Trolololol

During the past couple of days, I have been reading about trolling, flaming, and internet communication in general. I'm sure most of us have been the target of trolling and flaming, or have at least read it before. Anybody who has been involved in these activities knows how annoying and rude those people can be. However, most people do not think about the fundamental issues of internet communication which cause this behavior.

When we talk to somebody face to face, we subconsciously gather information about a person by their hand gestures, facial expressions, and tone of voice. These clues help us understand how a person feels about the subject they are talking about, and what they really mean when they say something. As well as body language clues, knowing the person gives us even more context to what they are saying. When we are on the phone, our communication worsens. The whole body language aspect is a not present. Our only clue is their tone of voice. The situation is even tougher when we text; but at least we know the person. Talking to people through chat rooms or forums is one of the worst ways to communicate. The only way we can gather information about the people we are talking to is through what they type, the website they are using (such as a gaming website), their profile picture, and their username. All other very important aspects of
communication are out the window. What somebody says could be skewed because their intentions are unknown to the reader. The lack of social context clouds communication between online users.

Another problem in anonymity. Because users are in an online environment, and could be anybody anywhere in the world, people are more daring in their conversation. A statement or question normally not appropriate for conversation can be said because there is no fear of embarrassment or punishment. "Nobody knows who I am, what are the consequences?" People become more daring, and begin to care less about other peoples' feelings because there are zero repercussions. This type of situation has the ability  foster an environment of negativity which is no fun to be a part of.

People can also get confused about who said what, when, and why. When conversations get to the point where it takes a couple of minutes to find a specific quote, things can get pretty crazy. The great length of the conversation causes people to falsely accuse others for saying something when it was really somebody else. The situation is compounded even more when a new user joins the conversation; they try to talk about things when they are out of context. It is really hard to track what is going on. This creates a lot more arguments.

The last issue is the way people type on the internet. There are different "rules" of typing that need to be understood; otherwise, a person's sentence could be perceived in a different way than intended. Simple things such as adding an exclamation point, or putting a word in caps can change the meaning of a sentence causing a person to become angry. This goes back to the first fundamental issue of online communication. The lack of face to face context makes is much harder to understand what a person is trying to say.

The online world is a very challenging place to navigate. The way people communicate online makes it even harder. One thing I have learned through my experiences is that one can not take things too seriously. You should patiently look over the conversation to get a feel for what was meant. Reading over the conversation can help pick up more context clues in order to make up for the lack of body language. Just letting things go can also make a huge difference; a comment that rubs you the wrong way could mean the exact opposite of what is expected. Just chill out. Take your attitude down half way because it will be blown back up on the other end anyway. This will make your experience with online communicating much more enjoyable, and less of a headache. Good luck!