I wanted to share with you all some words of extreme wisdom in a recent post by Ryan Sohmer, creator/writer of Least I Could Do and Looking for Group:
It’s no secret that web anonymity breeds a high level of douche-baggery. Why bother with outdated concepts such as respect, open mindedness and base decency when no one knows who you are?
Why, indeed, when it so easy to set up a new forum account or a blog and write things which you would never say aloud? Why?
Because of the illusion that your actions, your words are completely consequence free. I say illusion because it is just that, an illusion, it’s false. There are always consequences to our actions, though it may not be ourselves who suffer them.
More than a punch to the head, words do hurt. What you write laughing in your bedroom at 4am about another human being can deeply wound that person.
When a time comes that I find myself writing about another person, I always ask myself a simple question: Would I say that to his/her face? If the answer is yes, I hit publish. If the answer is no, I delete.
I wish I could institute this policy to the web as a whole, but I simply don’t have that reach. My hope is that some of you at least will take these words to heart, and like our mother’s taught us to think before we talk, please think before you type.
The reason I bring this up is because I’ve been following the recent dust up between Perez Hilton (who I consider to be complete trash) and Will.I.Am. If you haven’t heard about it yet, do yourself a favor and try and ignore it, it will make you feel just a little bit worse about humanity.
Still, it did make me think.
Violence is not an answer to any question, it is not a solution to any problem. I would also say the same about what Hilton does for a ‘living’. Dozens of times per day, he goes on record to millions of loyal readers and bashes, makes fun of and judges people in the media’s eye. It’s a deplorable thing he does, and thus far, he’s never faced any consequences for his actions. Until now, until he was punched in the head.
Hilton isn’t a victim, he was held accountable.
Should he have been punched? No. But he wasn’t blameless.
How would you have reacted if someone said to your face what Hilton says about others on a daily basis, either about you, a family member or a friend?
Hilton shouldn’t have been attacked, that is wrong. People should stop supporting what he does, that is also wrong.
While the media will no doubt be talking about this for the next few weeks, I honestly hope that people will realize this incident can be applied to the vast majority of the internet using community. And that maybe, we can learn from it.
It’s easy to do the right thing when everyone is looking, but how about doing the right thing when you’re alone at your computer?
