ThomStratton.com

This weekend I played one of my best games of Monopoly ever. I was over at a friend’s house, and while I usually do okay at Monopoly…well, let’s say I monopolized the game. I creamed him. Wiped the board with him.

So naturally, I was thrilled with my victory and called home to tell the wife and kids about it. They were pretty excited, too. In fact, they got this great idea and hauled all our living room furniture out in the street and set fire to it. For good measure they threw rocks through all of the windows on the front of the house. It was great! I can’t wait for the next game!

Okay, obviously that didn’t happen, right down to playing a game of Monopoly (let alone winning!). I’ve been reading the reports of the post-Super Bowl celebrations in Seattle, and I can’t help but scratch my head. I know this is nothing new, but I’ve never understood it before, either. I mean, it would be at least a smidgen understandable if they lost. I could understand if the damage were unintentional, like jumping on cars to celebrate and cracking a windshield. But one doesn’t accidentally pile up furniture and set it on fire.

It’s really stupid and disgusting, and I hope there are a lot of arrests. It’s possible to celebrate without destroying things. It’s possible to support your team without ruining your hometown. It’s enough to make me hope the Jazz never win an NBA championship. As a general rule, the losing team doesn’t have to put their town back together afterward. If there’s one thing worse than bad losers, it’s bad winners.

Spend much time online and it would appear that America is becoming a cesspool of hatred. General Mills creates a commercial featuring a bi-racial family and the YouTube comments go crazy with people criticizing the commercial. Justin Bieber behaves badly (a fine celebrity tradition) and in just a few days the White House is presented with a petition signed by over 180,000 people demanding he be deported (Mr. Bieber is Canadian). In fact, pick just about any article on a news site—even the most dull, non-controversial of stories—and there are bound to be a few people raging about something in the comments.

It’s hard not to find it all depressing. I used to despair over the levels of hate displayed online—I still find it hard to deal with. But there are reasons why we shouldn’t worry too much. There is indeed a Troll Nation, but the population is much smaller than it appears.

Scum rises to the top: Think of the last time you bought something online. Were you satisfied with what you bought? Did you leave a positive review? Did you receive excellent service at a store or restaurant lately? Did you speak with the manager to compliment the person who served you?

While there are people out there who will go out of their way to spread good feelings or good news, the majority of people will only make an effort to report something if it’s negative. It’s human nature. It’s easier to surprise us with bad things than with good things—we have fairly high expectations of others, really. When good things happen we don’t get worked up about it. When bad things happen we’re ready for war.

Take the Cheerios commercial, for example. On its face the commercial was good, but nothing spectacular. The average American wouldn’t even register that the family was multi-racial, or if they did it didn’t rise very high in the consciousness. And, since it’s only a commercial, we as often as not will just forget about it and move on.

Only those for whom the commercial incited a strong emotional response would ever go so far as to look up the commercial again on YouTube. And, as I said, it was a decent commercial, but not particularly clever or memorable on its own merits. So the only people likely to go hunt it down on YouTube would be those who found it offensive—they would strongly outnumber those who had a strong positive response, at least.

When the controversy began to catch wider attention it’s likely the number of negative comments on YouTube were high, and vastly outnumbering any positive comments. That would have made it appears as though the vast majority of Americans were offended by the commercial. But, judging by the subsequent outpouring of support after the negatives came to light, such is clearly not the case. America, on the whole, does not have a problem with multi-racial families.

Comments are not an unbiased survey: The other side of the above is that America is so used to polls, surveys, and random sampling it’s far too easy to view comments as a cross-section of public opinion. As discussed above, this is a logical error. Self-reporting is nearly never unbiased. If people don’t have a strong reaction to something, positive or negative, they’re not likely to comment.

I just looked up a new movie trailer on YouTube. It had 3.4 million views. About 100,000 people registered a “thumbs up”; only about 700 registered a thumbs down. 22,000 people left comments. So maybe 3% of all viewers registered any opinion at all. That’s not a very large sample, but even if it were, the negatives were quite few compared to the positives. But that same proportion of negatives, if carried over into the comments, could keep the thread appearing quite negative. That 0.7% might seem much larger than they really are. But compared to the negatives and positives combined, the “not-committed-enough-to-show-they-care” vastly dwarf them all. But they are not recorded anywhere.

