The Problem of Abuse is the Greatest Challenge the Web Faces Today.

[MattSh]

This article is nominally about Twitter, but it sums up a number of things that are wrong in the world today. IMHO. And DU is not immune, either.

Why Twitter’s Dying (And What You Can Learn From It) — Bad Words — Medium

Abuse does not arise in a vacuum. A healthy mind does not (need to) abuse. Abuse is created of trauma, and it is the traumatized mind which abuses. Whether to externalize, bury, escape its anger and frustration — the abused mind must purge it’s hurt in some manner, or risk being broken, split apart by it entirely.

But the troubling fact is this.

We have created an abusive society. We have normalized, regularized, and routinized abuse. We are abused at work, by the very rules, norms, and expectations of our jobs, at which we are merely “human resources”, to be utilized, allocated, depleted. We are abused at play, by industries that seek to prey on our innocence and literally “target” our human weaknessses. And now we are abused at arm’s length, through the lightwaves, by people we will never meet, for things we have barely even said. We live in a society where school shootings are the rule, not the exception, where more people will have taken antidepressants than not…and now one where nearly everyone will have been abused on the web…for a random, off-hand, throwaway comment, an idle thought, something trivial, unremarkable, meaningless.

This is an age of stagnation. Of broken dreams and thwarted expectations. What is stagnating is not just “the economy” — but us. Our possibilities and potential, the lives that we should be living. That is what is creating a great cycle of violence. Stagnation is abuse. And we are its victims. We have been cheated not just of our savings, retirements, jobs, social contracts — but of what all those free us to be: ourselves. But we are also, in our anger and despair, its enforcers. Endlessly, at least on the social web, picking on, bullying, squabbling with, decrying, outraged at, one another…for nothing that means anything at all. The abused become the abusers.

That is the great megatrend which the social web is part of: the abusive society, a great stagnation cresting into a wave of anger. Do you think I overstate my case? Then step back for a moment and consider the rise of right-wing extremist parties across the globe. It is fuelled by the resentment and frustration of stagnation. And that anger and frustration, whether it is perpetual outrage, or the passive aggression of bitter irony, is perhaps today’s defining culture feature. We abuse one another, having been abused ourselves.


-----> https://medium.com/bad-words/why-twitter-s-dying-and-what-you-can-learn-from-it-9ed233e37974

[DJ13]

1. Stagnation is abuse.

The average citizen can feel the truth in that idea, which is why the real outsiders in both party's have been rising to challenge the establishment candidates.

We cant afford more status quo middle of the road politics now.

[Kalidurga]

2. I like him

He explains very well why Twitter is dying (if this is the case, I dunno I rarely go there), and why we have such a violent society and why depression is on the rise. This is a very good piece tying all those issues together under the umbrella of an abusive society.

[Sherman A1]

4. Precisely

It appears to unfortunately have summed things up rather well...

[JDPriestly]

3. Instead of messing up our public education, the Bill Gates Foundation and Walmart should

invest in a campaign for schools, churches, television and the internet -- any means to reach people -- to teach parenting skills and anger management skills.

I have met a lot of people who really do not know how to deal with others in a nonviolent way when they become angry or frustrated.

We could reduce our prison population, save lives and really help our society if the information that scientists have discovered about how our minds work and how we can learn to have better self-control, better communication and better mental habits could be disseminated.

I recommend the book, Non-Violent Communication by Rosenberg.

I don't have any personal interest in the sale or dissemination of the book other than that I took a seminar from the group that teaches the skills discussed in it and I really think it is great.

[lovemydog]

6. Thanks for the book suggestion.

I love this type of reading.

[ohheckyeah]

5. We see perfect

examples of this right here on DU. The revolution creates tyrants indeed.

Great article - thanks for sharing.

[brer cat]

7. Very interesting read, although I don't use twitter.

This sums up what I see on DU these days:

People have self-sorted into cliques, little in-groups, tribes. The purpose of tribes is to defend their beliefs, their ways, their customs, their culture — their ways of seeing the world. The digital world is separated into “ists” — it doesn’t matter what, really, economists, mens-rightists, leftists, rightists — and those “ists” place their “ism” before and above all, because it is their organizing belief, the very faith that has brought them together in the first place. Hence, to them, it’s the totem to which everyone, including you, must pay homage, and if you dare not to bow down before it…or worse still to challenge it…well, then the faithful will do what they must to defend their gods. They will declare a crusade against you.

To a large degree we have lost debate and exchange of meaningful information as a means of communicating and gone straight to the crusade where, in the words of a very shallow person, you are with us or against us.

[Kalidurga]

8. you are with us or against us

that's gonna leave a mark. But, it is true. Wait...probably why it's gonna leave a mark.

[frizzled]

9. Censorship, government spying, and the walled garden are the greatest challenges.

And the Left has a lot to answer for.

The rise of right-wing speech online is undeniable, and it's directly connected to a large faction on the Left making conservative thought unacceptable to say in public, particularly with young people and in colleges. It's becoming cooler and "edgier" to be conservative than progressive in some places.

The internet has always been a place to vent, and it's the newcomers who interpret it as "abuse".

[AngryAmish]

10. Whoever wrote this is an asshole and needs to STFU.

[lovemydog]

12. LOL!

[Doctor_J]

11. And hyperbole's right there too