People are awful in cars too.
So the rule seems to be that people are awful when there is a piece of glass between them.
So the rule seems to be that people are awful when there is a piece of glass between them.
- the lack of perceived humanity in the perpetrator, because they are in a car or at a distant computer.
- the inability to communicate directly in an interactive way, preventing initial release of the expression
- the reduction of the entirety of the person to their actions in this specific context without room for extenuating circumstances.
The last one is even worse online because of retention. A reverse lens can occur, instead of viewing the ‘bad tweet’ in the context of the person’s overall output, the overall output is viewed and scrutinized via assumptions made from the offending action.
Though a cute joke, I think there is something lost by reducing it to "people can be awful anywhere".
Every time I’m berated while playing Xbox I wonder if eye contact, or even perceived eye contact, does something to our brains that makes us behave more in accordance with social norms.