Slashdot Log In
Anonymous Anger Rampant On the Web
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:15 AM
from the oh-now-this-too dept.
from the oh-now-this-too dept.
the4thdimension writes "In a story that may bring out the 'duh' in you, CNN has a story about how anonymous anger is rampant on the Internet. Citing various reasons, it attempts to explain why sites like MyBiggestComplaint and Just Rage exist and why anger via the web seems to be everywhere. Various reasons include: anonymity, lack of rules, and lack of immediate consequences. Whatever the reason, they describe that online anger has resulted in real-life violence and suggest methods for parents and teens to cope with e-aggression and to learn to be aware of it." I can't figure out what makes me angrier: my habit of anonymously trolling web forums, or my video game playing.
Related Stories
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Let Me Offer a Lemma on This Subject ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Let Me Offer a Lemma on This Subject ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Let Me Offer a Lemma on This Subject ... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Not news (Score:5, Funny)
I'm against anonymous anger. (Score:5, Funny)
It distracts from pseudonymous anger, and that makes me mad.
Re:I'm against anonymous anger. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:I'm against anonymous anger. (Score:5, Funny)
"I am angry at the parade I saw coming through the window!"
Parent
Re:I'm against anonymous anger. (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:I'm against anonymous anger. (Score:5, Informative)
Er...that would be asymmetrical anger.
-Posting as sm20591 since Chips & Dips....
Parent
Re:I'm against anonymous anger. (Score:4, Funny)
Time to get angry at myself...
Parent
Re:I'm against anonymous anger. (Score:5, Funny)
I was very angry at you last week.
That was asynchronous anger.
Parent
Re:I'm against anonymous anger. (Score:5, Funny)
Asynchronous anger is something different altogether, although I think you have to be married to experience.
Your spouse is always angry about something you did in the past or are about to do in the future. Theoretically they can be mad at you for what you are doing right now, but I think in practice there isn't enough room for that, so it gets shoved into some kind of complex priority queue.
Parent
Re:I'm against anonymous anger. (Score:5, Funny)
seriously wtf is with that! girls suck!
Ah. An optimist.
Parent
Re:I'm against anonymous anger. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Stupid crap story (Score:4, Funny)
on a stupid crap website.
Slashdot sucks, Digg's much better :)
Re:Stupid crap story (Score:5, Funny)
shit, I forgot to click Post Anonymously.
Oh the irony :(
Parent
Re:Stupid crap story (Score:5, Funny)
Rik Powers? No way.
Marry Michelle Rohl [wikipedia.org].
Rik Rohl would be awesome.
Parent
Positive thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Regardless of how extreme some people respond to some parts of anger, this is a pretty positive thing. I'd rather have someone rant about something online than go out and live out the murder they wished upon someone. /stabbity
Re:Positive thing (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd rather have someone rant about something online than go out and live out the murder they wished upon someone.
Why in the world would you think that these are mutually exclusive alternatives?
The "steam boiler" model of pop psychology has long been proven to be incorrect. Acting and speaking do not relieve pressure -- or at least very much pressure. Instead human emotions tend to follow feedback loops. Acting and speaking angrily lead to thinking angrily, which lead to further angry actions and speech.
The word used by psychologists for this feedback phenomenon is "refractory". Anger is a refractory state precisely because angry thoughts and actions lead to further angry thoughts and actions. It is not relief that puts an end to it, it's fatigue.
Look around at people who act or speak out their anger and those who try to moderate their anger. Who stays angry the longest? The next time you get angry, try to master that anger by thinking objective thoughts. Do you stay angry longer or less long?
Parent
Re:Positive thing (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, but I remember reading about a recent study that showed that people had something like a finite amount of self control. Like if you were put in a position of having to use willpower to keep yourself from doing something, you'd be more likely to succumb to your impulses if you'd been exercising your willpower on something else directly before.
Now I think the study was regarding addictive behavior specifically (I'm not going to actually go looking for the news story I read about it), but I think it explains why people are inclined to believe the "steam boiler" model. It may not be that letting out anger lessens the amount of anger you have, but rather that relaxing your will and succumbing to your anger allows you well of willpower to recharge a bit, therefore allowing you to reassert a level of self-control that wouldn't otherwise be available.
