Like anything else, I think a big part of this is how you are raised.
There are plenty of people that treat others terribly, in real life, without any anonymity whatsoever. Likewise, there are plenty of people that treat other anonymous posters on the internet respectfully.
As with everything, parenting and social norms just need to catch up to technology. We need to instill in our children the idea that being rude to anonymous strangers is a bad thing, just as it is a bad thing to be rude to strangers in real life, just as it is a bad thing to be horrible to people you already know.
Agreed. If you have a bad upbringing and treat people poorly, when you enter a new environment, e.g., a workplace, the new environment would quickly teach the new person the proper way to act.
Likewise, on the internet, we need to encourage people to behave nicely and discourage bad behaviour. And we do, this is what this post is about. I guess we need more of it.
There are plenty of people that treat others terribly, in real life, without any anonymity whatsoever. Likewise, there are plenty of people that treat other anonymous posters on the internet respectfully.
As with everything, parenting and social norms just need to catch up to technology. We need to instill in our children the idea that being rude to anonymous strangers is a bad thing, just as it is a bad thing to be rude to strangers in real life, just as it is a bad thing to be horrible to people you already know.