Deviant Behavior in Online Multimedia Communities and Strategies for Managing it ; rider.edu
conclusion: Worst case scenarios with snerts probably would include their attempts to crash your system, ruin your reputation through impostoring, or luring you into a scam. But these scenarios are rather uncommon. And for the experienced computer user, the community member who is well known among online friends, and the savvy individual, each of these respective scenarios probably is not much of a threat. In a very large majority of cases, the most a snert can do to you is toss unpleasant words or images at your, or interrupt your ability to speak to friends. The inclination to feel insulted, frustrated, or indignant by a snert's actions reflects the tendency to invest a lot of psychological energy in one's online world. Users take it personally and feel very emotional when it comes to their virtual community. To them, it's as real as the real world. Perhaps the best defense against snerts is to unravel that psychological investment a bit. You can always turn off the computer and walk away. The Greek philosopher Epictetus said that people are not disturbed by things that happen to them, but by the views they take of those things. In other words, sticks and stones can break your bones, but the snerts of virtual reality can rarely hurt you... unless you let them. |
