OniLink

The Other Girl with the Gall

I'm Violet/OniLink. Trans and autistic and just kinda doing my best.

Views do not reflect my employer.

I do informative Let's Plays on YouTube.

You can find me on FFXIV on Leviathan as Satora Lahnsi.

I run @WoLQotD here on Cohost!

I also have an IC blog at @satora-lhansi!

<3 @Gleam-Oria @catgirl-real @ann-arcana

Script Kitty :3 θΔ

avatar and header image from In Stars and Time by @insertdisc5



It's interesting to me how the internet and the ability to effortlessly communicate with people anywhere who are not in your local physical community has completely upended how social interactions work to the point that tens of thousands of years of evolution as a social species now acts in often counterproductive ways

The fact that we can just block someone we don't like or otherwise just ignore them is, ironically, probably a massive detriment to our collective social health

And yet these functionalities are necessary because the lack of physical community with people and thus the lack of pressure to reach understandings when there is conflict for the good of the whole community means that toxic, unhealthy behaviors that were previously heavily socially discouraged can now be perfectly fine to do because online you are anonymous and there is typically no actual consequence to you or your physical community

So to protect ourselves and our communities from such behaviors, we can no longer rely on the need to collectively work together with those in our community for survival to encourage at least mutual understanding, and blocking becomes the only option, cutting off these mechanisms for establishing peace entirely.

Maybe the internet was a mistake actually? I'm not sure tbh. I think we just lack the tools to properly mediate conflict online, and the necessary evils of current safety tools exacerbate the issue.


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in reply to @OniLink's post:

not the ones i was hoping to find but this is a meta analysis that touches on it: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359178923000435

it seems at least in these results that anonymity is a tool especially for those familiar with the victim, but the depersonalization of a lack of eye contact is possibly preventing social cue feedback that humanizes people.

personally, in my own anecdotal experience of observing this frequently, it’s far more these situations than anything. i see a lot of pseudonymous trolling but that’s very different (identifiable paper trail) and that is also punishable. anonymity is pretty limited these days online and doesn’t really show up as much, just by virtue of platforms being more data driven

which probably isn’t your point but there’s far more benefits anonymity offers to victims to seek resources/support without fear of retribution than benefit to people who, seemingly will abuse with any tool at their disposal attached to their name or otherwise

I can anecdotally attest that the rot extends past the internet in wealthy cultural bubbles, too: e.g. high-paid engineers can completely uproot themselves and re-settle in a brand new community with minimal effort.

Also anecdotally, being guilty of this: Wealthy people (i.e. people who can afford to ignore their local community) tend to be nicer to folks in online communities, whereas they treat folks in their local area like dirt. E.g., I don't even know my neighbors' names, nor do several of my coworkers.

I once blocked someone who staunchly disdained the practice of blocking people for that exact reason. Felt super weird. They weren't wrong about the devastating social consequences of blocking folks... But my personal gain (in not having to deal with them anymore) was huge, so alas, I'm here enjoying the path of least resistance.