Why does the online world seem so toxic compared with normal life? Our research shows that a small number of divisive accounts could be responsible – and offers a way out
Absolutely agree. There’s a minority of highly polarized people who encourage a false binary view of the world - where anyone who doesn’t 100% agree with you is your enemy, and questioning even a subtle aspect of an opinion is an all-out attack. These people post so much they dominate forums and create the false appearance of trends. Most people aren’t nearly that polarized.
The main point is that these interactions happen much less often IRL than online, where the anger trolls post relentlessly. If they acted like that in person almost nobody would ever talk to them, but for some weird reason they get a lot of takers online.
Absolutely agree. There’s a minority of highly polarized people who encourage a false binary view of the world - where anyone who doesn’t 100% agree with you is your enemy, and questioning even a subtle aspect of an opinion is an all-out attack. These people post so much they dominate forums and create the false appearance of trends. Most people aren’t nearly that polarized.
I find in real life they are just as polarized but not as rude about it. Both left and right friends of mine.
However almost all of them get the hint to respectfully change the topic when there is an impasse. Online the badgering continues unabated.
The main point is that these interactions happen much less often IRL than online, where the anger trolls post relentlessly. If they acted like that in person almost nobody would ever talk to them, but for some weird reason they get a lot of takers online.