So, when we're done with the high-school pope/Catholic Church/religion bashing that isn't changing either side's opinions - maybe we can get down to some interesting and intelligent discussion.
I find this topic fascinating - and with a modicum of truth behind it. I was listening to 2 different discussions by old people recently - a teacher of 25 years, and a politician who'd been in politics for about 40 years. Among the good things they said about things getting better; they both said some interesting things:
-Young people are far more verbal, opinionated, and insulting when they converse
-The current trend is that we are becoming more polarized and vocal about our differences instead of honestly trying to find compromises. Comporomises being that we don't either get what we want, but are mutually able to agree on something that's a bit good and a bit bad for both of us.
I think this directly reflects the 'troll' effect on much of the internet. I've even seen it in myself. If I can anonymously, or even not anonymously, fling as much vitriol at another person as I want online without worry of much reprisal; I slowly start carrying it into my own real-life interactions. And since I spend a lot of time online, then I start living more with my online persona then my real-life one that is much more apt to listen and not immediately discount.
Now I'm not saying that this is 100% correlation - I'd also argue societal effects such as teaching all kids they must be winners (i.e. compromise is a gray area or a loser position) and that we're increasingly becoming a society of entitlement. But I don't think people here could deny there is carry-over.
And what are the ethics of online interaction anymore anyway? Do we have any? Should there be any at all? Lase-faire? Clearly things like the cyber-bullying of a kid by his roommmate to post his gay sex video on the internet which lead to his suicide, or other teenage harrasment on facebook sites is a clear example that there are serious real-world consequences to our online interactions.
So, anyone want to discuss this instead?