If that model is right, then it may be that the best solution is to work on removing the source of the anger, but that the second-best thing to do is still to "blow off steam" in healthier ways that allow you to maintain control. In other words, "bottling it up" might still result in an explosion, even if the "steam boiler" model is incorrect.
Parent
Re:Positive thing (Score:4, Insightful)
I think you are right, in that removing the source of anger is important. That, after all, is the point of anger, isn't it? Except that in so many situations you can't remove the source of anger by being angry. That's civilization for you: you can't haul of and smack somebody you disagree with into submission.
I agree that if continually provoked to anger (or tempted to do something you are addicted to), you'll end up giving in. But getting angry (unless you can remove the source of anger that way) is no more useful than getting drunk to relieve your alcoholism.
Parent
Re:Positive thing (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember someone saying (maybe it's a famous quote?) something like, "Being angery is like taking poison and hoping the other guy dies." Or maybe it was hate instead of anger or something, but the basic idea is that when you are angry at someone, sometimes your anger is hurting you more than it hurts them.
I think anger and fear are useful emotions, but sometimes our reactions to them are not useful. It may be that you could argue the same thing about emotions like love and confidence. You can try too hard to hold on to the things you love, and you can get yourself into trouble by being over-confident, for example.
I may be getting too philosophical here. I guess I'm just saying that there are things that you should get angry about, and so I don't feel comfortable talking about it as a wholly negative emotion. I think the problem is when people don't know how to deal with that anger, especially when that anger is rooted in some other obscure emotional issue that results in misdirected anger.
And though it's true that acting angry may make you feel more angry, bottling it up or covering it with a smile won't necessarily help you deal with that anger. Ideally we'd all find the real source of our anger, deal with it properly, and figure out how to not get angry in the first place, but I wouldn't be on that utopia coming any time soon. In reality, sometimes finding an appropriate outlet may be helpful.
On the other hand, I'm not sure being an angry troll on the Internet is an appropriate outlet. It's probably better to go to the batting cage, or whatever kind of meditative physical exertion you prefer. (That's not something I actually do, but it seems like an obvious example: go hit shit with a baseball bat in a socially acceptable environment.)
Parent
Re:Positive thing (Score:5, Funny)
you also have an annoying habit of making passive aggressive comments ;)
Parent
Re:Positive thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Growing up, we are taught how to act "proper", and much of that involves keeping our emotions bottled up. Everyone gets frustrated with coworkers, on the road, etc. but rarely says anything for fear of consequences. Anger isn't any more rampant on the web than it is in real life, it is just expressed freely here.
So what is the article really suggesting? That we make rules to have everyone bottle up like normal? A lot of what people say on the net might be exaggerated, but I'm sure this is merely a symptom of finally being able to speak your mind, with the oppression of society lifted. It's like kids cussing a lot with friends because it's forbidden at home, then they grow up and suddenly they don't cuss at trivial things anymore, because they're free to do it.
Parent
So much better to go public... (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean, I've gone from Excellent to Bad Karma in three days of raging on slashdot, and were I not on the verge of getting kicked off, I could go on raging for three days more and go for the mystical Evil rating.
Wouldn't they be angry anyway? (Score:5, Interesting)
Whatever the reason, they describe that online anger has resulted in real-life violence
Of course I didn't RTFA, but I have to wonder, to what extent would these people be angry about whatever they did anyway? I tend to get impatient/grumpy/angry in many situations, regardless of whether it's online or offline (in lines at the bank, stores, etc.). Yeah, it's a bit easier to vent online sometimes, in IM thread, some forums, and so on, but I've vented in public and with friends/colleagues offline for years, well before the world of 'online'.
Perhaps in a way its better than people do this online and stay away from other people in the real world to avoid physical harm to themselves and others.
Re:Wouldn't they be angry anyway? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but the difference is, if you vent in public with friends or coworkers, there's no trace of it left behind, except only vaguely in your memories, which are difficult to search and compile into a nice report.
Venting on the internet, however, is practically permanent.
Parent
Sad Really (Score:5, Interesting)
This reminds me of Lord of the Flies. The masks make the demons feel like they can act without consequence.
