fter watching this great TED talk by James Vetch. (Thanks to Sascha Ehrentraut).
What really stuck with me was that he has taken internet scams a dark element of the internet and turned it into a positive experience. More importantly, it is an experience that does not harm anyone. The sad truth is the number of people using the internet to distribute positive things are vastly outnumbered by the mass that uses it for more nefarious means. Most people seem to use it to spread hate, ignorance and negativity. You just need to go and look at the News24 comments for proof of this. I think comment boxes on the internet are seen in the same light as the back of public toilet doors. You can write anything you like, so your lizard brain kicks in and all you can do is scrawl a penis.
It becomes a place that people voice their inner demons. The difference between public toilets and the internet is that fact that things can spread on the internet (well different things get spread in public toilets). Often this spread leads to a mob, mobs often lead to mob mentality and that often leads to people being hurt. Both mentally and in really and cases physically. I would love to see the stats of how much racism and hatred went down after google forced users to comment with Google+ on YouTube. Attaching your comments to your profile seems to be a tempering process or maybe we now have a million more fake Gmail accounts. The need to scrawl is so strong that people are willing to take time out of their day to set up an account for this express purpose.
There have been a few interesting goings on here in South Africa internets. The Daily Maverick an independent opinion and news publication has suspended comments on their site because of all the nasty ignorant things that people have been posting. Read their full rational why here. We are also in the midst of a the Penny Sparrow debacle. One stupid person has catalysed a movement that might end up challenging the foundations one of the things that makes South Africa great, freedom of speech. It seems that this one woman’s transgression has divided some very vocal people into two camps. The tension between these camps is palpable, and it is being harnessed by clever people to further their own agendas. I am interested if people would be able to say the things they are saying if they were face to face with each other. T.O. Molefe had the most interesting take on this subject I have yet to read.
Maybe it is time that people stop thinking about the internet as a place to spread hate and use it to put something decent out there. Now I am not having a Sound of Music moment here. You can still be cynical, dark and even cleverly offensive. Just don’t be ignorant.
My not-so-definitive list of people making the internet better:
- The Oatmeal by Matthew Inman
- Darth days by GeorgeJurard
- Garfield minus Garfield by Dan Walsh
- Formal Sweat Pants by Josh Mecouch
- Jl8 by Yale Stewart
- The perry bible fellowship byNicholas Gurewitch
- Strong female protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan, Drawn by Molly Ostertag
- Moon beard by Squires
