Electric Society - Why All The Negativity?

Much of my interaction with people now is through the internet, particularly on forums. The most surprising thing to me about this format is how well it does at providing the necessary social interaction to feel pretty good. Before the internet I have had a couple of periods in which I had a similar number of friends as I do now that I could actually meet and talk to, that is none. During those times it was extremely lonely for me, which seemed a bit strange because two of my favorite activities have always been walking alone and reading a book, entirely solitary activities. However, while I feel the absence of something most people think is vital to a happy life, a group of friends to meet and talk to, this doesn't bear down on me in the way it has in the past.

Apparently typing to someone and getting a response, even if you don't know their real name, or even gender, fulfills something in the human psyche. I don't think it matters actually what the topic of conversation consists of, just that there is an interaction. Making a blog post doesn't have the same effect, because it is a one way process. It's interesting that playing music is similarly interactive, I can play the same thing by myself in a room or in front of a crowd, and it is the applause that really is the most enjoyable thing.

The forums that I visit are mostly sports forums. This is a result of the 2004 US Presidential elections. Before that point I was mostly interested in discussing the things that really matter, politics and philosophy and what we should do with the world. Upon the re-election of President Bush I found that all too depressing, the gulf between what we should be doing and what was actually happening was too vast, and immersed myself in the completely trivial world of sport.

One of the interesting things about the internet is what it tells you about people. For example, the major use of the internet is for pornography, this pornography is more popular in politically conservative areas than politically liberal areas, and that the rate of rapes decreases noticeably in areas that receive high speed internet. What this tells us is that basically everybody is really interested in sex, that this sex interest cannot be altered one bit by culture or religion, that denying this just makes the situation worse, and that when given a safe, private option people will take it over the dangerous, public option. In other words the best way to deal with sex is to give people all the legal access to it they want in a private place. The same is almost certainly true for drugs. I'm sure it's true for religion.

Second to pornography on the internet is the sport of arguing with people, and arguing with people about sport is probably close to the top of this area of interest. Don't believe me? At this Portland TrailBlazer Forum there have been about 625,000 topic postings in its' history, which is about ten years. That's 170 topic postings a day about one basketball team, and these are just the topic starters, without the replies. So, at this one site there has been an average of something like 1,000 opinions posted a day. NBA basketball has an eight month season, that's four months without any basketball played, and there are only games every three days during the season. I know of four other forums dedicated solely to this one team. If I had to guess I would say that there are 10,000 posted opinions per game on the internet. This is clearly a preposterous number of opinions about a basketball game.

Looking at the postings what you find is that it is precisely the arguing that makes up most of the posting. The level of viciousness that goes on is only matched by the level of arrogant stupidity that also take place. People who have never played an officiated game of basketball will consistently claim that the coach of the team, a person who has played professionally for more than a decade, coached multiple teams at the highest level, and been selected for a key management position in a several hundred million dollar operation by successful business people, is an idiot in some way with regards to his job. This a preposterous position to take, but I would say it is the largest single category of opinion expressed.

The overwhelming number of posts are in fact negative. This has been extremely interesting to me as the Portland Trailblazers have risen from being a bad team to a good team, and yet the proportion of negativity has not changed. It seems to me that the posting on the internet has almost nothing to do with the purported subject matter, but is actually an expression of personality. Just like hardcore pornography relieving the sexual tensions of people regardless of culture and religion and therefore cutting down on the rape numbers, I think online, anonymous arguing regardless of the subject is fulfilling a need for people.

One of the things to realize is that on these forums the overwhelming majority are men. Men communicate in order to solve problems. One of the basic function of men, what they have evolved to be, are solvers of problems. Without having an opinion on a problem, being able to express that opinion, men are shadows of themselves. This is why men are so much more pompous than women. But so much of modern life is about sublimating these opinions and conforming. At work if you are a low ranking employee your opinion doesn't matter. I'm sure we've all had the experience where we know how to improve a working situation but simply don't get listened to because of our job title. At church you are told what to think. At home the pressure is there not to upset your loved ones. Men just want to say what they really think sometimes, and the internet is an almost consequence free way of doing that.

The result is a deeply uncivil conversation with those of a differing point of view. It makes much of the discussion on the internet distasteful, but I think it is serving a purpose. Internet forums give people an outlet that has enough if a social stimulation to ward off loneliness, to feel more important, and to express their opinions, but also no-one really gets hurt as a result. Just like we'd all prefer weird uncle Tommy to be jacking off in a vinyl suit to disgusting pornography to him raping young women in the park, we'd actually all prefer ignorant, opinionated blowhards yelling on the internet to yelling at their loved ones.