Quite a shame how people respond

[little_monkey]

"Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me" might contain a lot of bravado, but if that were true, we wouldn't read, go to movies or listen to the lyrics of a song. And certainly forums like this one wouldn't matter at all.

Yeah, I agree that the "sticks and stones" phrase is not exactly true because sometimes words do have negative affects on others. But, I think that's the problem with some people; they care a little too much about what is said to them, which is not good, in my opinion. Yes, words affect everyone, but we shouldn't let them affect us so much so that we become all depressed or angry for days or weeks or whatever amount of time just because someone said something that we don't like, especially on an internet forum since you don't know these people in real life and since most people come here just to have some fun.

With words, however, at least you have more control over that because you can sometimes ignore them or you can forgive them for saying bad things (and you can forgive yourself as well), or you can even return the insult if you want to. But if you get hurt by, say, a rock, tree, wall, paper, or by anything physical ("sticks and stones"), then you don't have as much control over the pain as you have with words.

Yes, of course, over time, most people will ''grow some skins'', but take for example Dawkins, he sort of lost it with his website. He was too outraged by the language and the verbal violence which had spread like a cancer. He couldn't take it and so he decided to close it down, even though it was the most active forum for atheists. But then, look at how he frequently answers in public. He is no model of restrain when it comes to use cussin' words. All in all, it has to do with self-discipline. Anyone can use the F-word, it's the easiest one to use when you want to tell someone to get lost. But as I said before, it has been overused and abused.