I have been a denizen of the Internet for over 15 years. I used netscape navigator and remember MIDI music and webrings and IRC. The internet has changed a great deal in terms of technological innovation and application. It is eclipsing traditional social and commercial norms. Internet culture pervades popular culture and is ubiquitous. But while the internet can be a useful tool for acquiring knowledge and bettering oneself, I think it's easy to assume that these lofty goals are not what the majority of users come for.
This is no place for grown-ups. It is no place for Adults, the mature, or the wise. The internet is a place where everyone has a voice, but often that voice is ignorant, foolish, and downright stupid. Most humor on the internet can be thought of as either babyish "cat" humor, drunken frat boy logic, or shallow sex jokes. The internet (and by that I mean the larger population of users) seems to think that making a tired joke about breasts or inserting expletives automatically makes something funnier. I used to read humor articles at Cracked.com. I found them funny if a little silly. In the past year I have found a downturn in quality as they have allowed freelance writers to post articles. They are terrible. Inserting swears in an article does increase shock value but that doesn't really make it funny. It's lazy.
The internet is the realm of the child, the sullen teen, and the idiot frat boy. Anonymity has produced a group of people who feel mighty but who instead reveal themselves to be small minded. For every intelligent article I've read, I've had to wade through a sea of uninformed opinion. We are championing peoples opinions as if everyone contributes something but they don't. Everyone does have a right to an opinion, but only an informed opinion. They aren't allowed to be stupid and not called out on it.
As content is further and further mired in the mud of the lowest common denominator. we can expect to see more base and juvenile humor, opinions, and behavior. It is the way of things I guess. When you open the door to the public you get the dumb with the smart, and the dumb generally outnumbers the smart.
This is why the internet is no place for manners. It is a playground for children, both in the physical and mental sense. The reasonable, the intelligent, and the socially mature have little real voice or say. They are drowned out by the clacking drone of the simple.
There are only two ways to really combat this unfortunate reality: To give in and become one of the mewling dullards or to carry on as one of the few voices in a sea of brash mediocrity.
Which would you choose?
