In recent months (and as close to a few days ago) I’ve read a lot over Twitter, Facebook, and the interwebz at large about certain incidents that happen online as a result of the written electronic word. Whether it’s a misquoted item, a fired-up article, or something as simple as a comment in reply to a video, there’s been no shortage of issues that crop up when one commits letters to text boxes. Flame wars, Twitter sniping, apologies and non-apologies, and all sorts of verbal warfare is waged on a variety of levels. It’s sort of like knowing that the train might be coming, but not on what track, at what time, and whether or not it’s going to come off the rails and get you for not doing anything. The things I’ve seen said, repeated, reacted to, and posted are the kinds of things that get ugly real fast.
You’d think this would happen more often with print stuff, as the actual written word has had a long history of controversy and inflamed dialog depending on the work or article in question. That being said, in print it isn’t as much of a common occurrence as on the internet, for a couple reasons. The first is a modern protective process of editing, vetting, publishing, and revising that happens with most actual print books and articles. What you see printed out is something that has been passed through many hands and looked at for quality, potential issues, and posterity. The internet has no such filtering process. While some sites do retain some sort of editorial process, such as many companies for which content is observed by many, other places have a bit of a light hand when it comes to the generation of content, something which is made all the less powerful by virtue of the fact that anyone can basically post anything at any time, with little to no filters in places. The instant nature of the internet is something which both harms and helps what is written and read on it – you get what you want to know right away, but at the same time have no idea of whether or not it has been measured properly in terms of context or potential reception. It’s pretty much a powder keg just waiting for an idly thrown match.
I’d like to put in that while an ugly flame war or destructive bunch of electronic vitriol is not necessarily a pretty thing, it does have quite a bit of benefit and it highlights the need for the main point of today’s positive post about responsibility. As far as immediate benefits are concerned, a bit of the unexpected or blindsided nasty is sometimes needed in order to expose improvements needed when vetting online articles and content, or to gauge your community/visitors’ temperature as far as what gets them to the boiling point. The other good thing about a controversial blow up online is the trigger of other dialog or related issues resulting from it. When someone creates content that is what is normally expected, it’s received as any normal article online would. But when someone creates something that is a polarizing firestorm, a branching conversation of passionate opinions is the result, with the overall discourse spread out between normal joe and jane bloggers, opinionated pundits, and industry observation posts.
All of the benefits (and drawbacks) of online content crazy-time aside, the after-school special-ish lesson to be taken from this (and one which could do with a good reminder every so often) is that responsibility of online content rests with both readers and writers. For writers, it’s a logical thing, right? Before you decide to create that article that says blue pleezles are always better than red yonkers, it might do good to give yourself pause on how red yonker fans might react. Before you make a seemingly innocent tweet about how you think Pepsi is only bought by the most ridiculous sugar-obsessed giraffes, it might be worthwhile to ensure you have facts and opinions straight on giraffe sugar studies. And maybe it might be a good thing to ensure that your extremely strong opinion on how ninjas should fight with weaponry that causes paper cuts might not incite anti-paper cutting ninja reaction across the internet. All of these are good and common sense reasons for an Internet writer to take responsibility for what they create, before they do so.
But readers of internet content also have a responsibility to take as well. If the world of Youtube commenters is any sort of proof, it’s the fact that readers of content are not just passive vessels which writers fill with sometimes inflammatory words. A lot of people who read content make the same mistakes commonly seen when talking face to face with someone or working with them – they take something out of context, they misread intent and ideas, and sometimes truly make a mountain of a molehill. Internet readers are just as much a part of the content creation process as writers, because they are an audience that reacts and can give an immediate opinion on what they see – directly to the writer themselves. The formulation of opinion of an internet reader, and how they communicate that opinion, is based entirely on the level of responsibility they take when comprehending what has been shown to them on the computer screen. I think we’ve all seen the internet freakouts and rantfests that have happened that didn’t quite need to, because of the simple fact that someone who read something didn’t quite allow themselves to process it before shooting from the hip. Red yonker fans would do well to walk a mile in the shoes of the writer who talks about blue pleezles. Sugar-loving giraffe fansite admins might want to re-read the point of someone saying Pepsi is that loved by their pets. And anti-paper weapon ninjas might do well to set the katana-shaped pen down, look at how others are receiving the article on paper weapons, and have a bit more of an open mind.
When all is said and done, when both internet readers and writers take responsibility for their role in creating and discussing the content that gets put out there, it results it a better and more meaningful dialog for all. Even though that might inevitably still lead to a fiery exchange of opinions and “ur moms” – at least it will have been done knowing as much of what went into the process as possible.
Anyone who’s spent any amount of time reading things online has to have seen a knockdown, drag out fight between two or more blogs. The gift of the written word is something of a blessing and a curse when checking something out like bloggers fighting it out. The real life classic fight in a retail store over the last purse or Tickle-Me-Elmo is nothing compared to the verbal fisticuffs people can engage in online.
