Fans send death threats on Twitter

[the_std]

I really don't know if "stupid" is the right term. "Wilfully ignorant of the consequences", maybe? Having been a part of a rabid fandom... It's intoxicating. It takes away your drive to make logical decisions. There is a new end-goal, and you'll do just about anything to get there. Consequences, as we now understand them, have little meaning to a lot of preteens anyways, so you add on this ability to feel connected to something so amazing, and it just makes you lose sight of how rational people deal with situations like this.

Once again, not defending death threats. Just explaining the road these people might have taken to get there.

[Gravekeeper]

I really don't know if "stupid" is the right term. "Wilfully ignorant of the consequences", maybe? Having been a part of a rabid fandom... It's intoxicating. It takes away your drive to make logical decisions. There is a new end-goal, and you'll do just about anything to get there. Consequences, as we now understand them, have little meaning to a lot of preteens anyways, so you add on this ability to feel connected to something so amazing, and it just makes you lose sight of how rational people deal with situations like this.

I guess, I'm not sure. I suppose it depends partially on how you were raised. If you were spoiled without consequences, I doubt you're going to consider them much when you're online. If you were raised without manners/empathy, then inherent distance in an online interaction will likely make you detach or dehumanize the recipient.

I can't really blame the Internet itself, IRC/ICQ/Email etc all hit their stride when I was starting high school. So I'm going to point this back largely at parenting yet again me thinks. The sort of parent that lets the TV babysit their children started letting the computer do the job?