Anyone who knows me personally knows I have a bit of an unhealthy addiction to the Internet and, more specifically, message boards. Up until recently, I only posted regularly on one, but lately I’ve been posting on an offshoot of the first board. Essentially, it’s some of the same people, just smaller and, until recently, relatively drama free.

I think when people spend an insane amount of time on message boards start to forget that a screen name is more than just words on a screen. It’s more than just pixels. There is a real person on the other end of that name. A real person that may just be hiding behind that screen name saying things he wouldn’t say to someone’s face. Or a real person saying mean things because they are too far away to say it to someone’s face. Or a real person being hurt by what is being said about them. I know I’ve fallen into all three categories at some point or another, though the first one very very rarely.

The Internet has destroyed empathy. Because a writer can’t see the look on someone’s face when he says something bad about someone, he can delude himself into thinking what he said wasn’t really that bad at all. It’s really quite sad. I won’t say people hide behind the Internet, but this lack of face-to-face communication has led people to say things they normally wouldn’t, even if they do practically SHOUT that they would say it to someone’s face. In this aspect, technology is a horrible thing. It’s pushed us to a point where humans behave in an appalling manner while in public. (And don’t for one minute think that because you post in your Spiderman pjs from the privacy of your own home that you aren’t in public. The Internet is a public place and should be treated like one.)

Even worse, the Internet has destroyed privacy. I’m a very open person. Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows that about me. So when there is an aspect of my life that I choose to keep private, then it must be important to me that it stays private. And I’m sure that’s true for many people. Unfortunately, there are people out there who feel entitled, thanks to the Internet, to have any information about someone ready and at their fingertips in an instant. And who have no qualms about sharing even the most ridiculous of rumors about someone as if it were fact.

It really does make me wonder if humans weren’t better off without technology.