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For goodness sakes, please be nice to people on the internet

While we can’t read minds while flying our helicopter, what we do have is immediate access to basically all knowledge.

IT'S now 2020. A year many people thought would never come.

Boffins predicted we'd all have personal helicopters, flying houses, telepathy, teleportation, mail sent via rocket, be living on Mars, antenna hats, tooth banks (for when you need a spare) and a thousand other fanciful ideas.

While we can't read minds while flying our helicopter, what we do have is immediate access to basically all the knowledge humans have collected in their brief existence.

In our hands, we carry the modern Tower of Babel, or fabled Library of Alexandria.

It's our mobile phone.

And do you know what most people use it for?

To be mean to each other.

I run social media for the QT and day in, day out, I see people expressing their opinions on topics or asking for clarification about our stories. I do my best to answer their queries.

However, their peers, your peers, are not so kind. It's like some Facebook denizens forget they are speaking to other people. Other people with emotions, differing opinions, different levels of understanding on topics. People are called stupid, wrong, and other words that our profanity filter, thank goodness, hides from the post.

With that in mind, in 2020, I'm going to be nicer to everyone - hopefully it makes up for those nasty people on the internet.

Originally published as

Original URL: https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/queensland/ipswich/opinion/for-goodness-sakes-be-nice-to-people-on-the-internet-please/news-story/c01a27be5751dd26e9a6b5d5692b7549