There are a lot of different kinds of scum: I’ve not done any formal survey of the negative comments on the Cheerios commercial, but I’m willing to bet there’s a fair amount of diversity represented on just what people objected to about the commercial. While racism is likely the strongest motivator, there are many types of people who might leave angry comments, many not nearly so sinister:

–          Those who hate Cheerios

–          People suspecting “politically correct” motivations

–          People who resent the middle-class lifestyle depicted

–          Persons feeling it should depict a gay family

–          People offended they chose a black/white family rather than white/Asian, Asian/black, etc.

–          People offended by the use of a traditional family (ie. Not a single parent home)

–          People offended by the depiction of gender roles

–          Vegans irritated they used cow milk, not soy/almond/rice milk (yes, annoyingly to the rest of us vegans, there are those)

–          People upset by General Mills’ use of GMO ingredients (I’m guessing here. I don’t know)

–          People who hate big companies or marketing campaigns in general

–          People who just like to stir up trouble, even if it means pretending to be racist

–          People who like to stir up trouble by seeing racism in everything

When comment threads begin filling up it’s quite easy to see negative comments and lump them all in together, but the reality is that people are spouting negativity for a variety of reasons, and while they may view other negative commenters as allies, there may also be little agreement between groups. They may actually hate each other, but for the moment they hate the subject they’re commenting on worse.

Online makes it easy: Let’s face it, most people don’t go around spouting things in person like they would online. I’m very good at keeping my opinion to myself at work unless I know I’m among like-minded people. I generally keep my opinion to myself online, too, though the situation is just removed enough from reality that it’s much, much harder to resist typing up a quick snark-attack. I’ll say thing online I never would to someone’s face.

But compared with many people, I’m a paragon of reserve and self-control. In cyberspace no one can slap your face, no matter how much you might deserve it. This safe distance, often under the cover of anonymity, makes it easy to spew vitriol with impunity. People can indulge their worst impulses and desires without suffering real consequences. Indeed, the fact that they do have to muzzle themselves in public may drive them to lash out online.

But again, statistics suggest it’s still only a loud, obnoxious few doing most of the flaming. Most people are generally good at self-restraint, at least most of the time. But the consequences of commenting angry aren’t yet as obvious or well-known as, say, driving angry. Road Rage is a phenomenon we’re all familiar with. ‘Net Rage is not yet so familiar, though probably more common.

Audience Oversimplification: Another common cause of online rudeness is the tendency to group all our potential readers into two camps: Our friends, who always agree with us, and our enemies, who deserve no mercy. The reality is that our friends include a much broader diversity of opinion than we readily realize. You may have friends who may, in the majority, agree with you, but still identify with those you deem your enemies.

The reality is that within any group there is a wide variety of opinion and commitment. There is no such thing as a “typical” liberal, or a “typical” conservative. You may feel that a friend of yours is a sensible person, and not really one of “them”, yet they may identify with “them”, and may take offense when you hammer on “them”, even on an issue they tend to agree with you on. They may be a liberal against gun control, but they may still get irritated with you when you attack liberals over gun control, because they feel you are attacking liberals, not just gun control (and, frankly, you probably are).

A corollary of this is when we wander into sites where we feel we know no one. The default assumption is that, unless they agree with us, they are the enemy. You will never know who these people are, and never encounter them, so anything goes. The reality is they could be your neighbor, even your spouse. But we don’t care. We’re online.

Perhaps I’m just naïve or overly Pollyanna-ish, but I have to believe the nasty people aren’t winning–yet. Yes, they’re breeding rapidly online, an environment well-suited for their survival, but surely sensible people are still the majority. The problem is we’re a silent majority. And that’s because the best way to deal with people like that in the real world is to ignore them. Online, no one can hear you ignore. Ignoring someone takes the effort of actually responding or commenting—to someone else. It takes work, and hence the situation is less likely to change.

