The Domino Effect (Hostile Online Comments)

[Stacyzee]

Lets stand 20 domino pieces up.

Now lets align them in a straight row.

Lets push the first one with our finger….

*Boom*

Wow, that was a loud sound!

What happened?

Did one piece make all of the dominoes fall down?

I notice the exact same thing happens when it comes to online commenting.

Why is it that when one user is so hateful and bashful,

A lot of the comments behind that person tends

to take on the same tone?

It’s almost as if many of us forgot how to be leaders and instead

take the place of a follower.

Do you know the strength and courage the historic people in our past times had?

Do you know much influential people exist in this day and age,

that are still molding our society towards better?

Leaders didn’t get heard by being in silence.

They also didn’t get heard by following everyone else.

They set their own path.

They had their own voice.

The voice that they used wasn’t hateful and didn’t bash others.

Don’t get me wrong,

these leaders didn’t agree with all that was happening,

that is why they wanted to make a change.

But what made these leaders so important and effective is that,

they maintained their composure and gave constructive criticism.

They helped others see things in a light they never saw before.

They didn’t try to tear others down and spread hatred.

They sent messages of love, honor, and respect.

When you’re not being hateful, chances are people will really hear your message.

If you’re being hateful the message is lost in all of the obscene words that you are using.

Express yourself without being condescending or having mimicked someone else.

You have the ability to formulate thoughts and a structure of your own.

"The Domino effect" is an analogy that can be applied to many instances in life such as

(real life) bullying.

Take on your own mold!

You can spread words and knowledge that are powerful enough to reach another,

without being hostile.

[Ozanne]

Stacy, once again - bang on. You know there have been dozens of times right here on GaG when I will clearly pipe up and say at the beginning of my comment "This may not be what you want to hear" or "Unpopular comment ahead" <-- was my signature for a while! ... and then I would mow in to my thoughts that went against all the followers who were either looking for validation or just joined the hating-crowd. So many times I went back to comments I made like this all to find it had been upvoted by 6+ people (which is a lot for me), and a lot of times given MH even though I thought for sure I'd upset the Asker. My motive wasn't necessarily to get MH because I was almost sure I wouldn't - it was to give a different perspective from my honest opinion and experience when no one else would say what I thought was the obvious.

I also want to say that a user like @YourFutureEx is clearly one of those guys who has NO issue saying what seems so level-headed and goes against what his brethren are saying and in the midst of all the negative-band-wagon hopping, he has a gift of going against the grain and not very often will people find fault in what he says. It's easy to read, point form and non-offensive. It's perfect. When he says something I know he means it and gave it thought, and I wish more people could be like this instead of blowing their cool losing the point of what they wanted to originally say.

I too have glossed over some personal jabs just to answer someone's question/comment but it is hard sometimes. It's in me not to take shit offline, so online is not much different. The problem is, I have a ton of success offline and forget that some twatwaffle online has anonymity and can just go hide behind a monitor and avoid me and there's nothing I can do about that. Offline, not a chance. People in my physical world know really quick with me that I'm not a threat and don't want to fight with them, but if I'm attacked they end up wishing really quick there was a delete button to be had! LOL

[YourFutureEx]

I'm going to make a print out of this and nail it on my wall. This is the best I've read about me ;_;

[Ozanne]

Aww well it's true :) Maybe I'll autograph it for you some day! LOL

[Anonymous]

I agree. One person makes a stupid ass sarcastic comment and then everybody else has to copy them.

www.quickmeme.com/.../...47905e97d671316c22a80.jpg

I think this has to do with peer pressure. I think people on here come on here to feel like they belong to something, because in real life they don't. So to keep from feeling left out they have to do what others do.

3.bp.blogspot.com/.../...uillersevilla-d3dwein.png

How sad right?

[Kalibie]

I believe all humans are neither inherently good or bad) when we see a nice genuine person and we want to be like them, just like if you see a cold person you wouldn't really dare go up to them, and if you see a jerk you don't try to be nice either.
Basically as a social animal we mirror who we are interacting with to some extent.

And it's unfortunate, but this mimicking of behavior is what evolved and helped us grow, how we built our society.

It's just at this point we don't need it as much and we kind of have to work against our nature for greater peace lol.

[xHoneyxBeex]

I love this myTake and it's so true. When one person is hostile, they won't really be heard and their message typically won't be received well. It just causes the person on the receiving end to become defensive and possibly aggressive in return.

[YourFutureEx]

I always wanted to write regarding this but I didn't have better title than you :) thanks!

[checkyesjulietx]

I've noticed this as well. People need to learn how to think for themselves and come to their own conclusion instead of relying on someone else's