Facebook makes people spiteful

James Mayhew attempts to defend Facebook as a source of breaking news (Letters, Issue 504), and I’m sure he’s right that people can find out what’s happening via the site. But overall I think the impact of Facebook on society is negative.

I haven’t always thought this way. In the first few years I used it friends and family treated it like a novelty, sharing photos, quizzes, quotes and so on. But then something changed and it seemed to coincide with the EU referendum last year. I’m not particularly political, and didn’t vote in the referendum, so I was upset that overnight Facebook had been taken over by people who just wanted to spit venom at those who dared to have a different opinion.

This was very different to the atmosphere in the office I work. We’ve hardly ever discussed politics, even at times of elections, and nobody has ever rebuked someone for their views. A sense of decorum and respect prevails. So why is it so very different online? I know people who are reserved and timid in real life who become spiteful and rude the minute they go online. Perhaps they have to bottle up their emotions all day at work, then let it all out on the internet because it’s easy to ‘shout’ at people through a computer screen. It seems similar to road rage, only it’s a keyboard that triggers their anger, not a steering wheel.

I stopped going on Facebook for a few months after the referendum, hoping it would all calm down. Things were more tolerant when I returned last autumn, but got worse again during the recent general election, with friendships of many years ending amid a torrent of abuse. And my friends on Twitter say it’s even worse! I wish there was a dial on the internet, like a volume button, that controlled the level of vitriol. I would turn it down to zero.