Pulling the plug on online comments

[US71]

I got tired of the *##()% on the FB political pages so I unfollowed every one I had and never looked back.  I found I'm looking now at stuff I really like to look at, such as road enthusiast, alumni and lighthouse enthusiast pages.

I installed Facebook Purity and it has blocked a lot of the ad crap and political garbage. I still need to make a few adjustments.

[Duke87]

I think it's interesting that anonymity is considered to be the reason that people act the way they do in comments sections, when it's actually been debunked: http://qz.com/741933/internet-trolls-are-even-more-hostile-when-theyre-using-their-real-names-a-study-finds/

This is but one case study, although they do make a valid point that seems to play out elsewhere.

Consider this. Many of us know each other personally. How many of us interact with each other on this forum in a way we would not in person? How many of us interact with each other on Facebook or other social media in ways that we would not in person? I know I've certainly caught myself getting into heated online arguments with friends and then realizing "wait a minute, what am I doing, I would never yell in this person's face like I'm yelling in their comment thread right now"

It seems to me that more important than anonymity is the physical disconnect between people involved. When interacting face to face, our capacity for empathy forces us to share whatever emotions we cause in others, so we have a selfish interest to make them good. But when we can't see the other person's face, our capacity for empathy is severely diminished and we are therefore largely absolved of the emotional consequences of our actions. We start to say and do what makes us feel good in a social vacuum without regard for how it makes others feel.

It's the same psychological effect as with road rage. We're willing to cut other drivers off and scream profanities at them on the road, we're willing to do neither to other people waiting on a checkout line. When you interact with a person you treat them as a human, with proper respect and dignity. When you interact with a car or a computer, you behave like you are interacting with an emotionless machine, because that is all you see.

Unfortunately what this means is that the internet troll problem is as unsolvable as the road rage problem, aside from encouraging people to spend less time in their cars and on their computers and more time face to face with others.

[vdeane]

The New York Times comment section seems to be much smarter than other publications. Their readers tend to be pretty smart.

It's also heavily moderated and comments are only on a small number of their articles.