I've been encountering the usual internet drama and it was in the shower today that I had a realization; some people are addicted to it. They need to create (or bear witness to) a whole lot of anxious misery in order to feed some weird hunger in themselves.
I have the internet trolls to thank for this, but I don't mean that in a congratulatory sort of way. I get that everyone is the asshole sometimes, but it is the consistent engagement of lousy behavior that defines an addiction and rewarding that behavior with attention of any sort just feeds into that bullshit.
The problem is that sometimes you just need people to shut the hell up.
So once again I'm back to the necessity of moderators in any given culture. Yeah, yeah it brings up the whole 'who watches the watchmen' thing, but I have yet to see any non-familial group work without a set of rules and someone to enforce them. For the most part, the community keeps each other in line, and my feelings about moderation in internet arenas is that it should be kept to a light hand.
Because the drama is going to show up no matter what you do or say. There's something about people that causes them to conflict.
Bah. I'm rambling now. I guess part of what I'm trying to learn is when to stand up to the addicts and when to let it go. But even with that knowledge, it doesn't mean very much unless standing up to them can be enforceable. How that works, I don't know.
I have the internet trolls to thank for this, but I don't mean that in a congratulatory sort of way. I get that everyone is the asshole sometimes, but it is the consistent engagement of lousy behavior that defines an addiction and rewarding that behavior with attention of any sort just feeds into that bullshit.
The problem is that sometimes you just need people to shut the hell up.
So once again I'm back to the necessity of moderators in any given culture. Yeah, yeah it brings up the whole 'who watches the watchmen' thing, but I have yet to see any non-familial group work without a set of rules and someone to enforce them. For the most part, the community keeps each other in line, and my feelings about moderation in internet arenas is that it should be kept to a light hand.
Because the drama is going to show up no matter what you do or say. There's something about people that causes them to conflict.
Bah. I'm rambling now. I guess part of what I'm trying to learn is when to stand up to the addicts and when to let it go. But even with that knowledge, it doesn't mean very much unless standing up to them can be enforceable. How that works, I don't know.
3 comments:
i am addicted to listening about drama..does that count?
Kinda sorta...
It's hard to distinguish between hearing people's stories and wanting in on their drama. Stories are interesting when there is conflict, and conflict is a part of drama, you know? At some point however that drama becomes overinflated and about feeling like it matters and how important things must be if you're embroiled in this attention whoring moment.
Because usually it's not important.
Hm...I hope my comment doesn't come off as dickish. I don't mean for that-I just think there's a point where instead of listening to a story, or taking a stance, or having a heated discussion, you become the beast and it all goes south.
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