Social media has trained us to act in this way of being total idiots when expressing our opinion anonymously and putting on a face of courteousness if the conflict, danger, and yelling is imminently headed towards ourselves. Because of my apparent road rage, I have realized that people act in cars like they do on social media as well. If there is a shield protecting us from getting involved in antagonistic disputes then we will spew whatever opinion we please. But if there isn't, you can bet that most of our society shuts their mouths and goes on their merry way.
We all act like a silent bully until there is that one person who takes offense and calls us out. Then we retreat like scared children back into our comfort zone of kindness. The simple solution to this problem is the age old saying of "don't dish it out if you can't take it," and I mean this in every realm of our culture. We all have our shields in front of us: our phones, computers, and cars, and these keep us from having to face any conflict with an actual person.
We need to start learning to resist the temptation of acting like airheads in social media and hopefully this will translate to our everyday lives. Maybe we will start being more patient on the way to class or driving around in our cars. We could possibly end all of the passive aggressive tweets or text messages. If we train ourselves to act more courteous or even start having thicker skins, perhaps this problem of hostility and frustration will retreat.
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