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I'm so tired of the current state of the internet (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Templa@beehaw.org to c/chat@beehaw.org

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Everywhere you browse, people have such strong opinions about everything and are so toxic or extremely negative. You start playing a game, want to check the forums or something and most of the posts are people being mean to each other. You open social media to keep in touch with people that you'd like to maintain a certain level of contact and there's always some people that are always complaining about every single thing.

I see myself more and more closing myself into a bubble which makes me appreciate Beehaw much more. I know I am guilty of being taken away by the toxicity and sometimes replying things I wouldn't be proud of but since I joined Beehaw I see myself policing myself more and more focused on being better.

Just a quick rant, I currently started playing Baldur's Gate 3 and I am honestly pissed off on the fact people can't give feedback without being rude or "gamers" just shitting on developers because they are stans of another game. I wanted to be active on the forum and comment on bugs and such because I want the game to be better but it is so depressing reading people being awful so often.

Why are we so shitty to each other? I'm so tired.

Edit: Pardon me if I used weird terms or grammar errors, english isn't my first language

Edit2: removed specifics

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[–] Ignacio@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know whether you're using other fediverse services, but here is a link that only shows nice servers: https://fedi.garden/

About toxicity and negativity, I'm only on two Mastodon servers, two Lemmy servers (active only here), and on Kbin. Depending on where you're engaging, you can notice more or less of those bad traits, but their levels are sickening to me. Two or three days ago I commented to a reply I was given, stating what I thought about their opinion. And suddenly I was involved in that toxicity and other bad behaviours made by other random people.

Things can be said in another way, in a nicer and good faithful way, but people consider that, because you cannot see the other party in the conversation, they can behave however they want without consequences for them. But there are consequences, and unfortunately they're for the receiver. I'm sure outside internet those behaviours would be more limited, in general.

And this is not something that occurs recently or during the last 5 years. I've been browsing internet since 2006, and it was as bad as it is now, just with other intermediaries, like online chats, forums, etc. People don't have legitimacy to act in any way they want, but they do nonetheless. And here is my last thought. What if you are toxic to an user, on the other side of your screen, who happens to have depression or other mental disorders, and you don't know that fact? Would you feel OK knowing that you're driving someone to hurt themselves, or worse?

I've faith on Beehaw, because I notice admins and moderators are really serious about being nice, and conversations, as far as I can notice, are superb. We all just need to defend this way of acting, pointing out the bad actors and censuring their bad actions.

[–] forestG@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What if you are toxic to an user, on the other side of your screen, who happens to have depression or other mental disorders, and you don’t know that fact? Would you feel OK knowing that you’re driving someone to hurt themselves, or worse?

This is probably one of the most important things to consider before posting something in a public space.

And this is not something that occurs recently or during the last 5 years. I’ve been browsing internet since 2006, and it was as bad as it is now, just with other intermediaries, like online chats, forums, etc.

What you describe here and above this sentence is true. It happened, it happens still. But, in my experience, not to the same extend. I 've been spending time in online communities since the early 90's and I believe there is a reason the toxicity is getting worse. Part of it is what @daredevil@kbin.social said. I mean most of the platforms offered by huge corporations try to drive engagement for profit. To achieve this, to get more people involved and engaging as much as possible, the interactions have to get limited to the least common denominator. It's not just reaction buttons, it's much more than this. Another part of it is the technological shift. The web was populated by significantly less netizens before certain technological advancements, with probably the most important of these being the smart phones. I believe this combination is the reason. The huge increase of people surfing the web and the appearance of huge corporations actively controlling how new people get used to surfing the web.

Btw at 2006 google was already there and quite big and facebook was already starting to get big.

Anyway, thanks for the link, as a fediverse newbie, I really appreciate it!