Let’s talk about those awful, tasteless comments that we all see on mostly every YouTube video that has the slightest amount of popularity. When I thought of YouTube and violence, there was no question that this should be the topic.
The idea of negative comments bothers me because the person who writes them had to take time to craft a hateful message. It literally would have been easier for the person to say nothing, and then there wouldn’t be a negative comment. The idea that people think that their negative comment will bring some sort of satisfaction is a bit twisted in my opinion. “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. It’s a pretty basic concept that most learn when we’re little, yet people chose to not abide by it.
The thing that really drives me crazy is when you’re watching a cover video that some 12 year old kid is doing from his room and you can tell that they’re trying really hard, then someone comments “u suck, nvr play or sing again pls”. That could be on the nicer end of harsh comments. As a little kid, getting that kind of negative feedback could be detrimental. If you don’t like the kids video, then so what, it’s a kid. There’s no need for such un-constructive criticism that is solely designed to cut the other person down no matter the age of the recipient, but especially if it’s a kid. What good could possibly come from that?
When people become anonymous and are given the ability to voice their opinions, they lose control. There’s nothing stopping them from sharing their super awesome, well thought out, genius thoughts that apparently everyone must read. That’s rarely the case. And I realize that anyone can make a YouTube account so I take into account that some of these users are probably kids themselves. That’s when I think the parents should really take control of what the kids are doing on the internet. But I know that assumes a lot of things.
In a perfect world, the YouTube community would be a lot more warm and friendly if people didn’t say things online that they wouldn’t say to the uploader’s face. But until then we’ll just have to keep down voting all the hateful comments until they go away.
I completely agree that these unnecessary hateful comments occur because of the anonymity that is provided by the Internet. I think this is the major downfall of the Internet on the whole, and ties back to issues of bullying and self esteem issues of people that are on the receiving end of these hurtful comments. Especially, like you said, when it is a kid who is in a very impressionable time of their life receiving rude comments that could shape them and take away their innocence. Since this is something that is well known about the Internet, however, I agree with you that this falls on the parents' shoulders to monitor and keep track of.
ReplyDeleteThis is so true, and so well connected to your topic. I think it is terribly sad when you can tell a kid is really trying hard at something and then people come back with rude comments just to be mean. People definitely need to abide by the "if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all" concept. It takes more effort to post a comment than to just move on so I don't understand the satisfaction in posting such negative things.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michelle on how well you connected YouTube to your topic! This is definitely the kind of violence that gets overlooked. As society has become more and more involved on the web, I think it is safe to say that we should consider more interactions via the web and not just consider violence physical and in person. These mean comments left at the bottom of videos can be heartbreaking to someone who may be convinced that they are a great singer, and that they are starting off strong. It is really sad to see this- no matter how horrible I consider a video I have never pressed the "dislike" button nor have I posted a degrading comment for fear of truly hurting the poster's feelings.
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