It used to be that
I held my breath and was hurt by every negative comment that I encountered on
the web. Well, not any more. I yawn when someone tweets something negative
about me or something that I dearly care for. Their bombs have simply become
duds.
I have been an
avid user of the net since its nascence. Those were the days when BBS and
mailing lists were at the forefront of what were considered new and exciting.
The misanthropes and bomb-droppers were those who would abruptly write
something nasty, just to attract attention to themselves, or to make everybody
around uncomfortable.
And those
creatures often succeeded, much to our dismay. The well-meaning fellows would
often intervene, which resulted, almost without a single exception, in an ever escalating
calamity. For the bastards, the well-meaning comments and efforts of
reconciliations were just fuels to boost their malicious ego trip. I have seen
many BBS and mailing lists going to the dogs through such a process.
We should not
forget what a great invention twitter has been. There, the malicious comments
can be largely left to themselves. The stupid tweets physically exist, but not
so much socially. There is a selection pressure, in which those who tweet for
benefit and substance would attract more followers. Even if you want to have an
ego trip on the twitter, chances are that you won’t be able to ride on a big
wave. Only ripples from the like-minded would soak your feet.
So, that’s how I
stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb. The culture of mutually assured
humiliation still exists on the web, but it does not really matter any more. We
can now stop worrying about trivialities of human vice and start worrying about
things of real importance.
