←back to thread

A harassment campaign on Goodreads

(www.patreon.com)
270 points ilamont | 2 comments | 06 Jan 20 20:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.41s | source
Show context
Brain_Thief ◴[06 Jan 20 21:17 UTC] No.21973411[source]▶
Situations like this make me think that public educational systems should experiment with some form of "digital literacy" courses / exercises for young children with the goal of humanizing the processes of online communication. Teaching standards for how to treat others (and how to respond to observed and experienced abuses) may provide some reduction in the number of individuals that seem to be finding their ways to toxic online communities. From a lay perspective it really does seem that people who participate in extremely toxic online communities are exhibiting signs of serious personality deformations; since the internet acts as a significant force multiplier on an individual's ability to spread their perspective, and since the problem of policing online speech without creating a locked-down surveillance nightmare seems unlikely to be solved any time soon, perhaps one of the better options would be to arm adolescents with a proper mentality for handling online harassment under the assumption that it is likely to occur.
replies(5): >>21973528 #>>21973965 #>>21974427 #>>21976363 #>>21977978 #
1. IfOnlyYouKnew ◴[07 Jan 20 02:58 UTC] No.21976363[source]▶
This doesn't have much to do with "digital". Without the internet, these people might just set homeless people on fire.

It's some sort of cultural phenomenon. FTA:

> As to why they're doing it, well, this has been their entire culture for years, picking random innocent people to cyberbully past the breaking point.

From these low-lives to the highest reaches of government, you see people gleefully, and without shame, engaging in cruelty for entertainment. It's decadent, hollow, (self-)destructive.

What would help? No idea... I'd think a bit of philosophy in school might actually help: Stoicism and the like at least model the concept of thinking about purpose and emotions. The other side is probably social.

replies(1): >>21980438 #
2. SamBam ◴[07 Jan 20 14:55 UTC] No.21980438[source]▶
I disagree. I think there's absolutely something about the anonymity of the internet that leads to many people (particularly kids, but everyone) being worse versions of themselves. They are free to engage in their worst impulses, both without fear of social retribution, and without humanizing the person on the other end.

I'm sure that many of these trolls have friends and family in the real world who would never expect this kind of behavior.