Hiding Behind Technology: E-mail Cowards
Has anyone ever noticed, how bold people are, when they are allowed to hide behind technology? I often hear professors who teach online classes say that “students who take online courses have a tendency to be more bolder than those who attend regular college classes”. On some occasions, I have had the opportunity to observe many of the comments that students make, when responding back to their professors online. I have seen, derogatory, disrespectful, and downright threatening comments that students make toward their instructors. However, I believe if those students, were actually in a college classroom setting, they would not dare say such things. This is what technology does, it allows cowards to be bold. At one time in our nation, if a person had a dispute concerning his or her bill, he or she could readily go to the phone, electric, or gas company, and talk to a person face to face, in order to resolve the issue. Nowadays, this is practically impossible to do. Everything seems to be done with some form of technology. Such as the customer service rep, over the telephone, or going online to pay a bill. Every aspect of our society seems to be ruled by technology. If you are a male, and you do not have enough courage to talk to an attractive woman, go to the Internet and find one to chat with. If you are a female, and it may be difficult for you to meet guys, go online and find you one, and, send him some glamour shots of yourself, that you took 15 years ago, knowing that you do not look like that anymore. Hiding behind technology, in several cases, has produced a world of cowards. Bowtie Professor.com, is a very controversial website, as stated on the web page’s introduction. Quite naturally on any blog, one is going to get all types of people, black, white, brown or yellow. Some will be high school dropouts, while others will be highly educated. Some will be Christians, some will be Muslims, while yet others will not know what, that they believe. The ages could range from 16 to 80, and yes, there will always be a few deranged individuals who come on the blog, who lack rational intuition, and, you will know them by their fruit. When I sincerely, believe individuals want to discuss or debate one of the articles, that I have written, in the past I would leave a number where I could be reached, in order that we might have an intellectual conversation. Not once has anyone called me or taken me up on my offer. I receive so many e-mails, that I cannot respond to them all. I end up deleting most of these responses, because many of the comments that several individuals leave, are totally irrelevant to the articles that they claim to be responding to. For those of you who really want to discuss a particular article, let me know, and, I will leave a number where I can be reached. I already know, that I probably won’t hear from the e-mail cowards.
The Bowtie Professor Speaks!
Tags: Logical Thinking
This entry was posted on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 10:40 am and is filed under Politics And Education, Religion and Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
This is true, two semesters back when I had taken an online course for government, our teacher lived or was vactioning in England and the only means of communication was through email. We could almost never get in touch with her, which became very frustrating, with you grades in jeporady. I would always go to the main office on campus to see if there was any other way to communicate with her and there was always no only through email she doesnt have a phone. So, I would go to comments on e-campus and some of the comments that students left were very disrespectful, some I believe would have said it to her face because it was a situation that to me was her and the schools fault, how could you teach students in a different state? However, I dont think being rude was the answer but maybe she got the message better that way because soon after I dropped she had started communicaitng out of the blue. I hated the experience of online classes and will never perticipate in them again.
Boy does this hit close to home! In general, I communicate through text messages significantly more than any other sort of communication, because this is today’s usual communication format for high school students. Because of this, i do agree that you can hide behind today’s technology when too scared or nervous to talk face-to-face or even voice-to-voice to someone. I have had friends that become too scared to break-up with their boyfriends in person, so they choose to send a text to them explaining the situation. Another example would be someone putting false information on their facebook pages stating that they are older than they really are, in order to get older boy’s attention. This just shows that they are dishonest and something that can be dangerous to them. Who knows where technology will be in ten years, but by the looks of things it won’t be moving in the direction of the old days of face-to-face, honest communication. How sad.
This in fact is very true and I agree 100 percent with you. I have had personal experiences more than few times with people often cursing at me or trying to argue with me via email. But when I leave my phone number as a reply and even my address at times, i get no response. Or if I see the person walking down the street they wont even do so much as look my way. Its so crazy and i hate it. People just carry different personalities and identities behind the computer screen. On the computer they can make up the real person they want to be but in the real world there just people with a lot of insecurities. Its just like the movie surrogates, people really get to make up the person they want to look like, they get to say what they want to say but its all behind a screen, but the person they make is actually the one living there lives doing everything that they would normally do. And the real person they are never leaves the house or isn’t even seen by its loved ones and thats very sad. But i can really see technology, text messaging, and computers eventually becoming very brutal for our communication world.
