The Ether of Anonymity

My first webpage was back in 1994 or so. Even the wayback archive doesn't have it anymore. It was fun and involved a lot of starry backgrounds and imaginary kingdoms. Friends signed up to take on various roles in the kingdom and I got to be queen. It sounds dopey but a lot of it was very funny and my subjects got to contribute beaucoup wit of all kinds to their characters. Then AOL hijacked all those older services (remember spyglass?) and put a little color into the black and white interface, and took away the necessity to C:\\ so many things- and it began to interest people who previously weren't used to serious bulletin boards. I did hate my apple 2E, but hey, who didn't? It was all still a miracle. Just like television was when it was only on 6 hours a day with 2-3 stations. Then the media bloat took place, as it does now on the net. Only now, we face an ether of anonymity. And when your face doesn't show, you can do a lot of talking out of your ass. And that is happening all over the internet. Every nose picker and hate monger has come out of the woodwork- but not TOO far. It's one thing to post your opinion, but it's another to go after someone else's. The nice thing is that most people who post retorts anonymously are usually very poor at expressing themselves. They usually attack the other person without regard to truth or decency. I took the ability to comment on this blog OFF a long time ago due to one illogical, and anonymous, of course, lying idiot. I took the ability to contact us on our family blog (which had over 10,000 visitors who had done NOTHING rude) when someone felt free to email me their political opinions and call me names- anonymously, of course. I post under pokergirl because I think removing who I am from this makes people think a little more. If they know it's just me, then their opinions of the actual ME color their thoughts on the blog subject. But the cloak of anonymity is the cloak of the coward. Throughout history it has been considered honorable to take credit for your own words and your own actions.
Also, part of going to school is to learn to socialize. And socializing means that you learn what to say or not say. The problems of the internet as a social mediator are really becoming vast. With social sites like My Space, Bebo, etc, kids learn early that being hateful or mean can be very easy. And plenty of people like the excitement and tension caused by an attack. We don't have to expend energy hunting or camping or surviving much- and the result is that the human need to expend energy is spent on the internet. And attacking others is a blood sport now. I notice that many posters on celebrity chat sites should be spending that time learning to write and spell. It isn't even a question of using texting style abbreviations, it is the BASIC spelling and use of contractions. Despite the borderling illiteracy, the hate is still driven home. Want to read some horrible stuff? Go read the political blogs. There is no analysis- no sense- no reason- no tact- no intuition- just bile and vitriol. And so much hate needlessly spread because "if the website says it, it must be true". The internet has become bloated. In fact, it's a mess. Maybe business should be separated from social and separate webs should be used. But that wouldn't solve the horrible things said under the guise of "anonymous". Do those people really MEAN what they post or are they pushing their own limits? Are they happy and proud that they have just wasted precious moments of their lives when they could be with family and friends, or reading a new book, or playing with their pet? It would all stop if no one could post. These are not informed and eloquent opinions being posted. Most are too lazy to get a blog and post their opinions. Maybe they know that no one would come? I predict that as we get older, the internet will lose a lot of interest- except for shopping and email and the news. We won't want everyone to know where we live, or how we feel about politicians or movie stars, and we won't want to share in the hateful postings. We will just be tired of it.