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EDITORIAL: Lack of civility can begin early, onlineSep 28, 2011 (The Free Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- We Americans, as a people, are highly moralistic. And our sense of morality takes on very public overtones. We preach and legislate on proper nutrition, we debate with compassionate sincerity on how to combat bullies in our schools, and we make repeated calls for civility in our public discourse. But every one of us should look within ourselves occasionally. Remember that our mothers once warned us: Be careful what you allow into your mind, because it will eventually come out. Evidence from a recent Associated Press/MTV poll reminds us that coarseness in our society incubates online. Teenagers and twenty-somethings who are immersed online, according to pollsters, commonly see racial taunts and words like "slut," "fag," and "retard." The majority of those responding to the AP-MTV poll say they aren't very offended by what they are seeing. When they come across the term, "that's so gay," the majority say they are not offended. Even the most offensive racist slurs (like the N-word) failed to excite the majority of AP/MTV poll responders. Just 44 percent said they'd be very or extremely offended if they saw it online or in a text message; 35 percent said it wouldn't bother them much, and 26 percent said they wouldn't be offended at all. Many of the respondents say offensive words are meant to be funny. They take what they're seeing as a joke, or dismiss it because they rationalize that those who throw offensive words around the Internet are only trying to be cool. That may be so. But we must wonder why, if it's not cool to talk that way in public, it's cool on the Internet. It's obviously true that Internet discourse holds to a different, more carefree, standard, but it's also fair to wonder how far "Internet language" is going toward creating a whole new generation of people who can't (or won't) discern that inappropriate language is inappropriate -- period -- whether it's on the Internet or anywhere else. Obviously, coarseness isn't limited to young people. Plenty of coarseness can routinely be seen in adults, too (very publicly in the political realm, in fact). And the Internet is only part of the story. We see it on our television screens, where programs on subjects that used to be taboo are now almost routine -- and the language now common was, not too long ago, taboo as well. And words that until recently were banned from PG-13 movies are now commonplace. We can disagree whether loose language is a sign the apocalypse is coming or that we are being too prudish. But when contemplating the "coarsening" of society, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that what goes in will come out. When we become immune to the offensiveness of offensive words, we are more likely to behave in offensive ways. Thus, it becomes easier for students to bully their peers in junior high school. And it becomes easier for us, as adults, to behave boorishly in our personal and political realms. ___ (c)2011 The Free Press (Mankato, Minn.) Visit The Free Press (Mankato, Minn.) at www.mankatofreepress.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |