Sniping

Roger Ebert has an excellent blog post today on the practice of internet sniping, which is what he calls the practice of anonymous, malicious criticism. Ebert, of course, is well positioned to understand criticism, and form criticism of the criticism.

Reading it, I was reminded of Prof. Irvine's reflections on how being a Stoic had changed his life. One of the things he said was that when replying to emails, he re-read his text and deleted anything that existed for only the purpose of self-promotion. Sometimes, he said, that ended up deleting his whole email.

Similarly, Roger Ebert makes a point that this sniping is mostly for the purpose of ego gratification. Tearing someone down is how many people get to feel better about themselves.

Obviously, the various snipers, trolls, and griefers out there aren't going to change anytime soon. There is essentially an endless supply of them. So, realizing that they exist and will always exist, we can make sure it doesn't bother us, anymore than any other constant of life should bother us. Furthermore, we should reflect on our actions when communicating, especially on the internet. Let's take Prof. Irvine's advice, and resist adding all non-helpful and ego-driven messages.