Internet Outrage Mobs
Here is a theory about the effect that social media is having on internet mob outrage. Internet Outrage Mob, (or IOM for short) is what I’m calling the phenomenon that we see when popular movie franchises suffer a backlash from core fans. When a random person tweets a joke in poor taste and it gets retweeted a million times and suddenly they’ve lost their job, friends, and are receiving death threats. This IOM is happening in one corner of the internet or another daily now. And I think the effectiveness or potency of IOMs is far out of proportion to their true relevance or importance. But they tap into primal parts of our brains and trigger effects that I think are unhealthy for society. To be clear, I’m not saying that having trolls being toxic on the internet is unhealthy. That goes without saying. I’m saying the reasonable people’s reaction TO them is unhealthy and unsustainable. My contention is that the...