Need a light?

My name is Christian, a 20-something Psychology major at San Francisco State University. This blog came to be at the behest of my English teacher as part of the curriculum, though I had been planning to (read: putting off indefinitely) actually setting one up on my own.

I’ve spent a majority of my life on the internet. I’ll admit this: I’m a nerd, through and through. I’ve played games, dabbled in fantasy worlds and MMOs and know my way through many kinds of technology. Aside from the obvious differences in all the things I’ve experienced over my long time surfing the web, one thing seems to be constant.

People on the internet are mean. Mean to themselves, each other and everything around them. It might be selective attention on my part, but a large majority of the things I’ve seen on the internet are negative rants and complaints of varying natures. Even I’ve done the same, and I find that a lot of my inner dialogue starts with “I don’t like…”

But I digress, so let me get to the point. In terms of professional aspirations, I haven’t a clue as to what I really want to do with myself to ensure that I have the means to live life. However, with this blog I want to explore a topic that is very near and dear to me. What I want to explore is flaming, cruelty and the basic negativity associated with having an electronic screen and keypad replacing our ears and mouths for communication.

I have a few questions that I can really split my topic into:

Why do people get so worked up over words on a screen?

What is it that elicits our emotions when we read something we find offensive?

In the absence of facial expressions, tonal changes and other visual or verbal cues, how do we determine that someone is really out to offend us or just putting words on a screen?

Why do we fall for trolling and get involved in “flame wars” so easily?

What drives us to flame?

Why do people go to really great lengths to “troll” another person.

Make no mistake, people will always do this regardless of how much we know about flaming and otherwise being rude to each other. The point of my blog is to just put together the collective thoughts and examinations. I might even be the subject of flaming just talking about it, and I understand that even having my own name out puts me at risk of some more serious (according to the last question). There might be some NSFW (Not safe for work) content posted, so I’ll try to it down as much as I can while retaining the point of whatever I’ll put up. Everything will be marked, so don’t come to me and complain about losing your job and not being warned.

Or do so, it’ll give me some stuff to put up on my blog.