This could be a new law of social behavior. The Inverse Square Law as
applied to Social Behavior and Responsibility.
Roughly stated as follows: The responsibility felt for an act of
antisocial behavior decreases by the square root as the distance to face
the results of that action increase to the power of two.
Rand E. Tomcala
A little more homey version could be stated as "The mouth becomes
smaller and more thoughtful as it nears the person it's offending, for
retribution is just that close"
Rand E. Tomcala
Geeze! I keep this up and I'll end up with a reputation like Gary's.
Rand E.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scj9000@xxxxxxx wrote:
>
> In a message dated 1/17/99 6:14:38 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> dbulger@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
> << Why is
> it we give people far more "slack" in person than we do electronically?
> Passing out flowers & incense,
> Dave>>
>
> Methinks the distance and anonimity of the medium breeds the less polite
> social behavior, be it purposely inflaming a hobby club or responding in an
> unkind manner, or using the forum to express your every peeve of the day.
> Much like when responding to a problem with a letter of complaint, emailers
> tend to go overboard and are more "brave" because there are few consequences
> to the action. This, too, will undoubtedly be curbed somehow in our futures as
> the medium takes over every aspect of our lives....I suppose tracing sources
> will be very regulated....
> But for now we be stuck with sometimes moody, cranky behavior. That's what the
> "delete" button handles beautifully.
> Susan
>
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