Sunday, October 30, 2016
Incivility: The Dark Side of Tech
 |
When I was younger, I couldn’t wait for all the cool new technology that was promised to come in my lifetime.
I had this vision in my head that all these news gadgets would bring us closer to the utopian future depicted in my favorite sci-fi show at the time – “Star Trek.”
Technology, I thought would be the great equalizer, enabling everyone to better themselves and express their creativity without having to rely on expensive resources controlled by a selected few.
For the most part, this has come to pass. Just witness the explosion in self-publishing. People can now write and release their own books without having to run the gauntlet of book companies. The same is true for visual artists. Just look at the boom in websites like Deviantart.com, where artists can sign up for a free account and show off their work to the entire world instead of having to compete for a space at a small local art gallery, where their work might only be seen by a few hundred people at most. And let’s not forget about all the people creating video content!
Using a relatively inexpensive video camera and a computer, these amateur filmmakers are producing videos on Youtube and Dailymotion that rival and sometimes surpass the millions of dollars a Hollywood studio spends on one of their films or TV shows.
Yet it never occurred to me that all this tech may come with a dark side.
No, I’m not talking about the Arnold Schwarzenegger-like-cyborgs-taking-over-the-world-and-exterminating-humanity kind of dark side.
I’m talking about a much more insidious dark side. A rudeness and incivility brought on by the anonymity of being able to hide from one another behind the screen of our various new tech devices.
At first this trend seemed to be confined to the forums on the Internet where fans endlessly debate the pros and cons of their favorite sci-fi/fantasy movie, TV show, comic or book. Pity the poor soul who dared to express a contrary view…
Suddenly instead of being someone with just a differing point of view, you are a pariah and an idiot, and it’s OK for complete strangers to belittle you and call you names they never would have if you’d been talking to them in person in the real world.
But now it seems like this rude behavior has spilled off the Internet and into our face-to-face relations. Suddenly it’s become socially acceptable to belittle anyone who doesn’t believe the things you believe in or think like you. Just witness all the bad behavior from supporters on both sides of this year’s presidential election.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t recall people being so caustic to each other before the Internet age.
Perhaps it was because people had better manners or weren’t willing to risk being punched in the face for insulting the person standing right in front of them. Or maybe it was because before the Internet, we weren’t really exposed to all the differing views we are today. We tend to gather in homogenous communities where everyone shares a similar economic, ethnic and social background as our own and has similar life experiences and values, so our opinions don’t tend to vary that much from our neighbors’.
But now that the web has brought the world right into our homes, and exposed us to people who come from different economic, ethnic and social backgrounds, we’ve been more inclined to close our minds and become more entrenched in our own views, instead of LISTENING to these people’s experiences, learning from them and broadening our own outlook on life.
So much for “Star Trek’s” idea of IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations).
Look, I’m not saying we have to accept and embrace every differing view that someone espouses. Sometimes those views are just plain wrong and person spouting them should be shouted down or better yet, just ignored.
What I am saying it that we need to realize that everyone’s life experiences are different, and we should at least listen to what they have to say, evaluate it and if it challenges one of our holy cows, then we need to seriously and thoughtfully examine that belief.
You might just discover that that person has a point and you might need to modify that belief.
And if, after careful examination, you still feel your belief is correct, that’s fine too. Just please realize that each person is entitled to their own opinion, and that their opinion is no less valid than your own.
That, is after all what this country was founded on, made it a light to the world and hopefully with a little more civility, will continue to make it the greatest nation on Earth.
Incivility: The Dark Side of Tech
|
When I was younger, I couldn’t wait for all the cool new technology that was promised to come in my lifetime.
I had this vision in my head that all these news gadgets would bring us closer to the utopian future depicted in my favorite sci-fi show at the time – “Star Trek.”
Technology, I thought would be the great equalizer, enabling everyone to better themselves and express their creativity without having to rely on expensive resources controlled by a selected few.
For the most part, this has come to pass. Just witness the explosion in self-publishing. People can now write and release their own books without having to run the gauntlet of book companies. The same is true for visual artists. Just look at the boom in websites like Deviantart.com, where artists can sign up for a free account and show off their work to the entire world instead of having to compete for a space at a small local art gallery, where their work might only be seen by a few hundred people at most. And let’s not forget about all the people creating video content!
Using a relatively inexpensive video camera and a computer, these amateur filmmakers are producing videos on Youtube and Dailymotion that rival and sometimes surpass the millions of dollars a Hollywood studio spends on one of their films or TV shows.
Yet it never occurred to me that all this tech may come with a dark side.
No, I’m not talking about the Arnold Schwarzenegger-like-cyborgs-taking-over-the-world-and-exterminating-humanity kind of dark side.
I’m talking about a much more insidious dark side. A rudeness and incivility brought on by the anonymity of being able to hide from one another behind the screen of our various new tech devices.
At first this trend seemed to be confined to the forums on the Internet where fans endlessly debate the pros and cons of their favorite sci-fi/fantasy movie, TV show, comic or book. Pity the poor soul who dared to express a contrary view…
Suddenly instead of being someone with just a differing point of view, you are a pariah and an idiot, and it’s OK for complete strangers to belittle you and call you names they never would have if you’d been talking to them in person in the real world.
But now it seems like this rude behavior has spilled off the Internet and into our face-to-face relations. Suddenly it’s become socially acceptable to belittle anyone who doesn’t believe the things you believe in or think like you. Just witness all the bad behavior from supporters on both sides of this year’s presidential election.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t recall people being so caustic to each other before the Internet age.
Perhaps it was because people had better manners or weren’t willing to risk being punched in the face for insulting the person standing right in front of them. Or maybe it was because before the Internet, we weren’t really exposed to all the differing views we are today. We tend to gather in homogenous communities where everyone shares a similar economic, ethnic and social background as our own and has similar life experiences and values, so our opinions don’t tend to vary that much from our neighbors’.
But now that the web has brought the world right into our homes, and exposed us to people who come from different economic, ethnic and social backgrounds, we’ve been more inclined to close our minds and become more entrenched in our own views, instead of LISTENING to these people’s experiences, learning from them and broadening our own outlook on life.
So much for “Star Trek’s” idea of IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations).
Look, I’m not saying we have to accept and embrace every differing view that someone espouses. Sometimes those views are just plain wrong and person spouting them should be shouted down or better yet, just ignored.
What I am saying it that we need to realize that everyone’s life experiences are different, and we should at least listen to what they have to say, evaluate it and if it challenges one of our holy cows, then we need to seriously and thoughtfully examine that belief.
You might just discover that that person has a point and you might need to modify that belief.
And if, after careful examination, you still feel your belief is correct, that’s fine too. Just please realize that each person is entitled to their own opinion, and that their opinion is no less valid than your own.
That, is after all what this country was founded on, made it a light to the world and hopefully with a little more civility, will continue to make it the greatest nation on Earth.
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