Missives From The Mitten

I used to think that the solution to road rage or inconsiderate drivers would be to force everyone to have one of those "How is my Driving?" stickers. You see them on trucks and other company vehicles and they have a phone number where you can call and complain or compliment the driver of the vehicle. I was sure that if everyone had that on the back of their car they would surely drive differently. They would drive with the idea that they would be held accountable for their actions. I thought that people would be less likely to be rude if the other drivers on the road were able to hold them accountable for their behavior.

These days, I'm not so sure that this concept would work and it's all because of Facebook. The old internet adage "don't read the comments" exists for a reason. People, when given anonymity and a voice, will say things they'd never say face to face. You just knew never to scroll down and read the comments or you'd be inundated with racist, sexist, hateful and just plain dumb comments, all spewed by faceless accounts.

Then Facebook happened and sites started to partner with it so that your Facebook login started to be your login on other sites as well. You'd think that the instant accountability of having your name attached to your comment would cause people to rethink what they were going to say...but it didn't. Now instead of just having all these horrible comments, you had all of these horrible comments attached to people's names and photos. Comments about how a woman walking in the wrong part of town deserved to be raped, made by a man who's profile picture is of him and his granddaughters. Comments about how welfare recipients should be killed for the greater good by a woman who's Facebook profile says she teaches at an elementary school. Comments that are hateful and cruel made by people who don't care that their face and name are attached.

It makes me wonder if the 'how's my driving' stickers would work anymore. Would people behave better if there was accountability? Or, in this Facebook world, does accountability not change anything?