I am grateful to my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome for forcing me to cope with my addiction to computers. LOL!
But, seriously…
Over the past few years, I have actually convinced myself that writing messages to and receiving responses from strangers using pseudonyms was a substitute for friendship and community. What has happened on this website in the past week has proven the fragility of such an assumption. I was AWOL for several days and when I came back it took me awhile to piece together what happened and even now I have a very fragmented picture.
I think the problem with introducing politics into any community is that this will invite the indulgence of negativity and venting against the imaginary “other.” The fact is there is no other, we are all coping with our own inner devils. The veil of anonymity invites narcissistic behavior, since it is always a challenge to step up to the plate and take responsibility. Always.
I tried to express my feelings about this some months ago in my diary entitled “Don’t Think of a Troll.” My point was that the more we focus on “trolling” and use this terminology the more we invite “trollish” behaviors and why don’t we as enlightened and loving people try to introduce some more enlightened and loving terminology to manifest an unfavorable environment for malicious mischief? This inspired some interesting discussion on BT and also on DK, but eventually became a swamp for flame wars on DK and finally a DK administrator PM’d me to remove the diary altogether, which I did.
Mainly I’ve found that on the internet people easily become polarized. Even on a liberal/progressive website, people eventually gravitate towards opposite ends of the spectrum even if the spectrum is really tiny such as one person we all know and love having a really bad day and exhibiting unacceptable behavior which includes using abusive language.
The other problem with resting on anonymous political affiliation as the foundation for community is that people’s political position can shift from day to day based on external events or internal struggles, and even these subtle shifts act as earthquakes and tsunamis in a community that rests on political affiliation vs. a standard of behavior that manifests in the rule of courtesy.
I don’t think we need to reinvent courtesy. We are all hard-wired for language at birth and courtesy is not an ambiguous concept so it is not a stretch to require that we all be courteous to one another in our use of language. We also have to bear in mind that no one is perfect and everyone can have a bad day and get carried away with themselves. Everyone. So here is where we introduce the concept of forgiveness and allow people time to find their own emotional balance and absorb whatever input they are receiving to apply in their own way to their own personal growth.
And speaking of gratitude I must express my gratitude to dozens of users of this community who have supported me and responded to me in positive ways and who have given me encouragement and helped me believe in myself when I was up against some serious life struggles. Thank you, thank you!
So I hope we can all stick together and weather this recent meltdown… we all know there is much more at stake than these little dustups that are easily gotten over and will hopefully soon be forgotten so that we can continue to be a force for good in this world. Again I say that my CTS has forced me to get some perspective on the role of computers in my life and how I use my free time and what qualifies to me as “socializing.” So if you need to take a break and get some perspective that is a good thing but please don’t abandon the camaraderie that we have built here! We need you!
Oh yes, and please let me add that I know I have been jerk at times and I apologize for those times when I have slipped and ask for and thank you in advance for your generous forgiveness.
