Focusing back on social media…
I could do this in the Downside of 2.0 thread but I want to address a downside while also responding to several people.
I agree with Elizabeth when she writes:
What I hope will happen is that (we) social media users will be able to monitor ourselves and each other in a respectful fashion.
And I agree with Fiona when she writes:
Back home, when the self in real life is so heavily policed, the online world becomes a fantasy land for people to be the person they want to be and sometimes they overcompensate and at its worse, it’s nasty and mean-spirited, childish and resentful.
I wish Elizabeth’s thoughts become reality. I slightly disagree with Fiona in the sense that, at its worse, the anonymity of the internet allows the hidden under belly of some people to be shown.
An example, check out the comments on this article. Brutal and so full of racism, privilege denial, etc. But I find it instructive in one sense to know that my feelings about racism in Canada aren’t wrong: they are just hidden underneath the stereotypical Canadian veneer of politeness.
The downside to 2.0 and increased participation, learning what people really think about you.
Did you see Anil Dash’s blog post If your website’s full of assholes it’s your fault? He’s talking about poorly moderated conversations (like YouTube pages or CBC comments) and how poor moderation is what people think of in terms of internet conversation. Interesting read.
I’d also argue that the proportion of people who are brutal and hateful in CBC comments has to be way out of whack from the general population (doesn’t it? or is this just me being more hopeful than realistic? I come from a very privileged pov which allows me the luxury of idealism here). Once reasonable people know it’s a sinkhole, why would you go back to let your opinion get swamped in filth, especially if you don’t have a particular mission to do so? More people should probably have such a mission, but well, yeah.
Poorly moderated comment pages are terrible terrible places.
Sadly, Justin, in this case you are being too idealistic. One of the things I get to experience as a result of my light skin privilege is the real life expression of what is in those comments. I’ve heard actual people say those things (and many variations). It is why these spaces make me glad, in a perverse way. I’ll admit that as I’ve gotten older I’ve been exposed to comments like that with far less frequency… But that just makes me wonder if people are thinking those thoughts or if my education privilege has managed to insulate me from the worst expressions of bigotry. I think both are true.
Generally, I find it more insidious how often I’ve heard recently from white, straight, cis men that they feel oppressed (check out this study). How seriously people actually believe that things like reverse racism/sexism/etc actually exist (I’ve had this conversation so many times in recent memory that it is disheartening).
Even more importantly, I wish reasonable people would more often speak up. I avoid cesspools of filth like that because the emotional cost is too high and reading comments like that painful, and engaging in conversations that awful exhausting. It’ll never stop surprising me that there is a *fight* for equal rights. That people so actively resist recognizing the humanity of some people.
Well. That’s really crappy. I’m sorry. Not just for the crap people have to live with, but for me not being tremendously political in a practical kind of way. When I read terrible shit on the internet I tend to go “Wow it’s terrible people are like that” instead of trying to change it.
I guess I’ve got a bit of a work local mindset in that regard. I mean, my friends and family, I try to change them if they’ve got bizarre hurtful beliefs, but random people on the internet? What are the chances I’d make a difference? Confining my efforts to more personal spheres doesn’t change the world, just one little chunk of it. And I am lazy.
No need to apologize for not being an activist. Ultimately, if every individual responsible for oppressing others (and we all do it to some other group) were to decide to stop oppressing other people, oppression would stop. So even making a personal (rather than political) commitment to anti-oppression is a big step in the right direction.