Are humans inherently bad creatures? Based off the recent readings about trolling, I'd come to the conclusion that we are. If one is to really look deeper into the idea behind trolling, it's easy to notice that humans will show their true selves when given the opportunity. When trolling, a person can be anonymous. A troll faces no consequences when they post online anonymously. There are many things people would like to do in life that are considered wrong, yet they don't in fear of the social backlash they'd receive in real life. When a person doesn't have to worry about being caught participating in a socially unacceptable act, that person will go through with the act. This act can be as little as tooting in public. It's harmless, but it's also frowned upon when doing it in public. However, when verbally abusing someone in public, it's not only seen as inappropriate, but it can harm people mentally. In both these cases, people won't toot or insult a person in public. It's interesting to note that when participating in online communities, people will take advantage of being anonymous and harm others with words. Because there are no consequences when verbally abusing others online, trolls will do just that. The fact that a person would hurt someone they don't even know merely for pleasure leads me to believe that people are inherently bad. I'm reminded of a quote I read online the other day saying, "The Japanese say you have three faces. The first face, you show to the world. The second face, you show to your close friends, and your family. The third face, you never show anyone. It is the truest reflection of who you are." A troll would be the third face in this case, because surely they would never act that way in front of anyone. Although everyone has this third face, I believe trolls enable us to see the true nature of humans, which is that we are all bad.
-Jaime Izabal
I completely agree with your viewpoint Jaime. Just like you said, no human would do these kinds of things in person or in public unless they are bad people. If all people are initially bad, then that would just mean that the majority of people are able to remain in control of that bad side of them. However, that brings to surface the question of whether bad and good are even real. Both of those are merely concepts that humans came up with that we have adapted to and now consider socially acceptable in everyday life. Trolls might even think they are not doing anything terribly wrong depending on their views of what is good and bad. It is a very tricky topic but through my perspective I agree with you completely. There is not a single person in the world that has never thought rude or disturbing thoughts as it is in our nature to do so. Most of us, however, have the self control to keep those thoughts in check.
ReplyDeleteI get what you're saying. As a people we are becoming more and more desensitized to things going on in the world. I'm sure we've all seen something horrible on the news and social media and just kept scrolling and changing the channel because it doesn't effect us. With trolling, the commenter isn't able to see the impact their words have on others. It makes it easier to keep doing what they're doing and not have to suffer the consequences. Humans weren't always so insensitive, but with technology, we can get away with someone much and no one would even know we did it.
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