I agree that people do think they’re more “courageous” when they say things online, but in reality they’re nothing but cowards. I am guilty of texting or calling someone on the phone instead of comunicating with someone face to face, but i already know these people, and everything I say to them by phone I say to them face to face. But hiding behind technology has risen many problems, for example cyber bulling. I was brought up with a saying, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all,” but i was also brought up with another saying, “if you think you want to say something mean or rude or even the truth have the guts to say it face to face, don’t be scary!” Because many people today think “Oh did you see what i wrote or posted of that girl/boy?” and think of themselves as amazingly brave, well get this straight to everyone who thinks that, you’re not brave you’re a coward! If you don’t have the guts to say it up front don’t post it!
Students should learn how to respect their elders and talk to them in a proper way. They need to use a professional tone of voice in their letters or messages to their professors. Many people rather email a teacher than go talk to a teacher face to face. There might be many reasons they would like emailing than talking face to face to a teacher. Or, a student uses email rather than calling their professors. It is so true that people use technology for everything nowadays. The uses of telephones or calling people are limited. The use of emails is also slowly being limited. The way of communicating with people is through texting and social networking. It is so true that most communications are done with technology rather than face to face. It is surprising that children at the age of five or six know how to use technology better than their parent’s generation. They are becoming better equipped about technology.
I agree. We have so much technology now to go through in order to talk to anyone. If you have a problem with a bill you can’t just go up to the store anmore and try to fix it. Instead you have to call customer service and sometimes they don’t even know how to fix the problem. Also, its like when student write on rate my professor and the student wasn’t proud with their teacher they just make them look like the bad guy and write these awful comments about their clothes and their habits. Something that has nothing to do with the class.
Everything nowadays are hidden behind technology. As mentioned in the article, instead of confronting the person about unresolved issues or misunderstandings, technology plays a big part in keeping those emotions hidden, so outwardly it may appear that you are a good person, while inside you are filled with hatred, expressing yourself through words on paper rather than clarifying and speaking those issues out with the person.It clearly makes you a coward, by not being able to bodly come out to the person instead of being reserved. Technology has rapidly advanced and is still continuing to advance. I took an online class the previous fall semester, not a very smart choice. I thought by taking an online class it would be flexible to my schedule, ended up being the worst mistake possible. The teacher was not even prompt to respond to emails when needed, instructions werent clear, never could make an appt to speak with the professor in person… basically all the cons you can think of possible. The students in the class were very disrespectful as well, with their comments on the discussion board. If it were a classroom environment, i am sure none of the students would not dare to speak such words. Only when gone through experiences can a person learn, what choice is the best. Ever since that semester, till this day I havent taken an online class and do not plan on it either. Technology is a powerful tool and is useful in many ways, but people should not abuse it.
Although technology has advanced our world in many way, It has also made us very dependent. With both positive and negative aspects, which one out weighs the other? Today, it is very easy to get online and create a new you in just a click of a button. You want to be 5′2, mixed, with a body to die for, just type it all out and pretend to be this made up person in words. How sad is that? How has our world become so dependent on this man-made system? We have become a materialistic nation through technology, and a bit lazy and we don’t even know it. The other day, I was on facebook.com (a networking website) and I noticed how girls and guys somehow boosted their confidence through their profiles. Through their word they became bolder, taller, skinnier, brighter, and even richer! How funny. It’s sad to say it, but yes, although, if used as intend; technology can be a beautiful thing, people have truly defeated its purpose.
I agree with this article, I think that people do show their true self’s behind technology. They are always less afraid to tell people harsh things and sometimes even unnecessary things. People are always bolder when it comes to not showing their face. I think that this always happens because they always have more time to think of what they can comment back to a person, or for a better comeback. In other words I think this is a very good example of what hiding behind technology means.
I totally agree with Professor Bowties argument on the current topic of hiding behind emails. Technology and the internet have advanced to such a stage where creating a different identity is very easy. When a person is mailing a stranger both of them are unaware of each others true traits and thereby try to impress the other by at times exaggeration certain facts. this mostly happen when someone emails the opposite sex. Emailing strangers is the most fastest way to communicate as well as fall into a lie. Emailing people tend to have the feeling to say more because they never have t come in contact directly to the person they talk no matter how offensive they are. Email is just another way of expressing ones true feeling of th other whom they talk about. When i was young and talked to a girl abroad, i used to make up all sorts of stories portraying me to be real cool but in real life i’m just another normal guy trying to impress another normal girl.