The internet drama should have stopped in high school and died along with Myspace, but is appearing now more than ever on college campuses especially amongst females with the rising popularity of newer social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The root of this drama ranges from arguments over boys to labeling someone the campus whore. The rising epidemic of this addiction to drama amongst females on and off the computer screen has begun to spin out of control, and as college students this should be something we got out of our systems in high school.
It is all too often that we encounter those who fight their battles via social networks. Instead of confronting those they have a confrontation with face to face, these people resort to expressing their feelings behind a computer screen; I’d like to refer to them as “keyboard gangsters.”
With the continuing evolution of the internet people are being given more and more ways to use the computer as means of communication. On Facebook you can subliminally call someone out in your status or tag them if you choose. On Twitter you can subliminally tweet about someone or @ them if you choose.
The thing is most “keyboard gangsters” take the subliminal route, but eventually the recipient of their typed claims figures out the message was for them. This then begins an eruption of drama, a fight so to speak, all fought via keyboard as cyber bystanders all scroll through the drama entering their feeds.
For most it’s just annoying, but for others it’s an opportunity to instigate a confrontation without actually being involved.
Most people who resort to the keyboard in their defense are attacking people they may see every day. If not every day they cross paths face to face at some point in time. In the cyber world they’ve succeed in creating a different person than they are in reality, leaving their Facebook friends and Twitter followers to believe that they’re these outrageously bold people. That façade is destroyed once it’s discovered that they only exist as those people only when they have a keyboard at their fingertips.
The point is, if you’re going to attack someone on the internet and walk by them silent the next day the purpose of your typed rant is non-existent. Even if your message was directed at the person as opposed to being subliminal, the fact is that you’re still using the keyboard as a defense mechanism.
My advice, do not fall victim to the cyber drama even if someone chose you to attack you via keyboard. “Keyboard gangsters” will forever be just that, and if they can’t confront you face to face with their issue ignore it. It something that should not be respected so therefore do no acknowledge it, don’t give them that satisfaction.