Personally I think it's good for our psyches to take some form of abuse as long as we have a strong coping mechanism, and a strategy to deal with it. Truth be told, flies that are the dirtiest when they are young actually live the longest. Clean flies die quickly. So what I'm saying is that rampant nerd rage is a good thing because people get stuff off their chest, and as long as people understand how to deal with internet rage, then they can actually become mentally stronger from being entangled in it. Reminds me of the Hellmouth stories too, and how that whole discussion was such a healing power for so many.
But it's sad we have to deal with such powerful demons, and that demons are so contagious.
Re:Sad Really (Score:5, Funny)
So what I'm saying is that rampant nerd rage is a good thing because people get stuff off their chest...
Plus it gives you 10 strength and 50% damage resistance if your health drops below 20%.
Parent
Re:Sad Really (Score:4, Insightful)
Plus it gives you 10 strength and 50% damage resistance if your health drops below 20%.
Not since the patch. :-( The buff was considered OP because it would proc passively when your HP dropped below 20%. They have since moved it to a Troll racial ability and made it so it can be cast at any time. But they only recieve the full benefit of the buff if they are badly damaged. Fortunately it's got a long cooldown so it can't be spammed.
Parent
Re:Sad Really (Score:4, Interesting)
So what I'm saying is that rampant nerd rage is a good thing because people get stuff off their chest
This is commonly said. Unfortunately, it's not true. When people habitually get themselves angry, even if it's "only online and not IRL," they get habituated to being angry.
Parent
Good (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's a fitting response to this article from the fictional Howard Beale:
I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.
We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!
We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.
It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."
Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.
I want you to get mad!
I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.
All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.
You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"
So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,
"I'm as mad as hell,
and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"
When the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor (Score:5, Funny)
I agree. What this calls for is a really stupid and futile gesture on somebody's part.
Parent
Re:Good (Score:5, Interesting)
You're right. But, the first thing they do is, they express their anger as anonymously as they can, to find out if they are alone, because they know if they are alone, they cannot act effectively.
If they are not alone, they will come to see this fact. Together.
Then, after they realize they are not alone, one person will stand up and say "My name is Joe Crazy. I am not going to take this anymore. Who is with me?"
And THIS is when they will start cleaning up their society.
And when they finally do, it will be gloriously violent, as those who have been exploiting the rule of law to oppress their fellow man are hoisted by their own petard.
They will be hoisted by the masses who finally realize that they do not wish to live in an oppressive, efficient society based on the rule of law with the faint hope that they might one day get to be Dictator Bush, but just want to co-operate, take care of their needs and spend the rest of their time enjoying their life.
It's inevitable.
Parent
Complaining about being anonymous is ad hominem (Score:5, Insightful)
Complaining about someone being anonymous to discredit them is an ad hominem attack. Hiding their identity doesn't make their argument any worse and revealing it doesn't make it any better.
Hiding their identity only make people more honest and allows their foolish beliefs to be addressed and discredited, which may not have been possible otherwise.
Re:Complaining about being anonymous is ad hominem (Score:4, Interesting)
Then what about trolling and people who are deliberately spreading disinformation? If there are too many of them, then fighting each and every anonymous poster is going to waste a lot of time. Time that could have been used for more useful activities instead.
Parent
Get on the phone (Score:5, Interesting)
Whenever I get an angry work-related email I immediately get on the phone to the person. It is amazing the difference when speaking on the phone, often the person will very quickly become quite apologetic for their email when you phone them.
one thing that can be done about it (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:one thing that can be done about it (Score:5, Funny)
The correct term is "caucasian". "European American" or even "white person" are acceptable alternatives.
Parent
Re:one thing that can be done about it (Score:5, Insightful)
A "snowball" is a term used to describe an affect of exponential increase, not a person.
Snowball was a character in Clerks - The opening plot point to a rather uncomfortable scene. I find it distasteful (pun intended) that you feel the need to bring him up here. However if you were instead referring to the Trotsky-pig from Animal Farm you are entirely forgiven - That is a fine example of a large group turning on their victim due to mob mentality and a malicious leader acting as a catalyst.
