Modern Dilemma
--- What to do when StudMoose wants to be your friend
Off you go meeting people online and if you go to a news site or other forum often other users will start a dialog, request to be your friend, or follow your posts. I don't know what to do about this. On one site I follow everyone who clicks to follow me, but I can't read all their posts. On twitter I don't follow everyone. I try to actually review the twitter feed and it would just get overwhelming. I need a new model for social etiquette. It doesn't help that we sometimes want to be too passionate about our own opinions. When opinion is a substitute for fact, and belief prevails over history people can form into warring camps. Someone can obsess over comments tossed off in haste. Someone could develop an anger deep enough to stalk you online. Mostly I don't want to be unsocial, people in opinion forums say they can debate anyone. Usually, they prefer to engage in truisms and diatribe. Online, people can be amazingly hostile. They may think anyone without their specific religion is Godless, or any expression of faith shows that you are a bigot and delusional.
Raucous debate isn't just in our time
So even though the right has been defensive and irrational in their pushback against the Tuscon shooting, it needs to be stated that brewing a toxic stew is not healthy. I learned early on the send button was too easy to find with an email. The add comment button needs to be done only after a pause of reflection. It is OK to totally destroy someone's argument, but you should never think you can destroy their right to have a different opinion. I think everyone should live in the corner of a school district. Even archrivals are the kids of good friends, and screaming "kill the quarterback" never seems right when you know players on the other team. So did I agree to add StudMoose as a friend? Well I did. It was a news site not an adult chatroom. I find enough trouble in sports, news, and opinion sites; I never go to adult chatrooms. I suspect if you do enter a chatroom you may find that SexyKitty and StudMoose are one and the same.
