Feeding the Ego Monster

[Cowperson]

Pretty funny - and interesting - opinion piece in the Washington Post . . .

There is something about the Web that brings out the ego monster in everybody. It's not just the well-established tendency to be nasty. When you write for the Web, you open yourself up to breathtakingly vicious vitriol. People wish things on your mother, simply for bearing you, that you wouldn't wish on Hitler.

But even in their quieter modes, denizens of the Web seem to lug around huge egos and deeply questionable assumptions about how interesting they and their lives might be to others.

This is strange. Anonymity, for better or for worse, is supposed to be one of the signature qualities of the Web. As that dog in the New Yorker cartoon says, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." The Internet is a place where you can interact with other people and have complete control over how much they know about you. Or supposedly that is the case, and virtually everybody on the Internet is committed to achieving that goal.

But anonymity does not actually seem to interest many of the Web's most devoted users.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...112701024.html

Cowperson

[kermitology]

Some people take themselves too seriously on the internet. It makes it hard to debate when someone's automatic response is to call you an idiot or tell you to "look at the facts."

A lot of the posts that would bring out that "I HOPE YOU GET RAPED.. TWICE!" [rvb] seem to stem from people failing to admit that, either it's okay to have a different opinion, or failure to admit that they are wrong. One person makes the "personal" comment and it's over for rational discussion.

[troutman]

I call it "e-narcissism".

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by fotze

It's funny, its always other people that suck, its never ourselves.

Shut the hell up you fataing moron! Make sure you know the FACTS before coming to the debate.. God, I hate people like you!



Well... I like to approach a debate from my perspective and try to use the information I have present to bring someone to a similar conclusion as myself, but I've learned that making it personal doesn't work for that.