By Chelsey Schweitzer

Staff Writer

The comments that people post in forums are less about expressing ideas and more about insulting others.

With freedom of speech and the internet allowing people to comment on anything, opinions have become a common part of any online experience. This ability to make your voice heard can have a very positive impact and lead to educated discussions and debates over certain topics. More often than not, however, I have seen what starts as a good conversational topic deteriorate into people insulting one another.

The areas where this is most apparent are on online newspaper articles, online magazine articles and Youtube. On these websites you are able to either create a screen name that cannot be traced back to you by the average person or you can choose to stay anonymous when you post. While this allows a great number of people to make their opinions heard, it also allows people to hide behind a pseudo identity when making comments.

By posting comments that cannot be traced to a specific person, some people feel as if they can post whatever they want without ramifications. This often leads to educated arguments in the comments sections of the newspaper to deteriorate into people directly insulting specific users and calling them bad names or accusing them of being racist. I come across this often when doing research for school papers and it is very distracting. It also makes every other commenter increasingly angry, leading to multiple personal attacks being posted. Eventually there is nothing but an angry argument that has no relevance to the original article whatsoever. This is an unfortunate downhill slide that detracts from the article itself and leads to unpleasant internet experiences, leaving users feeling irritated and upset.

Students should always be aware that what they say is still viewed by many people and that words can hurt. I hope that all of the students here at CSUSM are kind enough to know that what they say does have an impact on others. Sadly, in this online age people often hide behind their usernames. This is not a good policy to have as it generates unnecessary hate and aggression. The golden rule of treating others how you would want to be treated should not only be incorporated throughout face to face interactions but also within the online public sphere. That’s not to say that you can’t voice your opinion, simply make sure that your opinion is connected to the article and is not a direct attack on anybody. Remember to respect other internet users and we can all have a positive and enriching online experience.