Recently I started participating in the forums for one of the sites I frequent. I knew it wouldn’t be easy (I’ve been spoiled by the civility of the Grey School forums). And almost immediately, I was the target of an internet bully — I posted a funny photo I’d found, and someone took it upon themselves to find and point out several things I’d done wrong (mind, my post consisted of a five-word title and a link to a photograph).
Whatever — losers abound. What I found interesting was that my initial gut reaction was the same as when I encounter the Freeway AssHat. You know them: the “I’m going to tailgate you and then jump out and pass you and then cut you off and then get off at the next exit pay attention to me pay attention to me I paid a lot of money for this phallic extension of a car and you’re going to acknowledge me me me.”
Yeah, you know that guy*. We encounter them, and we want to show them. They inspire us to drive like a total maniac just to pass them back. We know we should just ignore them, that any sort of retribution, however well-deserved, is just going to make the situation worse, but dammit, they can’t get away with that, can they?
‘Net traffic is very similar to road traffic. Mostly, everyone is just trying to do their errands and get by in one piece, but there’s always that guy who has inferiority issues and didn’t get enough attention from mom. Anonymity, whether provided by a metal shell or a keyboard, provides a fake sense of power. You can “show” one guy, but the road never ends — there’s always another one behind you, and another one ahead of you. For every smart-ass comeback on the forums, there’s a thousand more threads and a thousand more trolls.
Eventually we all have to pull over, turn it off and live with ourselves.
