The Letter is Reborn
‘So what?’ I hear you ask.
Well, remember when I mentioned that when letter writing went away, some were very sad about it because the written word had strengths that talking didn’t?
*author pauses while everyone goes back to reread*
Ready? Right.
What are the advantages to letter writing? Anyone who’s spent time on social media (if you’re reading, this you’re on it now) can probably guess.
I’ll give you a hint. The worst scourge of social media is the troll. You know this beast. He—it’s almost always a ‘he’—dumps on everything, calls out everyone with the foulest threats and generally behaves like an asshole.
Why does he do this?
Because he can.
No one knows who he is or where he is. He’s free from the consequences of his behavior.
But social media has another sort of beast: the anti-troll (my term). This person uses her, his, or their anonymity to be brutally honest in a very different way from the normal troll.
Your garden variety troll is an asshole everywhere; he’s just worse when he doesn’t think he can get caught.
Anti-trolls are decent people everywhere, too. The difference is, the troll learns to fake niceness when there’s a chance of getting his teeth kicked in.
In my upcoming essay on courtesy, I will go into some detail about the erosion of same and how we might end up being polite again. (Hint: credible threats of violence worked a treat back in the day.)
The anti-troll learns another type of dishonesty in person—being uncaring. There’s a kind of embarrassment in showing that one cares too much. The anti-troll uses their pseudo-anonymity to be their kind and compassionate real selves.
