Kingcobrasaurus
Hey, why can't we have quotes? I think some are needed, especially here.
"Be who you are and say what you feel. Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter." -Dr. Seuss Hide / Show Replies
True. I once found a Youtube comment OUTRIGHT STATING that anonymously trolling random people on the internet is the best thing that ever happened to the world.
Seriously? Someone actually said that?
I don't have low self esteem. I have low esteem for others. I HATE the Netflix version of Aggressive Retsuko!
Does this theory still hold up? I mean, there are countless examples of people using FaceBook and Twitter under their real names to write terrible, terrible messages with disastrous consequences for all involved. Seriously, stories about morons getting fired over Twitter comments are dime a dozen these days.
Edited by 190.21.44.249 Hide / Show Replies
Methinks yes. There are many more other instances of GIFT.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
This sort of behaviour also falls into the "Too Dumb to Live" kind of category. Just because these people are attracted to such an action does not mean they are intelligent enough to create a disconnect between themselves and the "persona" performing the action in question. Add in that such a person may just have no control over impulses. It still applies because ultimately, the person thinks themselves safe from repercussions despite using their real life name. The incidents of people being fired for poor Twitter comments is lower than those who get away with it.
Geomancer
So how many of you have this theory apply to you?
Edited by Marioguy128 You got some dirt on you. Here's some more! Hide / Show Replies
I am not a Justin Bieber fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I find it quite depressing how many people online seem to think it's perfectly acceptable behaviour to wish harm or even death on him - and, not only that, but they seem to think that only a rabid Justin Bieber fan could possibly find that kind of behaviour to be morally reprehensible.
It's stuff like that that makes me lose faith in humanity
Edited by movie007
The internet is also where most people show their stupid side.
Moral: Don't judge a book by its cover. Moral #2: Stupidity and manners in real life are not necessarily correlated.
I happen to be an inversion. I'm mostly anti-social and reserved in real life, but I find that the Internet is the place where I can have a chance to express myself without having to see or know anyone I'm talking to, and without having that in reverse.
Some folks on the Internet think they're a special GIFT to the world, and others aren't. In this perspective, they're kind of right.
I can't believe I'm the only one who doesn't see anything bad with trolling. It goes without saying that GIFT applies to me. Not only is trolling fun, I think it actually helps people being trolled to get off their high horses and builds up their tolerance as to what they find "offensive" or "rude" in real life, making them more interesting to talk to. Basically the spirit behind "Draw Muhammad Day".
@blackout62 Same here though I only act like a jerk at home though because I have a Hair-Trigger Temper that my family seems unintentionally pull so-to-speak.
Edited by 216.99.32.44
Its actually suprising that people will got very far to insult very personal things such as someone elses dead loved one. Well my opinion is that they have crossed the Moral Event Horizon.
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They may assume that the other person is lying about their loved one being dead like how someone says their girlfriend died instead of dumping them.
Don't make me destroy you. @ Castle Series
Grand Inquisitorial Chef
On the online obituary for a dear friend's mother who had died of heatstroke while hiking, several anonymous posters made hateful comments, calling her an idiot for hiking in the heat, and making remarks like, "What a pity she had kids."
Your god is a cow. Deal with it. I accept that you are vegan. But there is NO POSSIBILITY that you could have been born a chicken. Hide / Show Replies
Any particular reason the page image swaps out "Fuck" for "Dick"?
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies. Hide / Show Replies
I don't know. Maybe it's because "Fuck" is a much more vulgar word than "Dick" and page image seems to have come from a shirt. I've heard "Dick" be used in a PG-13 movie, but I never heard "Fuck" be used in one.
I will submit the My Little Pony fanbase as a counterexample to this theory. I once spent twelve hours in a chat running alongside a marathon in anticipation of the first episode of the second season. It was anonymous, unmoderated, and uncensored. There were over a hundred people involved, spanning all ages, genders, and time zones. And the entire night, I did not see one troll. There was no profanity or vulgarity. There was nothing but thoughtful, friendly discussion between intelligent people. I'd never seen anything like it.
And it's not an isolated incident limited to a small, homogenous group either; the Herd is comparable in numbers and capabilities to /b/ and still growing rapidly. But with less racism, trolling, pornography, and pursuit of lulz, and more art, community, and love and tolerance.
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Even if this is true for part of ANY fandom there are always individuals that fit this to the T.
I don't think people are as bad as this makes them sound. People realize, subconsciously to some extent maybe, that nobody will actually take to heart what they say. The person being ridiculed generally just ignores the comments and moves on with there life. Being ridiculed in a videogame means so little to them. To some extent the person doing the "ridiculing" realizes this. They know that what they say will have very little to no damage on the other persons psyche. Atleast that's how I rationalize it.
Not An Avatar
I find it hilarious that because of this, Wikipedia uses the word "Fuckwad" in the first line of article on psychology
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illegaleagle90
I find this to be an absolutely fascinating theory into the psychology of the human mind, myself. I've been ever so curious to confirm in a experiment that people do behave this way towards others on the internet...
Who knows? It could be who the truly are in the dark... when no one is looking... Or perhaps the freedom of social consequences for bad behavior encourages individuals to behave in an abrasive, crude, or even belligerant manner.
I wonder... What if a person was to gather 4 groups of individuals and divide the 4 groups into 2 sets. One set is the experiment group and the other is the control group. One set of individuals will be pitted against each other over a game on the internet (Hmmmm one that attracts many of these kinds of people... like say, League of Legends or Halo:Reach). When the game is over, introduce the two competing groups to each other and monitor their reactions. As for the other set, introduce them to each other BEFORE beginning competition, and compare the differences in their reactions toward each other...
Will there be a difference? One would wonder...
Take flight to new ventures!
Maybe it should be mentioned that the acronym GIFT is also the german word for "poison" which adds a second layer of meaning to it. (Intentionally or not)
Maybe it should be mentioned that the acronym GIFT is also the german word for "poison" which adds a second layer of meaning to it. (Intentionally or not)
This bit:
- Prank Phone Calls also personify this trope a tad; albeit not quite to the level of flat-out sociopathy, as prank phone calls were often jokes. ("Is your refrigerator running? You better go catch it!") It's very rare to hear a prank phone call nowadays unless it's from a personal friend; partly due to the invention and widespread usage of Call Return, call tracking technologies, cell phones, and Caller ID.
Reads as a digression here, but would make a good beginning for an article on Prank Calling. It could refer back to GIFT as being related.
Edited by FastEddie Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty Hide / Show Replies
Ok, Conservapedia. Best example ever.
I was busy trolling a really bigoted article, and then I was trolled before I could finish trolling.
It's debatable how many people on that web site actually take any of it seriously.
So, this may have already been discussed (perhaps even to death), but does this extend to people who are Innocently Insensitive on the internet? Because there are people (like me) who don't mean to be complete jerkwads, but because they typically use anonymous/non-real aliases, they sometimes say/post things that they later find out hurt someone's feelings. They didn't mean any harm by it, and they'll often apologize for their behavior (or at least, they should apologize).
Edited by happy123boy