Yes! Could it be that someone who went to the RU is posting about *something else*? I shall allow you a moment to calm down and wipe that drink from the keyboard, for it is true. Although it may not seem like it, as I have already mentioned it twice and I wanted to talk about internet people. This post is inspired by the RU, not about it. Got that? Good. If not, go to the back of the class.

Another thing that this post is not, is a rant. Nor is it a whine, nor anything inspired by recent personal experience. So that's the disclaimer out of the way, and you don't have to worry that

a) I've been wronged, or
b) You're going to have to sit there and read about it.

Ahem. Already so far from the top and I haven't even started the real post yet. Maybe I'll get onto it in the next sentence.

People are powerful. Let's picture a little scene by way of illustration. Don't panic, the people in this scene aren't real and no harm will come to any of them. Two men, sitting on a bench in a park somewhere.

A: You suck.
B: BURN.
A: Shot up bundle of sticks.
B: You're poor.
A: You'll never amount to anything, you'll never make a difference to anyone's life, and so you really don't deserve to even be alive yourself.
B: ...

We'll cut it there. See how the exaggerated conversation started off all fun and happy and full of Rink references, but then it suddenly took a turn for the worst and became something very different indeed? Person B was having fun before, when everything was jolly, but now he's very upset. Person A, through the medium of voice, has hurt B personally. The moral is that A had the power to seriously affect B's life for the worse just by talking to him, and B had a similar power.

We know all about this. We learn it very early on, when we first upset someone or when we first get upset. We know that we have the power to influence people, and we know that we must control it. We've all fallen out with people, and we know what it can mean when we do.

Now, that conversation might have taken place anywhere. It may even have taken place nowhere, transmitted between A and B by the magic of radio waves or by the interweb. Let's add a few things to even the playing fields. Let's give the people the ability to cut off communication at any time. They can choose to completely and effectively ignore the other, without the other's interference. Without the chance for the other to do the other thing that people can do with that power: heal. The moment B says something A doesn't like, A could shut him out of his life completely and never hear an apology.

Let's give them the ability to disappear, to vanish off the face of the earth and be out of reach to all who know them. To separate themselves completely from not only each other, but everyone else. From their friends, from C.

Now let's add noise to their conversation. They can no longer tell exactly what the other is saying or how they are saying it. Emotion, inflection, expression, other cool words like that are lost. The only thing they know is what the other person said, and they are free to interpret it in any way they wish.

Hello, we're somewhere we recognise now. We're online, communicating through email, messaging systems, and chat rooms. Any of us could be person A, and anyone we know person B.

Scary, isn't it?

Matthew