Love and Hate. The worst enemies.
Hi Everyone. I am here to bring you the word of my gospel. I realize its up to me to explain your awful behavior lately to you since no one is actively doing what I tell them to do. So Today we’re talking about computers and how they invisibly affect our behavior. First tho I would like to interject this scripture with a popular Native American parable called Two Wolves. The theme and meaning of this story really stuck with me, especially in the current time we’re living in.
The summarized version of the story goes like this:
We all have two wolves inside of us that are at constant war with each other. One is evil – he is anger, envy, regret, greed, arrogance, guilt, resentment, lies, superiority, and ego. One is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, truth, and compassion. We are in control of which wolf wins the battle. The wolf that wins, is the wolf that we choose to feed.
Amazing isn’t it. It’s really that simple. We are always given that choice but you will see people are quick to feed the Evil Wolf. Why is that? What makes your brains betray you so quickly?
On to the main point of my teaching. I would like to explain how computers can change who we are. How do they enter the sense of you as a person and change how you would normally treat someone?
Time for another story. This time about a guy named Scott.
Now meet Scott: A 30-year-old man who used to live in his parent’s basement. Now Scott was always nice to everyone and he used to hate seeing strangers so quick to treat each other with hate. His philosophy was what you had heard your whole life, “Treat everyone the way you want to be treated.”
Now Scott didn’t get out much but one of his favorite things to do was get on to this blog where he talked about his favorite band, Dave Matthews.
[Actually, right now, I am running out of time to finish this story. Please pretend that a conclusion was made here because I am going to be referencing this story throughout the last half of my article.]
As you can see. It was like Scott discovered a release valve for his anger. His tiny computer. Now we begin to see the effects of this to his emotional mechanics. The psychology of this shows the validation that Scott was getting was therapeutic, like chemically therapeutic. Like a drug. When we get angry, our hypothalamus kicks in. We start to sweat. Our heart rate increases. And so naturally anyone feeling like that is going to do all sorts of things to get out of that uncomfortable state, like lashing out or going on a walk to cool down. But one really great way is validation.
Scott did just that. It didn’t matter if he was right anymore. As long as enough people agreed with him he was validated against anyone with less support. It’s just like that feeling you get when you go to a friend’s house to vent and they say, man you are right, it’s like a healing tonic. That sort of validation helps us feel content and feel at ease and in a state of equilibrium. The Internet, of course, is particularly great at giving us that validation. But with a much stronger potency. Now you are not just getting one person’s validation, you are getting upwards of 20 – 30 people’s validation. And like any drug, Scott, some of you, will do anything to get it. Luckily for Scott, he realized he had become the thing that he hated most. Such realization isn’t always granted tho. Thanks to Scott we are given an example of how acting online is way different than acting offline.
First: You are primarily communicating through text. So, you don’t have the social cues. We don’t have the facial cues or inflections in our voice. Have you ever been in a group and acted in a manner that was completely out of character for you? This is something we call Deindividualization : A concept in social psychology that is generally thought of as the loss of self-awareness in groups. This process of deindividuation can have powerful effects. For example, how can soldiers kill innocent children? They often answer this question by saying that they are not monsters, but that they were going along with the group and that they were just following orders, and that they were not the only ones doing it…. all engaged in heinous acts of violence because, in part, they had become deindividuated.
Online this can feel like a game. The fact that there are time delays. So, you can drop something into the internet and not stick around to see how people even respond sometimes. And of course, the anonymity. Which can make people act even more cruel to each other. While these things can happen to you in real life if you are a real nerd loser, it is still way more likely to happen online. So, when you add all this up you have a great perfect storm. Cutting out all those things evolution has built overtime to help us coexist peacefully.
This is now what this place has become
SKA: LORD OF THE FLIES.
Scientists have another name for it. The Online Disinhibition Effect.
This is what happened to MFA, To peoples noses, to peoples Lips, and so on.
I have no doubt you all aren’t terrible people. This is the worst of yourselves. Not your true self. And therefore, I am here. While I appreciate you all on the lowest level, I still want the best for you. It is clear to me that what you need is someone truly righteous to worship to have a reason to act pleasant. I am happy to be that for you guys.
For that is just who I am. An Icon Living. A God.
I hope I taught you all a lesson. Take care Nerds.
