The Retired Dude

A while ago I noticed that the local paper was no longer allowing comments to news items on their website. Not long after I heard that a number of other sites where no longer allowing on comments on posts for the reason of trolls and people who seem to think it is ok to publicly attack people online.

Anyone that is on social media cannot fail to notice how nasty people can be online, something I am sure these people would not do if they where sat next to each other at Tim Horton’s. They may say they would but I highly doubt it.

Just this week Stephen Fry, well know British actor got slammed on Twitter for a comment he made at the BAFTAs when after Jenny Beavan finished her acceptance speech for Best Costume Design he turned around and said “Only one of the great cinematic costume designers would come to the awards dressed like a bag lady.” Twitter when wild and during this crazy time Stephen decided that enough was enough and quit Twitter, much to the regret of his 8 million followers. He posted a blog post on his website explaining his reasoning, you can read the post here.

I totally see where he is coming from, I have posted on Twitter and Facebook before now and been attacked for what I have said from complete strangers who have no idea who I am or what I am like in person. This is one of the reasons I, a couple of years ago, unfriended everyone on Facebook that was not part of my family, although I did afterwards add some good friends from my school days in the UK back to allow me to stay in touch after losing touch for so long. I am also one of the admins on a Grande Prairie Facebook page, something I was doing before I left Facebook and feel it is a little bit of me being involved in the GP community.

So will Social Media implode on itself and only the nasty vile people be left? Will something else evolve? I have no idea what will happen, I do know that people like Stephen Fry and various online sites are taking a stand, I also know that the number of new people joining Twitter has dropped off I just read an interested post that was saying Twitter is suffering from the 8 year rule, you can read this post here.