the nastier the comments, the more polarized readers became about the contents of the article, a phenomenon they dubbed the “nasty effect.” But the nasty effect isn’t new, or unique to the Internet. Psychologists have long worried about the difference between face-to-face communication and more removed ways of talking—the letter, the telegraph, the phone. Without the traditional trappings of personal communication, like non-verbal cues, context, and tone, comments can become overly impersonal... — newyorker.com
4 Comments
Anyone read Dave Eggars' new book yet?
I don't know about the book, but the quote above is correct. And while the phenomenon isn't new, its increased immediacy and frequency thanks to the web (combined, perhaps, with a general decline in courtesy?) does crank the unpleasantness up a few notches.
well its also sort of like having cyber chat sex. during normal sex and visually capacitated sex (cam), you abide by the restrictions of what is physically tenable at one time whereas with cyberchat sex or phone sex, you may be describing a scenario that invites contradictions and impossibilities. like you may suggest that your focus is on one part of the body when your outreach to another part is being expressed simultaneously ... yet, in real life, this simultaneity is impossible. here too in our discussions, you can allow yourself to reach out in different directions, to express different tides in you that you might not be able to amass practically speaking within the limitations of real-space/time.
but the nice thing about real space and time is you can see the surprised reaction on people's faces; that is rather enjoyable.
Oops, edited because wrong thread.
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