Comment Sections and Echo Chambers

I was at work today.
It was a shitty production day, which means that instead of actually working, I was staring into space, getting lost in Wikipedia articles, generally not working.
It wasn't that I didn't want to work.
In fact, I always WANT to work.
But I don't feel like I'm in control of my ability to focus sometimes.
Anywhooooo... that's a story for another day.  Maybe.

I was cruising around wherever I was and ran across an NPR story about a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor who publicly spent a "year without god", and at the end of his year, he decided he didn't believe in god anymore.  As you can imagine, the comments section was filled with debate about the existence of god, and scientific proof of his existence/absence, and how stupid people are, and name calling, and generally heated, disrespectful, uninformed, and ignorant remarks.

Normally I get turned off by these comments.  But today, for whatever reason, my eyes kinda shifted, like they do when I'm looking at one of those Magic Eye calendars, and I saw the comments section differently than I normally do.  I felt like the ability to write a comment on a website is like offering people a microphone to broadcast their voices over the radio, or turning on a camera and giving people the chance to be on TV.  And the thought of being heard is not only exciting but presents the possibility of hope-- Someone May Hear Me. 

In reading the blog of the preacher mentioned in the NPR article, he starts by trying to define terminology he's going to be using, and he talks about how words are used to communicate.  But as I was reading his words, I was starting to feel like many people don't really use words to communicate, but to divide. 

There have been times when I've had to say, "you know what I mean, though, right?" because the person I was talking with was getting stopped by something else in my words other than their intended meaning, like incorrect grammar or spelling, or the desire of the person I was speaking with to fight me and prove me wrong.  Rather than understanding my intention, there was deliberate miscommunication, which caused me to say, "you know what I mean, though, right?" 

When I was a kid, we played a lot of those miscommunication games. 
I liked rubber buns and liquor.
You remember that one?
Okay, out loud, say the phrase "rubber buns and liquor" after everything I say.  What you say is in italics.
What do you eat for breakfast?  Rubber buns and liquor.
What do you eat for lunch?  Rubber buns and liquor.
What do you do when you see a pretty lady?  "Rub 'er buns and lick 'er". 
Hilarity.

Or the one where you latch on to the last word somebody says that ends with an "er" sound, like "liquor", or "factor", or "cracker".
"Would you like some liquor?"
"Lick 'er??  I hardly know 'er!"

"Do you think the cold temperatures will be a factor?"
"Fact 'er??  I hardly know 'er!"

"Help me!  My life is ending because I'm being choked to death by a cracker!"
"Crack 'er??  I hardly know 'er!"

Or this one
"Okay, I need to look at your rectum."
"Wrecked 'em??  Nearly killed 'em!"

These are jokes. 
Some of them are hilarious. 
Some of them are very hilarious. 
But wherever you stand, they are deliberate miscommunication. 

Internet comment sections have been turned from the gift they were intended to be into a mosh pit of individuals who don't really want to communicate.  It's one person saying something, then another person intentionally misunderstanding what they're saying.  And then people keep yelling at each other because they feel hurt and attacked and need to defend their positions.

I think there are a lot of reasons for this phenomenon.
I think it happens in all kinds of places.
I think many news outlets yell at us, the consumers, in order to get us to buy their publication or TV show.  And they keep yelling at us hoping that we will keep consuming their stuff.
Advertisements yell at us, trying to get us to buy something and drown out all others who want you to buy something else.  And all the yelling increases the yelling.
I think it happens with politicians, they yell at each other, and then when that yelling is done, another politician gets up and yells some more, and then another, and another, until all the politicians are yelling and nobody can hear anything and nothing gets done.  You hear me say the words "health care" and immediately have your opinion and want to yell about it, because if you don't yell, you'll definitely be drowned out by the other people yelling.  You hear the words "immigration" and you're up and yelling your points like there's a war.  Doesn't matter that I haven't said anything at all.  The politicians are ready to fight and yell and yell some more.

And we, the public, fight, too.
And we're all yelling at each other for something.
But we haven't heard anything at all.

One of the things I was reading in this former-pastor's blog comments was about science vs. religion, and how people come to defend science saying, "It's a proven scientific fact!"  But I can think of many things that were once "proven facts" that have been disproved with more information.  I remember being taught about the smallest particle in the world.  I can't remember what it was called, so let's call it Clyde.  "Clyde," my science teacher told us, "is the smallest particle in the world."  Then, the following year, it was discovered that Jessica was, actually, the smallest particle, so we had to learn a new, different "fact". 

"See?!" cry those who feel attacked, "science can't be trusted!  It has been wrong before, and anyone who defends science is wrong!!"  And suddenly, those who believe in science have been discarded.

"Science is wrong??" cry those who feel attacked.  "Religion talks about bringing people peace, but instead, the same people that talk of peace are the first ones to judge and disregard people, like you did in your post!"

Now the first people respond with, "Your previous post proves you're stupid, because it should be "the same people who talk of peace", not "the same people that talk of peace".  Obviously, you're dumb and I win."

"You're such an idiot.  It's "the same people WHOM talk of peace" you idiot.  I win."
"No you don't, because you put double-quotation marks in your previous sentence, and it should have been a single quotation mark when you quoted '...the same people...'.  I now sling more mud at you."

I think part of the problem is that feeling of being attacked.
It's immediate.  It's violent.  And it demands action NOW!

My first thought was to put limits on websites, so that people couldn't post for 2 days after reading an article or comment.  But that doesn't stop people from FEELING attacked.
And it's that feeling that is causing the anxiety in people, I think.
If they don't say something, if they don't yell, then somebody will do something to hurt them.

It would be a nicer world if we didn't have to worry about people attacking us.

Since I only have control over my own actions, perhaps the only thing I can do...
Is Stop Attacking People.

Maybe others will follow me.  Maybe they won't.
But I will have done all I am able to do to make this world a better place.
And this world could be a better place.