Here’s the thing: the internet has allowed us all to say everything we’ve ever wanted to say without fear of repercussion of any kind. We can hide behind a monitor and keyboard and say whatever we want. There is no sense of diplomacy, no sense of social graces, no sense of dignity.
Every forum you visit, every popular blog you read… they all have trolls, drama!llamas, and wannabe queen-bees abound. There is this weird sensation of the internet being SRS BZNS and your internet-popularity actually means shit in the real world. Excuse me while I go roll on the floor a bit, laughing my ass off. No, no. It’s fine. I need the workout. Laughter is good for the soul. But seriously. Who cares? It’s not like your local high school where you have your jocks, your cheerleaders, your geeks, your whatevers. No one cares who you are really. You can flounce all over your medium of choice and maybe you’ve garnered some sort of following there but can you honestly transfer that ‘popularity’ into the real world? Most likely not.
Hell, even some of the more well known internet ‘celebrities’ are just… You know, I have no words for them. Why? Because I don’t pay attention to them. Laugh. Out. Loud. I just do not care. Scene kids? Nope. Don’t care. Uber-bloggers? WTF. Do people honestly think they are a celebrity or something and that people should worship them and hang onto their every tweet, update, and cross-post? They need help. Really.
But I got off topic a bit; the above was more setting up just how I feel about people who think they are Someone Famous on the Web because of whatever reason they’ve come up with. We come around to the troll-types. These are the people who seem to think that they have some sort of shock-factor because they post comments that would be socially unacceptable in face-to-face interaction. These Cyber Queen Bees take Mean Girls to the cyber form and get their kicks by bullying–because, really, that’s what it is–others. They leave nastiness in their wake and can always seem to dish it out to anyone at any time but cannot handle it if someone calls them out. Why is this, exactly? Because they honestly believe that they are safe behind these internet-based personalities that they have constructed over the years. How dare someone poke a hole in their carefully crafted façade! Your average drama!llama will turn any of this ‘calling out’ around and make it out to be like everyone hates them and everyone is out to get them. The best part is that if someone else were acting how they had been, they would have risen up to reclaim the top spot and said anything they wanted, aiming below the belt whenever possible. The whole thing breaks my smart place so much that I’m no longer even making any sense. Where was I?
So it all boils down to the sad state that our society is in today when it comes to online interaction. Have some heart, people. If you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, don’t say it to them online in any form. Everyone is so very quick to cry ‘freedom of speech’ both written and spoken and yet people seem to manage their brain-to-mouth filtered much better than their brain-to-fingers one.
Stay Classy, Internets.
♡ Kristen
