Flaming your enemies online

   by  Muffet 

I recently commented on a post, perhaps not in the most polite way possible, which is definitely not my usual approach, and it got me thinking about the whole phenomenon of "flaming" online, and how it begins. Although my situation is nowhere near as extreme, and I really am talking extreme polarities here, the issue of flaming is certainly fascinating, and if one was involved, disturbing.

After I posted, and reflected, I realised that I perhaps should have said nothing but it was too late and I was prepared to live with the consequences. Nothing untoward happened but the issue, despite not even remotely illustrating the vitriolic verbal war that happens in some online forums, blogs and comment sections, did make me realise how easy it is to offend online.

As the Internet is a platform where individuals do not need to speak to each other face-to-face, and many will not even see the people that they are responding to, they are much more likely to say things that they would not normally say in real-world encounters. Would I have responded how I did if I was speaking directly to the person, regardless of my role, probably not, or I may have joked about it, trying to be as subtle as I can.

A recent video on YouTube, that was forwarded to me by a friend via Skype illustrates a "flame war," where two people start verbally attacking each each other, often times leading to 200 comments later and no end in sight. The video is a satire of two teenage girls who flame each other over who loves One Direction more. There are a heap of these videos on YouTube making fun of individuals who engage in flaming, but I can imagine that it causes a lot of unnecessary suffering, on both sides.

The popular understanding is that there are some individuals, who have been dubbed "Flamers" - as they "cannot be stamped out," and "just want to kill, to flame and are out for blood." This is the language that I have often heard my sons usingt, particularly when I first voiced my concerns about leaving feedback on online comment sections, such as TED or Youtube. They also talk about "trolls," who literally navigate through forums deliberately trying to stir up trouble, and thriving off the attention.

My sons also tell me how flamers, most of the time, are "not think logically" and are out to create "cesspools," where nothing good comes out of the interchange, they are only "out to flame," mostly due to being very angry. In fact, my sons also say that they even avoid commenting, unless it is to give an up-and-coming YouTuber some positive feedback, such as "Keep it up dude, I love your videos!"

In hindsight I would have followed the advice of a blog post I had shared with my fellow peers in NGL a few days earlier. Writer's Unboxed shared a post about Networking for Writers and how to connect with people that you want to communicate with, more than just reading their posts. The guest poster outlined how it is always important to comment in a "friendly and funny way on their posts and blogs" and to only say things that promote interaction. Sage advice that I will follow, not only as a teacher and learner but also as a member of an online teaching community of practice.