The Panphobic Internet

I rarely buy in to the whole “be yourself” philosophy.  Too many people say that; it is only a means to blow off whatever valid point might be made about one’s personality.  Be the kind of person you want to be, I say.  I think I’m not alone in my social tendencies, to that end.

When I am in a social situation, be it with one person or a group of people, I find that I spend the initial stages of the exchange analyzing (sub-consciously or otherwise) the personality traits of those around me.  As the interaction continues, I tend to mold myself into an amalgamation of personalities that can interact best with that person or persons.  It is only when I am at home, without any reason or desire to adapt myself socially, that I am truly just “me”, and that is often when I truly am the sum of my memories.  In itself, the Me that sits here now is a combination of all the personalities that I have been in the past, with some dominant traits taking over where the less-used ones are set aside as pending, to be brought forth only when they can best be used.

With that in mind, it explains a lot about the internet.  It is behind the blanket of anonymity that people can embrace the personality-free monotone that is text on the screen, where people’s “true selves” come out more easily.  Of course, that is a very convenient way to look at it from my angle, because that makes me a saint by comparison to 99% of the people I watch in online-social exchanges.  Insults are aplenty, racism and phobia and paranoia are everywhere, and opinions without any basis of rational thought are thrown around like bacteria, polluting others’ sense of well-being in a tornado of bad moods and worse attitudes.  The internet embraces, and is embraced by, panphobia.  It seems like everyone on the planet is pissed off and/or scared shitless about anything they are given the option to fear, and with the internet they are provided a means to shed all of their social adaptations and inhibitions, and let their true selves — as ignorant and selfish as they may be — shine out for all to see in an internal defense mechanism made external as we all scream at the wall and watch the words of our inner demons appear without consequence.  ”Epic fail” would be the phrase to use, ironically coined by those who unknowingly embody the term.

The process of shedding our adaptive personalities in favor of the panphobic nature that blankets the internet is bolstered by the very rights we fight for.  We want the freedom to speak our mind, combined with the freedom to be heard.  An interesting dynamic, when you’re letting everyone talk at once.   When the ethical nature of tolerance that humanity has cultivated for so long disintegrates in a wind of noxious dissatisfaction with our lives, and hatred towards at least one other person or group of persons, it results in everyone screaming not only for their right to be heard, but practically begging for their right to silence others.  Organized religion failed to silence offending opinion when it was separated from the state.  The Internet, while not allowing it to happen, certainly seems to be cultivating the desire for it to happen through its integration into the world.

We’ve gone from giving everyone the right to be heard, to giving everyone the right to ignore, and to remain ignorant.

I am guilty as charged.  I love the internet for allowing me to speak my mind, and I refuse to shut up.  The very nature of my dissatisfaction with those who would perpetuate the global panphobia and intolerance you can see today by just randomly browsing forums means that I am no different.  Given the option, I would silence them (or at the very least force a sense of decency and ethics down their ignorant throats).  I am no better.

If it’s unavoidable, then perhaps the restraints that we place on ourselves in adapting to social situations are the very same restraints we should place on ourselves when barking into cyberspace.

I am not quite at the level of opening up and letting everyone know my personal data in order to restrain myself into an ethically bound entity on the internet.  Perhaps one day I will.  For now, at the very least, I can recognize a certain level of personal restraint (nay, adaptation) that I would have in any social situation, and apply it to my presence in cyberspace.  There’s nothing wrong with snark and sarcasm when applied with the right doses at the right times, but there is such a thing as letting our ignorance of other viewpoints and attitudes interfere with our ability to comprehend why we might not each be islands unto ourselves.  There’s only one island, and we’re all on it.  The only thing we shouldn’t tolerate is the panphobia that has become the very definition of internet culture.

Unfortunately, you cannot use the Internet to proclaim that the Internet might have been a pretty bad idea.  The entity of anonymous free-for-all phobia that embodies this global digital culture is probably the only thing left that cannot realistically be pwned with an overused meme or geeky witticism.

Internet is Epic fail.

See?  Doesn’t work at all.

More later.