Cyber rage!
I recently had an incident at work involving coworkers who had been exchanging emails discussing behavioral issues. The exchange had been conducted openly on a listserv. One individual sends a private email trying to iron out differences out of the public eye. The other reposts his email on the listserv with his rebuttal. This incindent started out productive and turned nasty with the two exchanging hostile messages that would probably not have been said if face to face.
This got me to thinking about how often this sort of thing occurs. I know in cars people feel anonymous and secure and that in turn leads to aggressive behaviors. Can this be true in cyberspace? I think so.
May 28th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
What an interesting observation you’ve made. I’ve seen similar exchanges and one thing I’ve wondered about has to do with the mechanisms people use to inhibit themselves. It seems as though inappropriate behavior online means that individual doesn’t know how to inhibit inappropriate behaviors. If they, in turn, behave appropriately face to face, then they place responsibility for their appropriate behavior on others. I’m going to have to think more about this because I don’t think I’ve expressed it well but I think it’s key that you noted that the inappropriate conversation would not have taken place face to face. Is technology at fault or has technology simply illuminated the problem?