I spend a lot of time – in both my professional and private life – on the web. This makes me one of the 72% of people aged 14 or over in Germany who are online. And finding something worth reading on all those forums, noticeboards and much-hyped social media platforms is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It’s precisely the people with the least idea about a subject, who have failed to acquire basic rules of language and spelling, who think the louder you shout the more right you are. It is precisely these people whose mewling characterises this (the one thing they can agree on) oh so useful medium.
But why should this be? Well, I believe that the decline in standards on the internet is due to the democratisation of the medium; in the realisation of the idea of enabling anyone, at any time, to contribute to “actively shaping the web” for next to no financial outlay. The decline of the internet is the result of flatrate internet access. This is what makes it possible for people to stick their oar in wherever and whenever they feel the need. And this genus of people appears to have a strongly conditioned need to tell you what they think. The social rules which ensure that in real life such perpetual irritants quickly find themselves without an audience just don’t work online. Anyone behaving this obnoxiously in my local pub will soon find himself out on his ear. If you shout and scream your way through school, you’re going to spend a lot of time sitting outside the headmaster’s office (unless of course you’re a teacher). Sadly, however, it just doesn’t work this way online.
As popular German comedian Dieter Nuhr once put it, "If you don’t have a clue, just keep your mouth shut!"
I’ll sign up to that.
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