Recently, I lauded the web community for their openness and kindness. But the internet, and the community of people who create things on it, isn’t without its dark side. And I’ve been a member of that dark side.
It’s easy to forget that there are real, live humans behind the pixelated little avatars we talk to and about online. And it’s also easy, at least for me, to forget that there are more praiseworthy virtues than cleverness and humor. Josh Bryant said it better than I could have.
So what’s a guy to do when he’s getting inundated with the smart-aleck attitude of the internet, himself included? For me, the answer was taking stock of my heroes.
I realized I was valuing a lot of things in people—shipping great products, having a keen eye for detail, or being able to find humor in any situation. But I wasn’t placing enough value on things far more important: kindness, caring, integrity, and the whole slew of virtues that matter.
Turns out, it’s easy to be an ass on the internet. (And probably, many folks who are asses on the internet are kind, caring, wonderful people, too.) But when you spend 10+ hours a day staring at a screen, the folks you follow and admire kind of become the company you keep. And the person you are sort of starts to become the company you keep.
And an internet ass isn’t the kind of person I want to be. So here’s to a bright future of encouragement, virtue, and yes, occasional good-natured criticism.
