"Harris' Law" and Internet Empathy

[Aurora Firestorm]

I was reading an article that summed up my view of the internet succinctly. It went something like this: "Harris' Law: at some point, all humanity in an online community is lost, and the goal becomes to inflict as much psychological suffering on a person as possible."

The Internet has made us anonymous. Do you think that this is detrimental? Can we really have empathy on the Internet, without faces to watch as they contort from all the insulting and trolling? Can we ever expect people to act civilized? Or is it inevitable that most communities will boil down to mindless ad hominem because humans love to hurt other humans?

 

[SilentCom]

I don't think "all humanity in an online community is lost" but people will act like d!cks online, especially in online games and certain forums. It's usually because people feel like they can get away with it when they're anonymous, as was displayed by Cheshire above me.

 

[Jodah]

All I have to say is God help us all if someone invents a way to smack stupid people through computer screens...

 

[ZacktheWolf]

I don't think it will ever entirely be a case of "all is lost" as you seem to imply it will. There will always be people who are indeed total f*ckwads, and yet there will be people who remain civil whether they are anonymous or not. imo, that latter group possesses a much stronger moral backbone... and I'm expecting to be mocked for that, because morals are not something the loudest portion of the internet endorses.
I guess it will always be a good (...perhaps that's not the best choice of words) place to use as an outlet for all the times and places we WISH we could act like total jack***es, be that in school, at work, to our parents, or friends... now anonymous and risking nothing (maybe a ban, but admit it, you know they can be gotten around. Not that I'm advocating, just stating a fact), you can let out all that frustration on some hapless fellow internet denizen who possesses opinion that differs slightly from your own.

So long as people know not to at like that in real life, and it doesn't get too out of hand online... I guess it should just stay the way it is.
I do wish more people were considerate of each other online, but there's as much chance of that happening as there is for morals to enter government practices. =(