I fear in the long term the jerks will win, either because we’ve all given up and become jerks, or because all the sensible people have found safer places to go.

Even though my alarm goes off every morning at 5:18 am and if I sleep in so much as an hour beyond that I feel lousy for the rest of the day, I wouldn’t say I’m a morning person. Frankly, most mornings the idea of crawling out of bed and walking the dog does not thrill me. The feeling of “Didn’t I just do this? Do I have to do this again?” is never far away.

My life goes through cycles, too, it seems. There are times when I’m excited and enthusiastic about life. I know what I’m doing and why, and I’m ready to get after it. Other times it just seems like I’m going through the motions, doing what I do every day because I’m not sure what else to do. But I keep going, because I’ve learned that such times don’t last, and eventually I’ll break out of my funk.

I think January is a major cause of “funk-iness”. In the yearly cycle, January is The Nothing. It’s cold and gloomy, but with nothing certain to look forward to. November has Thanksgiving. December has Christmas and New Years. February has March. But January? Nothing against Dr. King, but January’s got nada.

As you’ve probably guessed, this year is no exception and I’m in a general malaise again. It’s not that bad. Life is certainly nothing to complain about, and parts of it are really kinda good. But somehow it always seems to come around to 5:18 am again, the alarm and the cats are shrieking, the dog needs walked, and I am just not ready to face another day. Any day now I’m going to find the key to kicking out of this rut. I’m not sure what it is, but I’ll find it.

When I was young I saw a play of sorts about a boy with an active imagination who loved airplanes and the color yellow. As he ages he gets worn down by life and gets to the point where he just can’t keep going. He asks his nephew who is staying with him to bring him something yellow. His nephew, who has learned to fly real places using his imagination (long story), returns that night and presents his uncle with a piece of the sun.

I thought it was a cool story back then. I related with the nephew. Now I’m older, and I relate with the aging uncle. I’m feeling a little empty, and I could use something yellow. Anything warm and yellow.

Somewhere out there is my piece of the sun.

If there was ever an argument for letting the rich keep their money and do what they want with it, it’s Bill and Melinda Gates. The Gates Foundation and the various groups they partner with are doing a lot of good in the world, and in a lot of cases it’s not government money that is funding their efforts.

Because they believe in transparency and accountability, the Gateses publish an annual letter about their activities and successes. This year’s letter, however, is aimed more to raise awareness and dispel myths than to focus on their own efforts. It’s well worth the time to read it, especially if you want to feel a little better about the world we live in.

They focus on three main myths that threaten the effectiveness of global aid programs:

1. Poor countries are doomed to stay poor – They can cite numerous examples where this is not the case. Progress does not come evenly, but it is coming.

2. Foreign Aid is a big waste – Did you know that the U.S. budgets only about 1% of the annual budget, about $30 billion, for foreign aid? And did you know that when corruption or mis-handling of aid money is uncovered it’s usually by the organizations tasked with administering that aid?

3. Saving lives leads to overpopulation – The causality is more complex than this, but the bottom line is that when people can expect their children to live they have fewer of them.

There is a lot of good work being done by a lot of good people, largely unknown and unthanked. Much of the funding comes from people and corporations many are far too quick to demonize for their wealth. Money doesn’t solve problems by itself, but money in the hands of the right people goes a long way.

Read the whole thing. It’s worth the time.

I get comment spam continuously, but this one really cracked me up with it’s opening line:

Hello, I am a professional social media business manager, obviously.

Obvious how? Because you actually  type out entire words? Because with a name like “Ed” I should know who you are immediately? To quote someone, “Your overconfidence is your weakness!” (Among other things…)

By building more than 10,000 real people profile endorsements using Facebook LIKES to your business page.

Sentence fragment. Yes, reaaaaaally professional. I just can’t wait to hire you to continue to spread bad grammar and rhetoric around the interwebs.

This tell Google that your website is relative and authentic to what you do.

Hmmm. “This tell Google.” Mocking native Americans now, are we? How exactly does one show that a website is authentic to what you do? I think you got your words turned around, Mr. Professional social media business manager.

