Is the internet stripping us of humanity?

Finding joy in the suffering of others has been a near universal human core trait since the dawn of time.

@ragingloli “Finding joy in the suffering of others is a near universal human core trait since the dawn of time.”

Schaden-motherfuckin-freude.

Public lynchings aren’t far back in our past in the US. Public executions are current in some countries. Our military kills thousands of innocent people and we shrug it off as “collateral damage”.

The Internet just makes it easier to gawk at.

But would she have found it hilarious if she’d seen it IRL? Something about seeing it on the internet, or on TV, you subconsciously think “Well, this is really real, so it’s funny.”

@Dutchess_III Are you sure that was real? If it’s the same video I watched this week, it was a parody.

It was real. Pretty sure. I would post it, but, as I said, she had removed it. I’ll see what I can find.

So, it wasn’t this?

No. You’re parroting the same malarkey that was said with any new technology for the last 500 years.

Gutenberg was maligned for ruining humanity when he invented movable type and the printing press, because then scribes (and religions) would lose their hold over peoples’ minds.

Same with the phonograph player.
Same with the telephone.
Same with TV.
Same with cell phones
Same with internet
Same with DVRs
Same with… you name it.

Any advance in technology scare some population who is afraid of (or just doesn’t welcome) change.

Yeah, that was it. How is that a parody?

Produced by Studio C.

It’s not a fear of technology, @elbanditoroso. It’s a concern to me when people getting hurt becomes funny.

Ok, I watched more of it and I can see where it started getting really silly at the end.

The vehicle of delivery (internet versus movies versus TV) is completely different from the content being delivered.

What?

I always wondered who were the 1 or 2 people to dislike funny youtube videos. Now I know its you!

There is no consensus to the cause of laughter. Just a lot of theories link
It has nothing to do with the internet.

Comedy is an art, not a science. There are no rules and it is highly subjective. The more you analyse it, the less humorous it becomes. Also, like one of the theories claim, the essential characteristic of humor is incongruity and how one considers the situation. Accidents that are perceived in a non-serious context, will result in laughter, but if you start considering accidents = brain damage, you won’t laugh.

It’s quite obviously a parody – from the moment the goalie is dragged off the field by his arm, you must realize this isn’t real.

I didn’t watch but a couple secs of it the first time. I watched the whole thing when someone said it was a parody. Yes, I saw the humor.

@Dutchess_III So, the internet is not stripping us from our humanity, then? We’re safe? ;)

I think it is having an adverse affect. The stuff people do under anonymity, basically acting like assholes, is starting to present itself in real life. We’re losing manners and common sense.
Having said that, I think the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Only the morons.

@Dutchess_III But this video is clearly not an example of that.

No, the video is not an example of that. It’s mostly facebook and the aggressive “bitches,” “I’m number one,” and slamming people that’s causing a break down in society.

Have you ever wondered if you might be investing too much time in FB and/or giving way too much credence to crap that people post on FB?

Just idly wondering…

:D

I’m sure I do, @Buttonstc. But things in real life have been changing, and I think that’s why. People are showing less manners and being more selfish than before. One example are pedestrians just barging out into the street or through a parking lot, ignoring all the cars. Used to be you’d stop, make sure the guy in the car saw you. 9 / 10 the driver would stop and wave you on. People don’t do that any more (I do. It’s stupid not to.) They’re just walking around with this sense of entitlement.
One time Rick was backing out of a parking space at a nature center, and there was a group of kids behind the car. They didn’t move! We had to ask them to move, and we were met with dirty looks.

Once again, @Dutchess_III, you are showing your quaintness. The simple truth is that humanity is no more (or less) fucked up than it ever was; we merely have a larger audience due to technology.

As for people being ruder and more selfish, correlation is not causation. The same has pretty much been said of every generation by the generation or two that preceded it. Internet is to now what rock and roll was to the 60s.

How could you have possibly watched more than, say, a minute, and not realized that it was a joke? A trainer who comes onto the field to shine a light into the player’s eyes and then trot off, while the player stumbles off the field? Seriously? That hasn’t happened since football players wore leather helmets – if it even really happened then.

PS: If someone offers to show you “Road Runner Cartoons”, don’t watch ‘em. You won’t like them.

I disagree with those who are minimizing @Dutchess_III‘s perspective. She might have given a parody as an example, but the core of her initial question is valid for discussion. Can we lay off telling her that she got taken in by a parody- I think she’s got it.

There ARE studies being done on the decrease of empathy and connectiveness in today’s society in certain areas. Some research has shown an increase in entitlement and a decrease in self-monitoring and civility.

Depending on which study you read there are a few results—such as face-to-face conversations have become awkward, community cohesiveness has decreased, there is a sudden rise in the market for single resident dwellings in every urban area. Problem solving techniques and conversational strategies have changed—whether that’s “better” or “worse” is subjective, but what is objective is- they have changed.

Many things about humans don’t change… schadenfreude, for one. That goose-neck effect when walking past a disaster or accident. The entertainment of violence (gladiators, lynching, Quentin Tarantino’s films). The fact we’re enthralled or uncomfortably entertained by violence, or that we find it humorous—is a given. But our daily cultural thinking and practices have changed in response to the increase in technology.

Because I only watched for a few seconds @CWOTUS.

Thank you @linguaphile.

America’s Funniest Videos has been on TV for 3 decades. Have you ever read about the Roman’s and their Colloseum delights?

The internet is just another vehicle for the masses to get their entertainment.

I can’t tell whether it’s funny or horrific because I haven’t seen the video yet. But then again people can laugh at this kind of things. Is that another kind of inhumanity?

But I guess the fact that she had to remove the video somewhat proves that the video wasn’t funny

@linguaphile Autistic people have issues with face-to-face communications, empathy, and connectedness. Therefore, if we combine your argument with @Dutchess_III,‘s those “on the spectrum” are less human.

Those closely affiliated with political or religious organizations have a sense of entitlement and lack of civility. We are becoming a more polarized nation where more and more people are jumping on one bandwagon or the other.

Most importantly though, aside from our increased desire of instant gratification, I don’t think the internet is to blame here. Well, that, and the fact that the US is not the entire world; that is relevant because the rest of the world is dealing with the internet better than we Americans are.

@jerv Where did I say the research proved the change made people less human? I simply said the research indicates there is a change. There’s a difference between calling someone ‘less human,’ which if you knew me you’d know I’d never say, and showing that people’s sense of humanity has changed.

I agree with you on the increase in polarity. I think polarity is a profit-maker and the media feeds it.

@linguaphile You didn’t; you never made (or even implied) any claims about a reduction/lack of empathy making one less human. I merely combined two pieces of information to infer a third.

Of course, that inference could only possibly be accurate if both of the arguments it’s based on are true. But as we have no real, mutually agreed upon definition for “humanity” or the role that empathy plays in that definition though, my inference may well be false.

@jerv Noted and thank you.

Here’s something I saw today in my feed Black Friday 1983 vs. Now I would agree that civility has changed.

However, I will be the first person to say that this video is grossly misleading.

In 1983: marital rape wasn’t recognized, homophobia was rampant, hate crimes were not crimes, Battered wives had very little support. Reaganomics was getting ready to cut funding for mental health services which closed many facilities and left hundreds of thousands of unskilled mental health patients stranded and homeless.

We’ve gained some and lost some.