Internet Uncensored: Navigating Toxicity

Chiara Bruzzi/ September 11, 2020/ Behavior, Guest Writers/ 4 comments

By: Julian DeLacadena

I have always been the “tech-savvy” avid user of the internet in my family from a young age. Being born in 2003, I’ve had the unique privilege to “grow up” with the internet, in a sense, a privilege that preceding generations didn’t get to experience fully. I’m not particularly certain what sparked my interest in the online world other than the fact that I was always drawn to the aspect that the internet can connect me, my self, and other individuals around the world. It blew my mind that within seconds, I could be in communication with somebody my age from places like Kuwait to Australia and have genuine interactions where I could learn about different cultures and different ways of life than mine.

Upon entering middle school, I started heavily involving myself in different communities on the internet, explicitly gaming communities that I was drawn to. Here, I met many individuals from other countries around the world and formed relationships that would last until I entered high school. I’m lucky to have had this experience because I managed to find a healthy balance between managing my online and ‘real-life’ relationships, despite the inauthentic aspect of relationships online. As I further went deeper online, I began to notice behavioral differences between individuals on the internet that I hadn’t seen before in my small circle of gaming buddies. I noticed repeated cyberbullying patterns, acts of racism, homophobia, and overall disrespect/toxicity within the gaming world’s sub-communities. Unfortunately, behaviors like this on the internet are entirely normalized and are rarely deprecated solely because “it’s the internet,” and interactions like this are bound to happen with little regulation and repercussions.

Only having graduated fifth grade at this point, I was picking up on these patterns at a young age, which ruined some of the experiences I had online, especially because gaming was a hobby of mine and was supposed to be an entertaining and gratifying activity. There was an apparent contrast between online interactions and real-life relationships, and I often wondered why this was the case at all.

At one point in time, I fell victim to the internet toxicity after I suffered a DDoS Attack (cyberattack where somebody uses your IP address to shut down your internet access) for something as trivial as accidentally leading a team to a loss in an online game. I was sent a fraudulent link where the attacker accessed my IP address, and my household internet was forced offline for 12 hours… merely because somebody was having a bad day and lost in a video game. I was confused, worried, and ultimately unaware of what had happened. However, after conferring with other online buddies, I realized this type of cyberattack was far too common and happened to many people on the internet frequently. Oftentimes, attackers end up issuing multiple DDoS Attacks, and the only solution is to purchase a new internet router entirely to prevent this.

I ended up distancing myself from most of the toxicity that was present in my gaming communities and became more active on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. I figured I had escaped the community of DDoS attackers for good by this point, but I, unfortunately, continued to notice similar patterns of cyber abuse and harassment just taking place in different forms. Whether it was hurtful comments, aggressive attacks, or illegal doxing (where people reveal private identities of anonymous internet users often publishing your real name, family info, address, SSN, etc.), it was present in every sector the internet I came across; and, ultimately, it was ridiculous. The fact that this was so common worried me and gave me a poor impression on our society today.

With this said, I’ve definitively concluded that there’s an absolute injustice within communities on the internet where individuals don’t treat others how they should be treated — and this is wrong! Sure, nobody is perfect, and conflict is inevitable everywhere, but the internet appears just to be filled with an unquestionable animosity that dramatically differs from real-life interactions. Interactions on the internet are far from “authentic” real-life interactions, but does this warrant malicious behavior for little reason? Is it the aspect of anonymity that leads individuals to act this way? Does a computer screen offer a sense of security where others feel less vulnerable with little repercussions for actions? I don’t believe there’s a definitive answer to these questions; but, it’s certainly something that shouldn’t be overlooked because anyone can quickly fall victim to the toxicity on the internet. Also, this isn’t to say the internet is wholly a bad place. I’m sure many readers on this blog haven’t come head-on with this (unless you’re an internet nerd like me), but if you look close enough, you’ll come to notice the blatant and unwarranted discourtesy solely for speaking one’s mind or sharing one’s certain viewpoints.

I think it’s important to remember the motto, “if you see something, say something” in today’s day and age, since we all partially bear the ethical responsibility of looking out for each other for the sake of compassion for all. This post isn’t meant to be a “stay safe on the internet” campaign either, but it’s always important to keep in mind how words can affect others. Sometimes defending that random internet user and not being afraid to speak up in the face of adversity can go a long way and truly help change someone’s situation or even make someone’s day from somewhere across the world. The internet is such a valuable tool with tremendous value, so let’s do our part. For those of you reading, help me make the online world a safer and better place overall by promoting positivity, good ethics, and love.