[Serious] You should FEEL BAD because you disagree with me

[EgoDeath]

Most people are hurtful because they are also hurting.
But there are also misunderstandings between people who have different personalities.
And there are individuals who belong to groups that have misunderstandings with other groups.
It's my belief that the majority of people are good people but have different ways of showing it, often each equally as valid as the other.

I agree with this and would add that there’s something about the internet that makes people about 10 times meaner than they are in real life. It’s weird. I try not to fall into it but I find myself saying things to people online that I would never say to someone in person.

This is something I think we should all actively try to avoid with each post we make. Maybe I'm biased here because I do this, but I think with every post, you should ask yourself, "Would I say this to this person in real life?" I'm a bit of a brash person and say what's on my mind, but I STILL try to ask myself, is this a genuine interaction I would have with someone or do I only feel safe saying this because I'm on the computer?

Most times, I post things I would have no issue saying to someone in real life, with, hopefully, language that's a little bit clearer and more concise. I find this important because, realistically, if you're one person online and another person in real life, who are you really? Is your persona online more accurate to how you feel? I doubt it. Who we are is hugely dependent on who we interact with and how we interact with those people, and if we start to define who we are as what we're willing to say when no one can see our face, I think that's a pretty slippery slope. Some people argue that "character is what you do when no one else is around," but I don't know if that paints a complete picture.

If anything, maybe we can sort of move the meter both ways. We can learn to treat people with a little more respect when we're anonymous, and learn to be a little more outspoken with people in our actual lives.

I'm not quite sure if I'm convinced that our "true selves" comes out when we're anonymous, like a lot of people suggest. I just don't think what we say on an internet forum because we feel "unhinged" is necessarily going to be the truest representation of ourselves.