Editorial – Quick Communication Has Tendency To Turn Nasty — Observer
“Why can’t we all just get along?” It’s either a pretty tall ask; or realistically, just a rhetorical question when someone is exasperated by some ongoing conflict.
By Susan Bigler
Social media has been a vicious perpetrator of allowing our meanness to come out. Before the rise of Facebook, Twitter (X), and the rest, comments made to each other had to be done mostly face to face. Shame, embarrassment, hurt feelings, regret, deep emotions were experienced as a result and served as a buffer to hasty remarks.
Written words couldn’t be sent by the click of a button, there was time to think before sending a poison pen letter. Now it’s too easy to dispense with the thought process. Many like to use the platform to show off how much they think they know, usually while deriding someone else in the process. The Dunning-Kruger effect is in full bloom on social media. Comments made at a distance don’t bother the sender, but can cause severe harm to the recipient.
Cyber bullying has grown into a crisis which adds immensely to the rate of suicide deaths. The fact that a beloved Bills player was victimized shows how far this has gone, way past politics! A front-page article in the Monday paper addressed how this has brought attention to how bad this problem is. Rural Minds is a national organization based here and founded by Mayville resident, Jeff Winton, who was compelled to speak on how “unconscionable and reprehensible” the Bass threats are. Coincidently, the local League of Women Voters had just hosted an online program in which Winton presented the problem of suicide that occurs in rural areas and how Rural Minds offers help.
Rural areas especially have the problem of people being socially separated and while internet connectivity can be a positive, bullying can spoil it. According to Winton, 41% of all adults in the US experience cyber bullying with 64% of young people being subjected to it.