While visiting the Internet, DIS or other sites, have you come across mean people?

[Dan Murphy]

I refer to the type of people who seem to hide behind the cloak of anonymity that the Net provides.

I have seen several over the four plus years I have visited the Net, and wonder if the Net attracts this sort of warped individual. They seem hate-filled, mean, arrogant, spiteful. I wonder what they must be like in real life...equally as mean? Or are they different, afraid to be that way to people in person? Are they 'wimps' in real life, taking on a pseudo-role on the Net?

Have you had any experiences like that? Come across this type of individual?

 

[babar]

Sure, and I've also come across people who sugarcoat things, but the hidden message also isn't very nice. You just have to take the good with the bad, and be happy you don't have to deal with them in real life.





***edited to say that I meant no one in particular!! I keep coming across the wrong way today!

 

[SuiteDisney]

The meanest people I have dealt with on the net have stabbed me in the back while smiling to my face.

 

[EROS]

Gee, can't say that I've run into one. However, like Babar, I've had the experience of "meeting" people on the Net who initially seemed to be all "sweetness and light". However, their Net persona was vastly different from their "real" personality.............. which was highly bigoted and intolerant.

 

[Rajah]

Yup.

 

[DixieDreamer]

Yes. I have also found some really wonderful people who were unafraid to meet in real life - and I found they were everything that they were online... and more.

 

[ByTheSea]

Yes!

 

[mivvers]

Yes, I have come across mean-spirited people on the internet, and on this site as well. I may even have come across that way myself.... I hope not though!! It's really easy for on-line comments to be misinterpreted as well.

My guess is that in the situations to which you refer, most would never speak to others face to face the way they speak to people on-line. The net may be a way for them to vent frustrations,or get attention. I liken it to those drivers who don't hesitate to give the finger or yell out the window at another driver...I don't think that would happen on a sidewalk!!

 

[Mackey Mouse]

Yes I have many times... sometimes it surprises me that people can be so hurtful....and then I just have to remember this is not real life.. it is a message board...and I just pick and choose who I want to bother with and posts that I want to answer...

Life is too short to get upset about the little things..

 

[Rajah]

Originally posted by Mackey Mouse
and then I just have to remember this is not real life.. it is a message board

You know, I really hate it when people say that. If it's not real life, then why did you just spend multi-hundred bucks to go to Disneyworld to meet all these non-real people?

 

[Livda Nirtom]

The meanest people I have dealt with on the net have stabbed me in the back while smiling to my face.

Boy you just said a mouthful.

 

[pokiemomo181]

Yes Dan, I have. I don't think they realize how bad they can hurt others. If they do realize and just enjoy it, I pity them. Their life must be so bad that they have to lash out at others to make them feel better. I just try to keep it in context and move on. I have enough things on my mind to keep me busy. Hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


Pokie

 

[babar]

Now this doesn't always happen, but I also feel bad for people who don't like me because I have differing opinions from them. They "brush me off". That's silly. I swear, to know me is to love me! I only post to help better us all.

You can learn from anyone, ignorant or not, if you just listen.

 

[C.Ann]

Unfortunately, yes..

 

[EROS]

How can people be so heartless
How can people be so cruel
Easy To Be Hard; Easy to be cold

Oh, how can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be proud; Easy to say no

And especially people who care about strangers
Who care about evil and social injustice
Do you only care about the bleeding crowd?
How about a needing friend?
I need a friend...

How can people be so heartless
You know I'm hung up on you
Easy to give in; Easy to help out

Oh, and especially people who care about strangers
Who care about evil and social injustice
Do you only care about the bleeding crowd?
How about a needing friend?
I need a friend...

How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be hard; Easy to be cold
Easy to be proud;
Easy to say no.

 

[DisMNagain]

What an interesting topic...

yep, have met some pretty negative, ornery and just plain mean people online...

want to say so much more but will just add that nothing surprises me anymore. (well, not much anyway!) LOL

 

[MonaCK]

Yup, I sure have.

Luckily, I have begun to realize who my real friends are and aren't in this "cyber world". It's made it a much more pleasant experience for me overall.

I don't hide behind pretenses, and I find that those I am closest to also do not hide behind these same pretenses.

 

[EROS]

Of course, as children we learn that "what's on the outside isn't always on the inside". The Internet serves as a healthy reminder of that lesson ..........

 

[helenabear]

I have come across these people over the many years I have been on the net. Fortunately they are usually few and far between, but every once in a while I run into such a character that I either feel the need to go into hiding because they are so cruiel and so mean-spirited. I have been lucky though, I have never met these people in real life so I was able to ignore them through the internet. I think the internet allows many people to act as they normally wouldn't... live behind a veil of sorts so that no one will know the real them. I know many who do let everyone know the "real them" online but still there are some who do use the that "veil" of the internet to portray a whole different side of them. I will probably never know if many of these people are that cruel in real life, but I can only hope that they aren't.

 

[minniepumpernickel]

I think that some of the people that are just mean sometimes, may be doing it because they are depressed or alienated in some way. Maybe they are going through a bad time, or they can't discuss things with the people in their real lives.

If someone is mean on a consistent basis, or if the behaviour doesn't change, I really have no idea what drives them.

Maybe people really want to lash out at the people they are closest too, but can't.

Spending too much time on the net may not be a great idea for some personality types. I'm no expert, lol, but it is interesting to speculate sometimes....