Anyone else feel the internet's become a miserable place?

[Malcolm]

Or at least more miserable than it used to be?

People are constantly arguing and attacking each other over the most trivial, the spreading of lies and hatred, the blatant dehumanizing of marginalized groups, people gleefully getting off on making others miserable and outright ruining their lives by posting personal info all just because someone disagreed with them... And lord help you if you mention that you're a woman or black or any other non-straight white male group on the internet. And all of this is supposed to be okay because "It's the internet".

I dunno. I'm just feeling really bummed out by the internet.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Pretty much the main reason why I use this as my online home. It’s a chill place where we quickly moderate out the crap and real friendships can be started.

[GuyOfOwnage]

I feel like the more we rely on it, the more time we spend on it; thus the more people we interact with, and eventually, the odds of it being a miserable place become practically guaranteed.

[riseofsetian1981]

Meh, I honestly think it's always been that way more or less. Basically more people are using it thus creating a particular air that makes it miserable.

Those who argue over trivial matters I just shrug and ignore, trolls are easily ignored, and once you use it for your own happiness and understanding it's not a bad place in retrospect.

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

It’s always been a terrible place. Just more people on it now.

[James Fabiano]

Just "become"? I mean, now?

[The 1Watcher Experience]

I totally understand your point but I can’t be discouraged by strangers on the internet. I’ve come across plenty of people that live on the internet that don’t work by choice or otherwise and are generally miserable people. The internet is affordable and can be a constant source of entertainment. People can tailor it to their interests and create their own little world.

Some people seem to get territorial over it. I’ve seen people more or less stalk others to attempt to discourage them or run them off. That doesn’t work on me. I just can’t take it too seriously. Some people are just hateful. Perhaps some are trolling. Maybe they can’t make friends or get a date. Some might have mental issues. It could be all of those reasons or none of them. You just don’t know. What I do know is that those types would never say those types of things to me or probably anyone else in person. Consider that the next time you get bummed out over something on the internet.

The internet can be a lot of fun but some people have a very different idea of what fun is. You take the good with the bad. I feel for some celebrities that have their past posts in social media used against them and for people that have their personal information violated. Those are instances where people can gain a measure of power over others. It’s best to be careful and aware of what you post or share on the internet. That’s the best way to avoid that kind of trouble.

It seems some angry people on the internet get some sort of self perceived power from attacking others to make themselves feel superior to everyone else. It’s a petty kind of tyranny. I’ve had people attack me by inventing an entire story from a very vague post. Some people love to make assumptions and the ones that do usually assume the worst. I think a great New Year’s resolution would be for people to look for the good in others and stop assuming the worst about them but I know that’s asking too much. It would make the internet a nicer place but too many people don’t want that.

[Ultimo Gallos]

It depends on where you go. Like how there are people in the IWC that shit on everything. All you gotta do is block/avoid them.

[Dub H]

Maybe I am optimist or visit the right places.But I feel like compared to years ago it became much easier fo find nice people.

[Limity (BLM)]

Go check our tumblr, I hear they've really cleaned up their act.

[YAKMAN is ICHIBAN]

If anything it is a more cleaned up place than it used to be. You used to be able to stumble upon child porn searching through user webpage hosting sites like Angelfire or Geocities, and the Yahoo user chats were truly a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Just stop going to shitty places on the internet.

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

Dec 18, 2018 17:05:18 GMT -5 YAKMAN is ICHIBAN said:

Just stop going to shitty places on the internet.

That’s what I say. And yet Twitter is still popular as all hell.

[CeilingFan]

I do, ever since IMDB eliminated their message boards.

[Cyno]

"It's just the internet" has been used to excuse scummy behavior from individuals for as long as I remember. Maybe it's more miserable now because society in general feels miserable, divisive, and pessimistic. Maybe it's because the more miserable parts of the internet like social media are more pervasive in everyday life compared to days where it felt more isolated to a particular, easy-to-ignore forum or chatroom. Or maybe it's recency bias coming through.