Playing Nice

It’s going to be a rant this week. I gave you something fun last week, so now you must listen to…read my complaints. Although honestly, I think this is something that should be complained about.

In general, people don’t play nice on the internet—see GIFT or the comment section on any YouTube video for further reference. What I’ve never understood is why, why people act like bullying jerks just because they can get away with it. I don’t get why treating someone like total shit is in anyway beneficial.

For example, several months ago I saw a tweet that said something like “If you unfollow me because of what I say, I will block AND report you!” First, let’s get it out of the way:  block and report on Twitter doesn't automatically result in ANYTHING. If you get a Direct Message that says “LOL look at this picture of you I found online” or accidentally mention the word computer and get fifty million replies to buy one, you can click on the options button and select “Block and report for spam” and it keeps the person from tweeting at you again. It does not necessarily suspend them, although having a report can cause sometimes non-spammers to be suspended. Now, f you are being harassed, you can fill out a form to report people, but that’s not what this person threatened to do (not like that would have been right, either).

This person used the block-and-report as a threat. Keep following me (and listening to my unpleasant rants) or I’ll get you in trouble. I had to deal with this crap in middle school. It was why I was happy to get out of there. People told me that things were supposed to get better once I was out of school. Well, they lied.

These days, the internet is freaking middle school, and we’re all students trying to psychologically destroy each other. The teachers are the social networking sites, the YouTubes, the Twitters, the Facebooks, who have these rules and don’t really enforce them because they don’t really care, but might if someone screams loud enough—and that’s usually the bullies. Follow me or I’ll report you.

What did I do about that Tweeter? Blocked her, naturally. One benefit of being bullied for six solid years in school is that I have no interest in giving in. If you act vicious and hateful online (not that any of you would, thankfully), I will stop following you. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences.

A Little Thing Called “Perception”

Think about it: it is impossible for two people to experience things in the exact same way. If you take a walk late at night in a safe neighborhood and, knock on wood, are mugged, aren’t you going to be more cautious in the future? But someone who never even heard of the danger won’t think twice about a midnight walk to the convenience store on the corner.

And sometimes, you physically perceive things differently. A painting can be made up of the deepest red and sharpest green, but if you’re color blind, it’s going to look like a red/green screen.

The same goes for everything else in life, including books, movies and television. So don’t presume to tell anyone why his or her judgment is wrong. Shoving someone’s head into a toilet would not be a good way to get your point across about, say, water conservation. Although it might be fun.

One day, I visited a blog where the writer posted his feelings about a book I happen to like. This person didn’t like it. Okay. Fine. Not everyone has to like the same things. I’m not going to blame you for it no more than I’d blame you for not liking chocolate. We all have our tastes. It just would have been nice if he showed me the same courtesy.

He berated the book most harshly, and in some places, I think unfairly. But it was made worse by the fact that he acted critical of anyone who didn’t see the same flaws he did. They were so obvious only an idiot would miss them, there was no reasonable explanation for them, the writing was bad and the only way the book could have been sold was because of heavy marketing (basically, a conspiracy by the publisher to make a hit).

Entertainment is, by nature, subjective. We will all like different things, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That being said, please remember that if something is flawed, crude, or even offensive, you have no right to insinuate the people who enjoy it are stupid, nor that they are incorrect in their perceptions of it.