The internet is quite possibly the greatest achievement that mankind has ever accomplished. There are plenty of things that can go at the top of the list, such as flying, landing on the moon, creating motor vehicles, etc. When you look at our everyday lives, the internet is practically at the center of it now. Think about it: even as little as fifteen years ago, if we wanted various things, we had to get them from separate sources. Needed information about the news going on in the world? You had to wait for the news to come onto the television or go to a newspaper. Curious about who was playing games that night in professional sports? ESPN would have you covered, but you might be waiting a while to see it on television. Weather report for the week? Weather channel or the local news were your best options.
Now? All of the above are handled with the internet. I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I watched the local news on television.
The internet has connected many of us, and will continue to stretch further until it is possible for everyone in the modern, civilized world, to be able to chat with anyone else whenever they feel like it. Of course, there are certain things I could do without, such as the assholes.
Along with the advent of the internet came message boards. Plain and simple, message boards are basically the toxic waste dumps of the internet. Tragically enough, I frequent one of these only because I feel it's less stupid than other websites and I need somewhere to bitch about sports other than with my friends. Now, when you browse through the vast number of message boards that the internet has to offer, you will run into some that are more tame than others, while some of them would probably make a sailor not only blush, but vomit and eventually asphyxiate themselves in order to never see it again. Most people know which boards I'm referring to, but I won't bother naming them to save some of you your sanity.
Which brings me to the point of this evening's blog post: Why exactly does the internet turn normal people into raging assholes?
The fact of the matter is this: On the internet, you have some security by way of anonymity. Sure, if you do something that is incredibly terrible (Tell someone to kill themselves), illegal (Solicit yourself to underage people on a messenger), or retarded (visit any porn site that involves something other than humans), you have the chance to get a visit from some men in black suits that will take you away for some "questioning" but, rarely, does being an asshole warrant a visit like this. This is exactly why people do it.
You're probably closer to someone that does this than you think. Truth be told, in my younger years (which weren't that long ago) I was one of these people. I enjoyed having that simplicity of telling someone to go make a cocktail out of the various cleaners underneath a kitchen sink and chase it with a side of rubbing alcohol and having little to no repercussions to deal with. Since then, I have curbed this attitude because, simply put, there was little point to it.
However, many people not only do it, but they enjoy it. In fact, they get off on it. These people are called "trolls" on message boards. No matter what you say, what the topic is, or how you respond, this person is going to be the total opposite of you and instigate an argument because, no matter if they win or lose, that's exactly what they want. They want to ruin your day.
In the last few years, these type of people have been given better weapons to pull their moronic ways, such as through Skype, Ventrilo, and the worst one of them all....Xbox Live. Yes, XBL is probably the biggest toxic waste dump of them all, and unfortunately, I put up with it in order to enjoy playing my games online. The biggest offenders in this group, as a stab in the dark, are males in the age bracket of roughly 13-89....alright, so that isn't fair. I would say 13-24 is about the proper distance, while people above 24 have their moments if someone really pisses them off.
The games I play online consist currently of just a few titles: Halo: Reach, Tiger Woods 11, and NCAA Football 11. Of these three, I get the biggest sample size (and biggest assholes) out of Halo. When it comes down to it, Halo is just full of paper-hanging hun cocksuckers. (I'll be honest, I have absolutely no idea what that is supposed to mean, but it comes from a hilarious animated GIF that is WWII in Counterstrike form, and Patton says that to Hitler. It's funny.) At any point in time while playing Halo, you are subjected to up to 15 other people that are, potentially, assholes. Sure, they may not be assholes in real life and, chances are high that they aren't, but that's beside the point. What happens when you get all of these people into one room together? It sounds something like this:
"Herp derp you fucking moron!"
"You noob! You killed yourself!"
"Your mom's a noob!"
"I rode your mom last night!"
"Your sister sucks a fatty!"
"Yeah well my sister took a dump on your sister's chest!"
I'm not just randomly coming up with quotes there. That line of conversation actually happened, and it happened involving people on the same fucking team. Need any further proof that people just enjoy being assholes?
The other two games, Tiger Woods and NCAA Football, have their own special kind of asshole. Basically, they have the asshole that will do anything to screw you up. While playing NCAA, I have had children screaming in my ear literally the entire game or until they quit, call me a faggot and other wonderful slurs, and generally just act like they get their entire English language knowledge from watching Jackass.
So, as you can see and, honestly, most of you have probably already dealt with, the anonymity that the internet provides allows people to be an asshole without having to do it in their daily lives in front of friends and family. Maybe it's their way of venting. Perhaps they just love pissing people off. In the end, though, none of these people would ever act this way in their daily lives. If they do, I'm sure they'll end up in their local gray bar motel in the not too distant future.
This has been your rant of the day.
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