Mankind- as demonstrated by the internet

Over this summer, I'll admit, I spent probably too much time on the internet. A bit. But I kinda want to talk about what I learned about how people act when they can say anything they want to an audience that doesn't care about them in a venue where anyone can be. I'm kinda a regular on sites like Best of Youtube, Failblog (g-rated), even Facebook. What I've found is that all respect to people as human beings immediatly goes out the window. They're not afraid to announce their opinion loudly and boldly (although I'll never say stating your opinion is a bad thing, it's just how they do it) and a lot less careful about their word choice.Everyone else you communicate to becomes just a half inch avatar and misspelled words. Yes. Right there they are. But I think this carried over so well into our daily lives, that people you see walking down the street or in your class become nothing. That's what happened to respect and decency. The fast communication to nobody destroyed our natural ability do communicate effectively to somebody. I'm in California right now, and we just drove through San Francisco. About half the people there had mp3 players on. The rest were with a big group of friends. Now, I've got to sound like a bit of a hypocrite since I had my mp3 in, but it got me thinking about what's changed since before them. Back then, you'd have to ineract with everyone you saw, because there wasn't any reason not too. It would be almost rude to look into the eyes of some guy you see and not say "Top of the morning!". But now we're all deaf and scared that anyone you see can pull out a gun and shoot you for no reason. Why would people want to live like this? Why would anyone want to elect to be afraid of their neighbor? Can't we all just be nice?