Scientists prove the existence of the Internet Hate Machine

[RDKirk]

The Internet Hate Machine

If you’ve been on the Internet for more than a day, you probably noticed it’s a bit… angry. All the time. On its best days there’s a thin layer of snark coating the famed series of tubes. On its worst days, well, the Internet tries to get someone fired for giving a game a 9/10 rating instead of a 10/10 or Anna Gunn has to write a New York Times op-ed about receiving death threats because people hate her Breaking Bad character or a social network identifies the wrong man as a terrorist or…

I could go on.

According to a group of researchers at Beihang University in China, the problem might be intrinsic to the way people interact on the Internet. People are literally making each other angry on a daily basis.

As reported in MIT Technology Review, Rui Fan, Jichang Zhao, Yan Chen, and Ke Xu culled data from Weibo—basically China’s version of Twitter. Over the course of six months, the team collected approximately 70 million posts from 200,000 users, then filtered the collection using emoticons. The team separated posts into four emotions: joy, sadness, anger, or disgust. Then they charted how much each emotion spread beyond its originator.

There is a neat graphic with the article.

It doesn't really say anything we should not already know about human nature. An evil word spreads faster than a good word, and “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” (Mark Twain)

But we who are Christians have different guidance:

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. -- Colossians 4

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Hang on,

"The team separated posts into four emotions: joy, sadness, anger, or disgust. "

That's a very bias grouping towards negative emotions don't you think?

 

[RDKirk]

Hang on,

"The team separated posts into four emotions: joy, sadness, anger, or disgust. "

That's a very bias grouping towards negative emotions don't you think?

Depends on how they counted a "neutral" announcement, such as "At Ben & Jerry's eating Rocky Road."

 

[C-Man]

I don't think it's so much an internet thing as it is a people thing.
It's much easier for somebody to talk trash when they've got a nice anonymous computer to hide behind.

 

[willlowbee]

Such a study, separating online emotions as this one did, could just as easily arrive at the conclusion there is a hate machine on earth.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Depends on how they counted a "neutral" announcement, such as "At Ben & Jerry's eating Rocky Road."

Well I would be sad to hear that, disgusted that neither had invited me and, angry that I'd missed out on some Rocky Road.

 

[HasAnswers]

The only hate I've really encountered is in "religious" discussions. Haha. As in the hate directed one way toward creationists/Bible believers.
But I guess even on facebook most people are complaining about something or other.

 

[canisee]

The only hate I've really encountered is in "religious" discussions. Haha. As in the hate directed one way toward creationists/Bible believers.
But I guess even on facebook most people are complaining about something or other.

You forgot politics as another source of hate.