Re:Why it’s healthy to take a break from your online persona...
by nicky0 on Friday August 25, 2017 @01:57AM
(#15096428)
I don't understand the part about having someone to hate making people feel safe. What's the mechanism there?
Re:Why it’s healthy to take a break from your online persona...
by roceasta on Friday August 25, 2017 @11:23AM
(#15099062)
Imagine you're a boxer and you get into fights all the time, outside as well as inside the ring. You only feel safe with your fists up, but you can't control your arms directly. They only go up when you're facing an opponent. Therefore you need to have an opponent at all times.
This is a metaphor, because real boxers obviously do control their arms.
But substitute certain emotions (e.g. anger, fear) for the arms, emotions with which one is strongly identified, the loss of which causes a greater fear (of disappearing, of death).
>the “online disinhibition effect” is what enables your mild-mannered neighbour to become a hate-spewing bigot on social media
It's complicated. The fear of enemies keeps our 'ego persona' firmly in charge like a wartime leader. Because we identify with this persona we therefore unconsciously seek out people to hate in order to feel safe. Because open hatred isn't socially acceptable we designate the target group a 'hate group'. It's then OK to hate them because they're the real haters! And so these opposing groups create and sustain one another, making the participants feel safe and all the while making the world decidedly less safe.