I have often wondered if there are some reasons why Twitter is so venomous. It is difficult to recognize text on a screen that is from real, feeling humans.A Washington Post article about Brianna Wu, who was the victim of extreme harassment during the GamerGate era, prompted me to think about this. Some former members of the group are apparently trying to contact her, apologizing and regretting their past actions. This story brought back memories of something I experienced way back in the BBS (bulletin boards system).Allow me to speak for a few paragraphs as I set the scene.BBSes are text-based online discussion forums that were popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The Atlantic published a 2016 story that provided a good overview of BBSes. I joined the Womens BBS in NYC and became a system administrator. In an era when women were seen as intruders in many online spaces, we tried to create a space where they could have reasonable conversations. Although there were areas for women only in the BBS most discussion groups were open to everyone.We were not without our fair share of jerks. Those who were able to have some discussion, even if it was a bit acerbic, were moved to The Battleground section. Here anyone who enjoys confrontation can yell at one another to their hearts' content. The most vile posts were deleted.I came across a post that contained a bunch of very weak obscenities while looking through the entries.This brings me to the end of my story. One day I was going through my usual rounds of new entries when I came across a post that contained a bunch of very weak obscenities. It was my intention to delete it. However, I noticed the tone and misspellings and realized that it was likely written by someone in their teens. Instead, I replied with something like: Do your realize that some women here are yours? You might also notice that some of these women are your mom's age. What would you say to your mom if it were so hurtful? You could say it to your mom or to someone you know.To my surprise, I received an embarrassed response. The rather stoic nastiness came from a 12-year old who had not psychologically processed the fact that the people reading his posts were real, human beings with lives and personalities. He thought they were impersonal names on the screen. They were names associated with a movement he was told was absurd and comic-book villainous. He was a real person and I responded to him.For about an hour, we conversed about our lives, school, and other subjects. I asked him at the end to think about who would read his online posts, as they were just as real as he was. It is unclear if the conversation had any lasting impact on him. It seems to me that it did.Things have changed dramatically since those initial steps towards online interaction.Services such as Twitter and Facebook have made online communication a part of our lives, rather than just a subset. We are also no longer exchanging text messages. You would think apps like TikTok would be able to make it clear that people are actually sending messages out into the universe.Or not. My experience is that videos on YouTube and TikTok attract just as much vitriol than text messages.So I set out to find answers. Many articles have been written about the psychology of online interactions. They also posit various theories on why people feel more free to attack other online users. Mosaic Science's one-page article, republished by BBC, discusses several behavioral experiments. It posits that no one will ever see what you mean online, and that anyone who knows you in person will be able to tell. KQED also describes the online disinhibition effect, which states that being online lowers inhibitions. Another psychologist from Chicago School of Professional Psychology discusses how social media can negatively impact our self-image and cause us to compare ourselves to others.These are just three of the many I have come across.There are no definitive answers because we are human. So, when I look at Twitter or TikTok comments or replies to articles and see how people rush to give smart-ass, nasty responses to posts about tragic circumstances or relatively innocuous observations I am still puzzled. Is it because they are able? They did it because they were having a bad day. We mistake insult for humor. They are seeking approval and support from others by disliking certain people.Or could it be that we don't see the other people out there as humans, despite all the videos and photos?
