Everyone's An Asshole On The Internet

Nobody cares about me, I know, I'm the dancing monkey on the stage (that sounds whiny but I actually mean that and get it), but I still get to complain sometimes. For years I found it pretty easy to compartmentalize my online life. Facebook stayed in facebook, instagram stayed in instagram, twitter stayed in twitter, email was for certain things and private messages for others, the blog comments stayed on the blog, my real life was distinct from my online life, etc. Not perfectly, of course, but to some degree everything stayed in its lane. Useful for organizing one's life. Lately all of those barriers are falling down. People want to talk to me on twitter or facebook about something on the blog, people send messages for things that would make much more sense through email, and of course everybody's an asshole on the internet (that, fortunately, has not changed). Not just me, I've heard other people make similar complaints. I don't know if it's just a generational thing and The Kids Today don't make these artificial distinctions between, say, email which is more professional, and private messages which are more personal, or if people just aren't aware of all internet traditions anymore, but it's a bit annoying to have it come from all directions all the time. And, of course, now that everybody has a computer in their pocket you can't make the (sometimes true!) excuse that you just didn't see the email yet, or whatever. It's always coming...