Mean avatars suck
justingibbs — Thu, 2007-08-02 13:00
Internet from old days
There will always be trends. The word trends is actually pretty fitting as I read today's CNET article, Are people more polite in virtual worlds? Reminds me of two things, one being the rash of lame "Mean people suck" stickers in the 90's. The second being prognostications of the early internet. Check out this news report from the 80's about this odd thing called the internet, except they drop the "the".
There is not a lot of cursing or swearing, not a lot of personal cuts, not a lot of put downs one would expect to find. Not screen fulls of "go to hell", which is surprising. So the kind of liberation, is is mixed. It’s interesting, cause one would think if you’re anonymous you'd do anything you want, but people have a group, have there own sense of community, and what we can do.
Yet today if they are comparing the virtual world to the internet as in the CNET article, it must mean the internet is the place for despicable behavior. But as you can see from the news report, it wasn't always that way and the virtual world is likely to follow a similar trend.
