...so goshdarnit, you will listen to me.

While not everyone can have the opportunity to audition to be become the next American Idol, everyone can certainly have the chance to be their own version of Simon Cowell. A culture supersaturated by reality television, where contestants are constantly critiqued and "voted off" if found wanting, along with the rapid growth of the Web 2.0 community, has created a country full of people determined to have their opinions heard, and has provided them with the means for them to make it happen. While participation in the public forum is generally a good thing, much of the debate, critique and subsequent digression into name-calling, needless sarcasm, and petty accusations, has migrated to the least pertinent of areas. No longer is this type of talk exclusive to online political or video game forums. Heated debates rage on in the comments of Youtube videos. Disagreements in how-to forums turn into personal attacks. Varying personal experiences create raging arguments among photographers as to which camera is really the best for a particular purpose.
Recently, I was watching a how-to video on Youtube, showing how to economically pack a small, carry-on suitcase for about a five day trip. The guy in the video said he was packing for Florida, so his clothing mostly consisted of t-shirts, jeans, and the like. Even so, his folding technique allowed him to include about two changes of clothes for each day, two pairs of shoes, and that ever-necessary toiletry bag. I thought the video had some great insights for packing light on a short trip. However, the comments below the video showed that not everyone agreed. It would have been one thing if they were just disagreements, but the notes consisted of sentiments such as , "WTF. Won't his shirts get wrinkled?", "What a dumb*ss. He didn't leave any room to bring stuff back with him.", "Good luck when they search your bags!", "What if you're going away for two weeks and not just four days?", "Stupid video; a complete waste of time",or "What a tool!" And the list goes on. Needless to say, this is all quite frustrating.
It would seem, however, that many of these people offering their opinions rely only on what they're thinking at the moments, doing little to no homework on what they're saying. Often, these opinions are not backed by facts, are inaccurate, and are generally very one-sided. A prime example I saw this past fall was a person who passionately contended that the war in Iraq was wrong because "the U.S. has killed one million Iraqi civilians." I'm sure.
Online forums were initiated to encourage sharing of advice, discussion and debate. However, it seems that the cloak of anonymity that the internet provides allows people to take simple discussions overboard. As this type of Web 2.0 technology has progressed and become more accessible to the masses, these attitudes have started to bleed into offline life. We feel entitled to give people our opinion on something, whether or not they want to hear it. The attitude is that of "I have a blog, so goshdarnit, you will listen to me!" I have seen more people be openly harsh and critical toward strangers in the past few years than I have ever. Gone is the decorum; gone is common courtesy. And frankly, it scares me a bit. What will be the next digression? Perhaps we should turn off our televisions and pull away from our computers enough to get to know people for who they are, and not for how well they perform to our fickle standards.

Much more on this later