Parent
Easy (Score:4, Insightful)
E-aggression? (Score:5, Funny)
WTF? Do we need to put an E (or I) in front of every-bloody-thing that might occur online? I mean really? There is no difference between 'aggression' and 'e-aggression' except for where it happens. I mean, if I get pissed off about something in the loo, is that 'P-aggression'? Or if I'm pissed at a strip club is that 'DD-aggression'?
I mean, can't you n00bs stop that crap?
read the examples of internet hate they mention (Score:5, Interesting)
I know most wont rtfa but my god the examples they use are hillariously bad. I was expecting whole sentences constructed out of *s+ 3 or 4 letters but no. It was talking about how celebrities had a flamewar or two online or one politician used a racial slur and surprise surprise, it got reported online.
the only decent example was the myspace girl who commited suicide, meagan.
im not sure i want to listen to a major news corp that cant even find decent examples of anon hate online. i mean jesus christ, just pick any slashdot and browse at -1!
Racism I've encountered online (Score:4, Interesting)
Nowhere have I found more anger than in yahoo hearts.
For the most part online, I find people to be fairly polite if not a little more crude or pointed than they would be in real life. On message boards, chat rooms, even places like FARK - there are always rules and people bend the boundaries to breaking but the die-hard bigots are truly a dying breed. Then again, maybe it's just a matter of all out flame wars and such being ended by admins and such before they really get started anymore.
But even in something as simple as yahoo hearts, I have found the most bigoted, racist, discriminatory people you ever want to meet. I mean one day, the host of table playing Yahoo Graffiti was booting anyone that had a brown person icon. Or in Yahoo hearts people are quick to use the n-word and such.
However by the same token, I have never encountered racism playing Yahoo Literati. And I find it speaks volumes that people who would play a game that that is related to words and depth of vocabulary and knowledge would be the very people to be the kindest and most interesting people I've encountered online.
I wholeheartedly believe that there is direct relationship between IQ and the level of every day bigotry and racism expressed by any given individual. I believe the same co-relation between those who are rich and/or powerful as this does not necessarily relate to intelligence - or that those who are rich, powerful and intelligent use tools such as racism and bigotry to manipulate those who are none of those things.
I guess I always wonder - what truly is the point of being a bigot or racist? Oh well....more observations that really any information here.
Road Rage (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Road Rage (Score:4, Insightful)
But they would never cut right in front of you and slow down so much as to impede your progress while another person walked at a similar speed blocking the rest of the hallway. And at worse, if they did this (for instance, standing in a doorway) a mere "excuse me" would let you by to continue on faster.
It's precisely because the roadway doesn't mirror the hallway that people get so frustrated. I have seen some pretty nasty episodes in the lines at Costco.
Parent
Without Anonomous There is Censorship. (Score:5, Interesting)
I have found that most people will not state their opinions if they are forced to sign them. The consequences of a opinion can be far more severe than is justified from those in power. Too often those in power, abuse power. Which side you are on, does not matter, both side have a fringe that goes off the deep end. For a few examples, see Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover, College Faculty (tenure granting is power). Ben Franklin had to use a pseudo-name so he would not be arrested. Writers during the witch hunts of the McCarthy era. Women writers had to pretend to be men to get published.
Anonymous is very useful! If you use is wisely! Put forth your arguments clearly and logically. Stir the emotions only as needed. Leave the hate behind. Leave the anger behind.
Re:Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory (Score:5, Funny)
Nice job asshole, somebody already posted that fucking link.
Parent
Re:Tolling has been around for ages, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Most people in America are angrier than usual due to the worsening economic conditions caused by Bush's oil war which bankrupted the nation. That's what's really being reflected on the web. Bush and Cheney are basically war criminials. I'm hoping people take it their rage at the voting booths.
Oooh, mad libs!
Most people in America are sillier than usual due to the diabetes caused by Bush's evil, putrid, orphan-exploiting existence which caffeinated the nation. That's what's really being monkeyed on the web. Bush and Cheney are basically evil, putrid, orphan-exploiters. I'm hoping people take it their rage at the carnival.
But, I think my version made more sense.
Parent
Re:G.I.F.T. (Score:4, Funny)
Is there a greater oxymoron in the english language than Windows Genuine Advantage?
Yes. Microsoft Works.
Parent