Incivility
I’ve been regularly blocking the boors on Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter who are uncivil: They whine, complain, use obscenity, have no patience, expect everyone to accept their agenda, boast unceasingly.
One cause for all this is the fact that we seldom deal with each other in person. “Friends” on Facebook is a stretch. A friend is someone you trust, can rely upon, and who thinks of your best interests. These are mere acquaintances, at best. (Just as “Dancing With the Stars” is, in reality, “Dancing With the Vaguely Familiar.” Is “C List” really a “star”?)
When people aren’t with you, they take more liberties, are bolder, and become more uncaring. I’ve noticed that even Skype creates better manners than merely a phone call, and phone calls are far superior—in terms of civility—to email. I’ve had people send me email with epithets and slurs they wouldn’t dare say to me or anyone else in person. Remoteness emboldens the faint-hearted, empowers the coward, and engenders otherwise unthinkable language. (The same holds true for many profile pictures on Facebook. I mean, seriously?)
Of course, the bright side is that it’s far easier to “block” someone on Facebook than at a party or at dinner. But people aren’t usually insulting or insufferable at parties or dinner unless they’re drunk, which may be the only rational condition to be in when you read some of the outrageous garbage on Facebook.
© Alan Weiss 2014.
