Where Are Your Manners?!

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So, this won’t necessarily be a fun post. But it’s a vital one.

It is now a widely-acknowledged fact that our society tends to forget its manners, on a pretty regular basis. In this instance, I’m specifically addressing people who go on the internet with the sole purpose of making other people feel like crap.

This is NOT okay. It is STUPID. It is inhumane. It is beneath civilized human beings.

The reason this is bugging me in particular today is because of some recent internet hating that has happened to some of my online contacts. For absolutely no valid reason. They did not offend or hate on anybody else; they were just respectfully expressing an opinion, or sharing their passion for a hobby or interest. Displaying an attitude personally of “live and let live” with regards to whether others saw eye to eye with them or not. There was no reason for people to respond in such a harsh, immature, nonsensical way.

And I do not agree with the view that “if you’re on the internet, you’re opening yourself up to this stuff.” People NEED to start behaving like their mothers should have taught them — if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

 

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Sometimes we have to speak up — like I’m doing now. But there’s a massive difference between defending a friend or point of view in a civil tone and direction, and just blowing your stack and telling everybody who disagrees with you to go to hell.

I’ve stood by this perspective before, and will continue to. There are people in this world that I vehemently don’t concur with, but I’ll try my hardest to force down the truly unkind things I may want to say to them, in the interest of forming a coherent, rational discussion that may actually make some progress on the issue under all the brawling. This is how I’m wired, I will probably never change my mind in this regard — and honestly, I don’t see anything wrong with my Vulcan side considering the ultimate goal to be much more important than trying to coerce others into being on the exact same page.

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I think most of us also know by now that the old phrase “sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me” is an even bigger pile of dung than what an elephant produces after a birthday feast. “Words are containers for power,” Bible teacher Joyce Meyer once said, “and we can use words to build people up, or to tear them down.” In this most recent instance, I see a whole lot of tearing down.

It’s becoming so common to come across rude or even cruel comments on the internet that some people are actually just ignoring it. We should be attacking it. It’s a sign of where our culture is headed if we act like there’s nothing wrong with a social media post that says to somebody, “Your pictures are so %$#^&* up, I hope you get hit by a truck and rot by the side of the road tomorrow.” Especially when the first post merely featured a photograph of the family dog.

We need to do better, as human beings. We have souls — it’s about bloody time we used them.

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I may even get some pushback for this post. Can’t say I care — all nasty comments will be removed.

Technology is leaping forward at a frantic pace in this world — we can use it for good, or for ill. There is a lot of good being done out there via the internet; let’s make it much greater than the bad.

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