I personally am the same way online as I am online.

I’m no longer a teenager, but I’m still relatively near to that culture in age. Unfortunately, the older generation has left us with a pretty shoddy economy and now we have to work if we want a real education. I find it pretty offensive to hear people who never had to do real work insulting an entire age group, when (at least it’s this way for college kids) we need to work for every little thing.

It comes down to owning up and taking responsibility. I hear so many parents blaming the media for any rudeness that a young person may exhibit, because they’re too lazy to put in some work in actually raising their kids. I saw that one person commented that if s/he had behaved the way that his/her kids behave now, s/he would have been booted from the house. What does that say about the parenting? Someone didn’t/doesn’t lay down the law and look at what happened. Children aren’t going to own up to their actions (rudeness) until their parents start owning up.

I find it appalling that an age group can be black-balled, with no social consequence. We all know that race has nothing to do with one’s abilities, yet some feel it’s reasonable to make sweeping generalizations about another huge group of people? I would hope that at this point, we would realize that ALL people come from various backgrounds, which leads to different behaviors.

I applaud the people who said that rudeness is everywhere or didn’t single out any specific group. I think that people like these offer civil discussion and show true web etiquette.

I apologize if I’ve offended anyone, but could we strive to open our minds a little? Sure some teens are rude, but so are a lot of other people.

You’ve heard the saying “It’s always the quiet ones,” right? Well, it’s because the quiet ones spend a good lot of their time shutting up and making nice in the face to face world so much so that the Internet can be a fresh release! It’s the quiet ones who get walked all over and bullied in the face to face world… where should we tell them to go and vent their frustrations or be mean? Are we saying people can’t be mean? It doesn’t seem like there is a good place anymore.

I am not saying that we pave the road in gold for the bullies and cyberbullies of the earth. No, but I think that our society has changed so much that people want such a politically correct world that it’s backfiring ten-fold on them. Being PC is everywhere and the Internet is the last frontier it seems where people can be as unPC as they want and not give a rat’s behind who thinks what. It’s the double-edged sword… We wanted it, a place to be free and not worry what people think of us or what we say, a place to speak our minds, get dirty and all kinds of wrong but when it’s done, when someone crosses the invisible line that’s yet to be drawn… then we get mad at them. Then they are rude, snarky or mean. When all they really are is human and showing a little of their A$$es because it’s the one place left that they can.

Telling people where to go and to what hand basket they should get there in is one of the last things on earth that hasn’t been taken from us, the Internet it seems is one of the last places people can do it… But we don’t want them in the face to face world. Then we are back to being unPC.

You have manners, though, and everyone knows it:)

I think some of the rudeness on the Internet is self inflicted. People don’t like it when others disagree with them. They see flames where flames don’t exist.

Also, just because people type the words doesn’t mean they know how to communicate by writing. And that comes off as rude, when the person has no inkling that he or she appears that way.