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Is the Internet to blame??

Posted by sjtavo • 9/18/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: bad behavior, death of civility, internet

Helen A.S. Popkin has a great article “Bad Behavior? Blame the internet!” on msnbc.com today – what do you think? Is the internet destroying the civility of humanity or do we do a pretty good job of it on our own, regardless of the media we utilize?

Per Popkin: “But the Internet is not causing a deterioration to our complicated, brutal species any more than it invented pornography. There are certain evolutionary aspects of behavior that find their way on whatever platform humans are occupying at the time.”

User Comments

9/18/09

b0ll0cks

If you really think about it the internet is nothing more than the collective thoughts of humanity. It's a reflection of society. Society created the internet, the internet doesn't create society.

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9/18/09

Sebastyne

What the internet does is that it shows people that what ever you like doing you are not alone doing it. That way, it can promote "bad behaviour" as people "behaving badly" get validated through the medium that they are still "normal". It also promotes good behaviour when a group like ours turns on a person who is not playing by the rules of the social group. However, you can also find groups that have altered the rules of behaviour so that a smaller sub group get a "normal" level of acceptance in what ever they do, but that is not necessarily bad behaviour. For example religious groups can find acceptance and support for their view of the world and how things should be and what is moral, and in that sort of bubble start/continue believing that this is how the society at large works.

I don't believe the internet has a lot of power changing people, it just strengthens what a person already is.

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1. 9/18/09
  
  b0ll0cks
  
  @Sebastyne "It also promotes good behaviour when a group like ours turns on a person who is not playing by the rules of the social group."
  
  What is a group like ours ?
9/18/09

MissSuzie

Why are people always trying to place blame? Our bad behavior can only be blamed on our own selves.

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9/18/09

ThriftShopRomantic

Blaming the internet for bad behavior is a bit like blaming the hammer that a house was built crookedly.

It's just a tool, like anything else.

I believe we're all responsible for our actions, online and off. It's the one thing we pretty well can control.

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9/18/09

nothingprofound

Agree with the two lovely ladies above:

The Internet is the problem. We are the problem.

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