When Life is Like High School

The Summer of Socks continues. I am lucky not to get too bored with socks. Then again, there are a thousand ways to knit them – kind of like Scheheradaze escaping death by telling the king 1001 stories.

One of the new things I have learned during the Summer of Socks has little to do with knitting and a lot to do with people. I consider myself rather tech savvy and have heard about a lot of things. I had heard that the internet was full of a-holes, but had no previous personal experience of a-holery other than the McMegaa-holes whole think I need penis enlargement, want to help launder Nigerian money, or need Viagra without a prescription.

This is not to say I haven’t had some moments with the internet, like typing what I thought was the domain name of Dick’s Sporting Goods only to be caught up in a pornado of pop-ups of nekkid guys who weren’t posing for women. Yeah!

Then I read about someone who had suffered a serious case of cyber harassment and meanness within the larger knitting community. I was incredulous because this was so incongruent with the behavior of the knitters I know.

I did know that knitters could be grumpy, whiney little girls from past participation in a sock club. People hated the colors and the patterns. They felt compelled to complain and moan instead of using it as an opportunity to stretch themselves. Still it really didn’t occur to me that knitters would or could go beyond that.

The knitters I know, even those I don’t agree with on political or social issues are good, generous people. Although the knitting unites us, the other subjects – even during a contentious election year – did not cause us to become like caged, feces slinging chimpanzees.

Now those who know me would most probably say that I don’t have much of a brain mouth filter. Still, I have enough to know not to say anything hateful, spiteful or hurtful. This is not only true when I am sitting in my knitting group, but is also true when I am writing e-mail and other things on the internet. The fundamental reason – besides being raised better than that – is that I don’t consider myself to be anonymous on the internet.

Just as the a-hole in traffic doesn’t mind driving like a maniac leaving havoc in his or her wake because they feel entitled to drive anyway they want because the rest of us don’t matter, people on the internet act the same way. The anonymity gives them a sense of power and freedom they don’t have in their everyday lives. Again, there are people who think the way to fame on-line is by writing all types of scurrilous things about someone else.

Now I graduated high school during the Reagan administration. I was so over how high school students treated each other then, and it has been my fervent desire not to have to relive it. The truth is that many people never truly graduate from high school. It still defines who they are and how they act, which for the rest of us is a pity indeed.