Tag Archives: Cyberbullying

From a Caveman’s Club to Cyber-Bullying – Progress?

This post is in response to a post by Christina Pirello at The Huffington Post, but an interesting thing happened in the writing of it.  I intended to argue with her but by the time I finished, I found myself agreeing with her.

Have we really changed at all?

No, I’m not in favor of Internet censorship.  But maybe everybody, myself included, needs to lighten up a bit.

 

Back about a million years ago, when people were beginning to be people, one had to see someone in order to kill them, to actually touch them and feel the life ebbing from them. Then came spears, which made the task easier. Then catapults and bows. Then guns. Then bombs and airplanes. Now, wars can be conducted by remote control, without any contact with the people one has decided should not exist. This is a very bad trend.
Along comes the internet. It makes it easier for us to say what we think. It makes it possible to say “I think you are a moron and a moral degenerate­.  The world would be a better place if you did not exist and I fully intend to drink champagne and dance on the day you die.” I have written that very thing about numerous Republican office holders. It does not cause anyone physical injury or necessitat­e escalation of the argument into the physical realm.

You’re right, though. It can bleed through as words have meanings and some people take them literally and refuse to recognize the border between the internet and real life. In fact, I can feel my opinion changing as I write this.
The internet is, like atomic energy or heavier than air manned flight, a two-edged sword, a mixed blessing. We can use it for good or for bad. Obviously, we’re going to use it for both, because that is just who we are.
(My family and I will be leaving tomorrow morning for a two week vacation on the Baltic Coast.  I’ll still post daily, but I won’t be spending as much time reading the news, so you’re going to get a lot more Family Circus type posts and a lot less about politics, which may be a good thing all around.  Also, the posts for the next two days will be written this afternoon and post-dated)

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