IT WILL BE POSTED RIGHT ON YOUR PAGE FOR ALL VISITORS TO SEE HOW MANY -(people) Facebook LIKES !you have, via Facebook, by real FB counter button.

Don’t yell at me. A professional social media business manager would know not to yell at his contacts. But at least he’s not peddlin’ none o’ them fake FB counter buttons! Why, I had one of them once. Turned my whole website green, it did! Darn near had to amputate my CSS file to save it!

Click on to see how you can do this in you free time or no time  … [website redacted]

Trust me, sir, I’m doing you a favor by redacting your web address. Your company should really try to disassociate itself from you. Especially after you continue on to become even more incomprehensible.

How do you think Justin Bieber(singer) get his first 1,000,000 followers before his first album? His producers bought the followers for him?

You don’t know either? Then why bring it up? Also, have you not read the news lately? Invoking the name of Justin Bieber to a legitimate business is not exactly a good move just now.

…
These indicators (Facebook LIKES) will be visible on your website. If you have not installed Facebook Like count button on your website – I can help you install it!

After my work is finished, the Facebook LIKES Count Button will confirm a high ranking of your site, which will be noticed and appreciated by your visitors, and they will also be able to recommend your site to their friends on these social network.

Okay, this is starting to sound suspicious. You already felt compelled before to emphasize the FB counter is “real”! Now you want to install it for me. Uh….no.

The cost of the service is very low compared to the obvious gains, just the credibility you will gain alone.

Okay, I’m not really clear on the details, here. So, for free you will destroy the credibility I established by myself? That doesn’t sound so good, even if it IS free.

I work without pre-payment. Payment is carried out after all the work is done.
You pay and all Facebook LIKES are placed.

Again, this seems a little unclear. All the work is done before I pay, but once I pay all the likes will come? How can I be sure you’ve done any work, then?

Please let me know if you are interested.
If this does not interest you, I’m sorry to have bothered you! Have a good day!

I doubt you’re sorry, but it’s nice of you to somewhat acknowledge that you’ve wasted my time and comments feed with unsolicited spam.

Unsubscribe here http:[redacted]

Sincerely,
Facebook LIKES Provider

I never subscribed, silly, and I’ll be darned if I acknowledge your spam by visiting your site. That’s not an unsubscribe URL anyhow, and there’s no guarantee there’ll be one on your site.

Sorry, Mr. Professional Social Media Business Manager, but you’ve done absolutely nothing to assure me you’re legitimate in any way, or that you are the type of “professional” I want to deal with. But thank you for providing me some amusement, and for helping me feel just a LIIIIIIIIIITTLE BIT SUPERIOR! (Now go away!)

P.S. Yes, I know this fellow may not be a native English speaker and therefore is doing quite well. But this is the Internet age, and it would cost at most $10 to have someone who is an English-speaking marketing writer rework that obviously copy-n-paste boilerplate into something that wouldn’t offend the intelligence of the reader. Legitimate businesses know how to act like it.

I’ve defended Justin Bieber before. I’m sad to say that is increasingly difficult to do. His recent DUI arrest pretty much settles it. He’s determined not to find his way gracefully through young adulthood. It’s sad more than anything else. I was pulling for the kid. It’s hard to keep your head on straight when you’ve got millions of girls screaming over you–and millions of others claiming to hate you just as strongly. There’s not a lot of middle ground in that position; your perspective is guaranteed to be warped.

But if he has anyone in his corner trying to help him keep it together he’s clearly not listening. When you’re that successful and that rich at that young an age you’re more likely to attract enablers and sycophants than someone to keep you grounded.

I hope he can still pull up and avoid the crash. I’ve been hoping the same for Lindsay Lohan, too, though with increasingly less hope. Fame is a cruel mistress, and once you start the descent it’s evidently quite hard to pull out of it. It’s enough to make me hope to never be famous. Anonymity has its benefits. The pay’s not nearly so good, but the pressures seem to be less. And I screw up it isn’t likely to even make the local paper, let along every news source in the country–if not the world.

It’s no fun to watch someone self-destruct. I hope you find your way back, Justin. Good luck.