Internet Outraging – is the most comical invention of the urban-internet-savvy humans. Or at least many think that way.
I think “internet outraging”, in itself, has no serious negative impact or any space for the comical air to hang around. In fact, I think internet outraging is a very effective activity that can teach more moral than books or sermons. Here are some points that explains my theory:
- Uncensored Opinions: By censoring opinions, you are effectively silencing an alternate thought, depriving the person his freedom of expression, and try to impose your thought as the correct one. Uncensored opinions on the other hand provides the publisher a way to express himself, bring about a sense of importance and encourages the individual to take a look into matters that so far has been outside his purview.
- Societal thermometer: No time in human history has there been a better way to assess the society’s emotional temperature than the present. Social media has made possible people of different geographic regions to share opinions on events and happenings thus providing an almost real-time emotional response events of public importance. If internet outraging or armchair activism doesn’t happen, a Delhi Gang rape protest wouldn’t reflect in Chennai or Bangalore with the same momentum in real-time as it happens today.
- Raw News: Raw news or the purest form of report on a event happening has been the Holy Grail of every democratic citizen. An unadulterated, non-opinionated, uncensored media that is free of corporate influence, government censorship can bring tears into any citizen’s eyes, if offered. That is exactly what internet outraging *supports *(note the emphasis). Suppose that, you are witnessing a social injustice unfolding in from of your eyes, you being physically incapable to stop it, turn towards internet to report that “raw news”, where would that news reach without any internet outraging happening based on it. It is that comical, useless, impact-less, lazy, action of outraging over the internet that provides the path for raw news, in reality, the raw truth to propagate.
- Clarity of thought: Writing blog posts require as much thinking as any required for planning a protest on a ground in the understanding and reasoning department. No one outraging on the internet and posting it publicly does it to satisfy personal desire. It is meant to communicate a thought across. And the level of “sense” in a post is really important to make or break a online character. Outraging on internet though seems a mundane and reactive response actually posses a requirement of thinking things over and over before writing down in a convincing way. Though the opinion expressed may not be acceptable to all parties, it is the best response of that individual, which he/she takes to be sensible.
- Moral Corrections: In connection with the previous point of providing an opportunity for clarity of thought, internet outraging can pave way for moral corrections in human character to occur. Let us take for example person A says “Rape cases must be speed tracked by the court.”, while being sensible in his response to a gang rape case, he commits the fallacy of being unjust to murder and other brutal attack cases. Person B points out this fallacy from a geographically, demographically and financially disjoint circle. (Why geography, demography and financial circle? Because they are where things get discussed in real world.) A common bias which might exist within these groups disappear when the same outraging happens over internet.
I am sure there are more goodness associated with internet outraging.
P.S: I know that chiding of internet outraging happens because, people think they can write over the internet and change the world. This post is no means to glorify the act of internet outraging in compromise to real world outraging or protests. It is just an alternate window to look at things. Highly sensitive groups like teens may be better off with internet outraging and activism than real world activism.