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Mar. 19th, 2010 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silverflight8May I suggest a way to avoid being attacked, put-upon unjustly, etc. etc. is to avoid making sweeping generalizations?
The thing about having the internet is not only does everyone (who has access to the Internet, obviously) has a more or less equal voice. You can decide how to phrase your opinion: deliberate for days over wording, put it eloquently, and post it. People who find it hard to speak up in groups might find it easier to voice their opinion when they can go through it before blurting it out. A degree of anonymity can also ensure that a contrary, unpopular opinion isn't going to whip back at you.
This means that people who normally are quiet, even when their triggers are hit, are perhaps more vocal on the Internet--and I'm glad they are, because we need opinions of all sorts of people. And while I don't believe the Internet "levels the playing field", it at least provides a platform for people to express themselves.
That means, when you make a stupid generalization, throwing vast swathes of people together under one assumption, one presumption--it's not unlikely that in a community, your argument or statement will be torn to pieces. This goes even more so, I imagine, for issues that are polarizing, painful, or otherwise close to heart.
Think before you speak! Or at the very most, try to remove the "everyone does this", "all of us agree", "we"--referring to the whole society at large--or other blanket terms. I think it will aid you in avoiding the: "Let me tell you an exception...and another one...and another one." Or the less polite, cut-to-the-point responses.
Yes, a reaction to comments. Not very impressed by some of the sweeping assumptions that are sometimes made.
The thing about having the internet is not only does everyone (who has access to the Internet, obviously) has a more or less equal voice. You can decide how to phrase your opinion: deliberate for days over wording, put it eloquently, and post it. People who find it hard to speak up in groups might find it easier to voice their opinion when they can go through it before blurting it out. A degree of anonymity can also ensure that a contrary, unpopular opinion isn't going to whip back at you.
This means that people who normally are quiet, even when their triggers are hit, are perhaps more vocal on the Internet--and I'm glad they are, because we need opinions of all sorts of people. And while I don't believe the Internet "levels the playing field", it at least provides a platform for people to express themselves.
That means, when you make a stupid generalization, throwing vast swathes of people together under one assumption, one presumption--it's not unlikely that in a community, your argument or statement will be torn to pieces. This goes even more so, I imagine, for issues that are polarizing, painful, or otherwise close to heart.
Think before you speak! Or at the very most, try to remove the "everyone does this", "all of us agree", "we"--referring to the whole society at large--or other blanket terms. I think it will aid you in avoiding the: "Let me tell you an exception...and another one...and another one." Or the less polite, cut-to-the-point responses.
Yes, a reaction to comments. Not very impressed by some of the sweeping assumptions that are sometimes made.
