Welcome to the Internet!

You often hear this when telling some asshole online to calm down, "welcome to the internet, everyone's an asshole!", this is not true, in fact it's utter bullshit. After seeing it once again, and after thinking about a line from True Detective, I'm going to somewhat go deeper into this statement and hopefully prove that simply because you're on the internet doesn't give you a free pass on being an asshole. 

It is true, the internet can be a vile, horrible place filled with bad people, just like the real world. The thing is, everyone feel hidden, like they're there but still not really. If you go through the internet you'll get a pretty honest version of humanity right now, uncensored and without a deceptive smile. The thing is if all that's keeping you from being an utter pain in the ass is some internet anonymity then that indicates who you truly are.

You may be the most kind and polite person in real life but if you go online and start trash talking then you're not really that nice. It's the same thing as a friend who's nice to you but talk down to a waiter, as an example. "Welcome to the internet" simply isn't a valid excuse to be an asshole, if we can't treat each other in a respectable manner simply because of "teh internetz" then it's truly a sad affair.

Not a nice person.

As luck would have it, it kinda is. People complain that kids today are rude brats, now we can dismiss that as just maturing people talking down on the new generation. However, kids today are raised on the internet, even when together face to face they sit with their phones, texting. Kids used to talk with each other face to face, that's how we learn how to behave, if you call someone ugly in real life they usually react and you learn to notice "oh shit, he was hurt, maybe I shouldn't do that?". Now that's not the case anymore, they can trash talk all they want without any human reaction, not before long everyone's going to be sociopaths.

So what can we do? Well, first off, have some fucking manners. It's time to grow up and realize that you won't gain any respect by spewing bullshit around you, people you talk to on the internet are still people, people like you with feelings, dreams and challenges. Secondly, we also need to realize that maybe we're not as anonymous as we think. Do you think it's hard to figure out who you are, AnonTroller99 (made up name)? Everything can be traced on the internet, but unlike real life everything you say is recorded. Maybe bare that in mind, everything you say can come to the surface at any time, shit, hope you don't become a celebrity, everything you've ever said will be dug up and plastered all over some one dollar magazine.

It's likely I won't convince anyone with this, perhaps you want to type a comment saying "Fuck you!", but remember that comment won't go anywhere. It will be there always, long after you're dust your imprint on the world will be just that, a random obscenity. Just, please, try to respect one another, perhaps we can't change the world, but don't make it any worse.