Pertaining to the Wild Jungle of the Internet

[nancyfulda]

I have concluded that colliding world views are kind of like going to the beach.

Really.

See, we all need sunlight. Vitamin D and all that. But we also can’t handle too much of that beautiful, healthy UV light, because our skin will get red and then start to peel and we’ll feel achy and unhealthy for days on end. So we’ve all learned to moderate

Comments

[ext_2135301]

Nice post, Nancy -- I like the metaphor. I could use some mental sunscreen! IPF 50 ... where the "I" can be Internet, ideology, idiocy, etc.

Thanks!
G

[nancyfulda]

IPF 50... I love it!

And I really like the metaphor, too. I think sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking the problem is in the ideological diversity, that we somehow need to make other ideologies disappear -- when really the reason we're hurting is just that we've had a bit too much exposure, crammed into too short a time span.

Not that that's the only reason people can hurt, of course, or that ideologies don't clash badly in the real world. But for those of us wandering around on the internet, a lot of the frustration seems to circle around the theme of: "Your words are hurting me! Stop hurting me!"

[bondo_ba]

I actually think that this is a good distillation of how most of us feel when on forums lately...

[nancyfulda]

Yeah, I've been thinking about that. We're first-generation social networkers. We don't have annoying grandmothers telling us to wear our sunscreen and look both ways before crossing the street. We've got to figure all this stuff out on our own, and some days I don't feel like I'm doing a very good job.

I kind of wonder what condensed advice-soundbytes we will eventually pass on to our successors. "An ounce of prevention..." and "An apple a day..." sound hokey to modern ears, but there's a reason those phrases got repeated often enough to become cliche.

"Don't feed the trolls" seems to be the official First Rule of the internet, so the process is already underway...

[melissajm]

"Ideological sunburn." What a great way of putting it!