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Magenta @
PunkRockSuperStarAlthough we can't make sweeping generalisations and motives are individual, I think you are both right although of course bullying by fragile, insecure individuals has always been around. The Internet just makes it easier for them .
The BBC's specialist reporter on this matter, Marianna Spring, recently highlighted another aspect, that many "trolls" and on-line bullies seem unable to appreciate their victims are real people with real feelings.
On did apologise for attacking her on the Internet, saying he'd not realised that she is a real person. His admission does seem very odd, but she did understand it: "social"[?] media" and are very impersonal, usually disguised (by nick-names, as on here) and remote.
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Even when with the best intentions, even ordinary e-posts messages can be misinterpreted or seem rather cold.
For example, one couple among my long-time friends now sends not real Christmas cards but ghastly electronic messages clarted in twee digital pictures, that basically make these normal annual social interactions into impersonal friendships-by-database. They are not free, if the idea is to avoid card and postage costs, as the sender still needs pay for the service; but this couple are among the wealthiest of my friends, and the RLNI* no longer receives the income from the real cards they used to buy from its shop.
I pointedly still send real cards, and ones supporting the charity.
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*Royal National Lifeboat Institution, celebrating its 200th Anniversary this year: the volunteer-crewed maritime rescue and beach-lifeguards organisation around the British Isles. It relies entirely on donations, bequests, fund-raising events and gift-shops.
