This reading was very interesting and relevant to me because I have seen a lot of cruel anonymous comments posted online in my life. I have actually had comments posted about me in high school that ended up hurting my feelings pretty bad. When I was a freshman, there was a popular application on Myspace called the “Truth Box”. The Truth Box was a tool that people added to find out what their friends “really” thought about them, and all the comments were anonymous. I added one and ended up receiving all kinds of comments like, “You’re ugly”, “You’re fat”, “You suck at soccer” or even, “nobody likes you”. These comments were so hurtful to me because I had never done anything to these people to make them say these things to me. After a while I realized that these people obviously felt the desire to hurt others because they are really insecure about themselves.
In this reading, Matt Zollier Seitz stated that, “More likely they're people who in daily life get argued with, shut out, stepped on or otherwise treated with less than the reverence they believe they deserve. So they wade into comments sections to act out power fantasies -- the righteous truth-telling antihero, the schoolyard bully, the class clown -- with some assurance that their wife or mom or kids won't find out and ask, "What on earth is wrong with you?” I definitely agree with this statement because a lot of the people I know who post these harsh comments are usually very insecure or mistreated people themselves. It is normal for people to try to tear others down to make themselves feel better, but unfortunately the internet makes it so easy to do without undergoing any consequences.
The “hotspot” of this reading was at the end when Seitz related these comments to a global problem, discrimination. He indicated that, “It's impossible for anyone who reads un-moderated comments threads on large websites to argue that racism, sexism or anti-Semitism are no longer problems in America, or that the educational system is not as bad as people say or that deep down most people are good at heart.” This was a very bold statement because it is 100% true. This is still an obvious problem in the world, today, and it isn’t going to change until these actions stop.
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