Perhaps someday they will get the message. I don't know why they can't just moderate the comments. Why do they want trash on their websites? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandelion Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 I don't know why they can't just moderate the comments. Why do they want trash on their websites? Moderating the comments is labor-intensive. You have to pay staff to do that (automated moderation, based on restricting certain words for example, can only take you so far). Online news sites make the majority of their money from advertising. Advertising rates are set, in large part, based on the amount of traffic the site gets. Unfortunately, offensive and shocking comments tend to drive more traffic because people get sucked in to the conversation and keep coming back to see what else has been posted. When there's controversy in the comments section, people may be more likely to forward links of articles to their friends so they can check it out. As more people visit the site to keep up with the comments, the search engines take notice of that increased traffic and rank the page higher in search results. The cycle then feeds itself. The bottom line is that there are greater incentives for most sites to allow offensive comments (to a certain extent) than to try to restrict them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 Our local tv news stations have gone to needing a Facebook account to post comments on their stories. It's to cut down on the trolls. It does seem to make a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 I haven't read all of the replies, but I've stopped reading comments on most news websites. I am appalled at the behavior of people on those sites. The only time I read comments is on some political sites I frequent, but on those particular sites, the comments section is how people interact - kind of like facebook comments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belacqua Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 It's awful, I agree. The only thing to do is contact the newspaper or website's staff and complain. Perhaps someday they will get the message. I don't know why they can't just moderate the comments. Why do they want trash on their websites? I think some editors and website owners like the traffic the trash brings in. I have a family member who works for a website, and she says the biggest battle she has with the owner of the site is about comments. He wants them, unmoderated and as venomous as possible. She has argued that the traffic he's perceiving is actually the same handful of commenters (some with several different screen names) and that the hateful atmosphere is actually driving other readers away from the site. The owner just assumes lots of nasty controversy = revenue. She also said that she is able see who is posting the comments, despite their being anonymous to the general reader, and she has been quite shocked. People she has met in real life and found to be pleasant, rational individuals have posted horrible, cruel comments under the cloak of anonymity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 I don't have any answers. Right now, I'm kind of done with humanity. I'm sure I'll get over it when I'm not so exhausted, but I am currently running low on hope for humans. I've just been encountering too many feral people who act like they are taking part in some darwinian survival of the fittest zombie apocalypse. I have to wonder if we have a SERIOUS mental heath crisis in this country though I suspect that likely, humankind has always been this ^$#^&*^#& awful to each other through all the ages. I think the collective "we" only appears more civilized than it actually is. I wish I knew why people get so much thrill and jolly out of being cruel. However, I think I'm done expending mental energy to figure it out. Faith Yup - I've been pretty saddened by people's lack of compassion or humanness lately. I don't get it either, and find that type of thing so sad. I don't care if the internet gives you license to be cruel. I have to wonder what that says about a person IRL if they think/speak/write those kinds of things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoxcell Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 My personal opinion is that the internet, and particularly the comments section, allows our (human) sin nature to be displayed in a way that rarely happens in person. I don't think it's a select few sociopaths, but just a bunch of humans letting it fly. The more I experience humans, the more I worship Jesus. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucyStoner Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 Because nasty people show their true selves when they think no one knows who they are. And there are way too many bored, idle and nasty people with internet connections. I do not read comments on news sites. Most of the legit news sites I know of seem to have them hidden so someone has to go out of their way to see the comments. I know the editor of a local paper and they went to hidden comments so as not to drive either the commenters or the actual rational readers away. He simply does not have the budget to moderate comments except for flagged ones. Print and local online news is not a get rich quick scheme- it's barely break even for the luckiest small publishers these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted June 3, 2013 Author Share Posted June 3, 2013 I think some editors and website owners like the traffic the trash brings in. I have a family member who works for a website, and she says the biggest battle she has with the owner of the site is about comments. He wants them, unmoderated and as venomous as possible. She has argued that the traffic he's perceiving is actually the same handful of commenters (some with several different screen names) and that the hateful atmosphere is actually driving other readers away from the site. The owner just assumes lots of nasty controversy = revenue. She also said that she is able see who is posting the comments, despite their being anonymous to the general reader, and she has been quite shocked. People she has met in real life and found to be pleasant, rational individuals have posted horrible, cruel comments under the cloak of anonymity. So not just the nastiness of the commentators, but greed of website operators keeps it going. Ugh. She really knows some of them? So it's not people who are sociopaths but regular people? (Though on the other hand, so often when some serial killer or mass killer emerges, everyone says how surprised they are....) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 It is horrible. We had a Boyscout who died this past year going over the cliff at a local climbing area. There were all kinds of wrongs in the event itself.......where was the buddy system? Why were any scouts going off the trail? Where were the leaders? Seems all sorts of scouting rules were broken, but no one even focused on that! Comments were much like you described.....just cruel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 It's a shame , but so many people feel comfortable and even empowered to say hurtful things on-line; I think the loss of human contact face to face compels too many people to voice very ugly and hurtful things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeritasMama Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 I see an increase in the "us vs. them" mentality on all levels, in all groups. This leads to a demonization of people deemed as "other," and demonization of one group will eventually lead to the demise of our sense of dignity for all other human beings. This is what a lack of civility leads to, and I think we've been going down this path for a generation, the Internet simply gives us a place to see this mentality on display in it's worst form. Just my $0.02 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 A few years ago a dear relative died when his plane crashed. Though the FAA later cleared him, in the initial news report there was an incorrect claim by one supposed witness that he had been circling and buzzing recklessly and lost control. The comments on the article were beyond hateful. Homo homini lupus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 Rule #1 for the Internet: DON'T READ COMMENTS. Seriously. I've learned the hard way. Part of me really hopes it's a small group of weirdos doing it for giggles so that I don't give up on humanity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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