On Line Behavior

[gategeek]

i read this passage in an online essay and it really hit me right between the eyes and made me examine my own online behavior.

"please try to remember that the folks you correspond with on-line are real human beings. Don't get so focused on your admiration of the characters that you do damage to a real person in defense of an image on a television screen. And don't get so passionate in your defense of an actor or actress who will never know most of us exist that you hurt someone who does know you exist and who shares a fandom with you."
--from "White Line Fever" by AnneZo

any thoughts?
shanilka

 

[Bizarro7]

Only thought...

It doesn't matter which fandom you're referring to; on the online community, you'll find immature individuals who are hell-bent on gaining as much attention as they can, positive OR negative. You'll find fans who get a shred of attention from a demi-celebrity and spend the rest of their tenure in the fandom, kissing up to him/her, right or wrong, to bask in the imagined light of their presence. You'll find fans who take up a crusade because they perceive that the show they fell in love with has been degraded and compromised...and sometimes, they're right. You'll find fans who are indifferent, so long as they are getting pretty much what they want, and everyone else can go to hell.

None of this will change, because fandoms are made up of human beings, in all their foibles.

 

[Rowan]

Thoughts

This should be sommon sense no matter if the topic is a fandom or a personal interest such as gardening. Especially in the electronic media. It can be difficult to be passionatly in love with a topic and not come across too hard, espeically since we can't 'see' or 'hear' the actual person.

The statement makes sense.

Row

 

[gategeek]

hi bizzaro - you make some valid points but i'm not sure how they relate to the passage i quoted which deals with fan behavior towards other fans regardless of their viewpoints. i'm sorry if it appeared to you that i was aiming it at a specific group.
shanilka