The Comment Sections Online

I wish so very much that online newspapers and news websites would get rid of the reader comment sections below the articles.

It may end up being the saving grace of print materials because quite honestly, the comment sections make me sick to my stomach.

There is Facebook.  There is Twitter.  Comment all you want.  Be as hateful as your little evil soul can muster if you choose.

But why does CNN, CNBC, Yahoo- any online "news" source - feel compelled to open the forum up to Joe Moron from Idiotville, USA? 

What purpose does it serve the universe?

Joe Moron has nothing useful to contribute.  If he did, he would have gone to journalism school and learned to write.  Or perhaps even picked up basic sentence structure in the third grade.

I read the news to get information.  I read editorials to get opinions.

The comment sections have no purpose other than to destroy my faith in humanity.

Nearly everyone I know has gotten into an online pissing match with some jackass they don't know.  It's a time waster.

And here's the thing-- on social media sites, it's fine.  It's what they are for- to chat, discuss, etc.  But when every online magazine started opening up every article to every jackass with a log in, it ruined it.

If I read even the most basic article on something like the best way to pluck your eyebrows into a perfect arch, the comment section will start with a few comments on "Hey, I tried this...." or "One thing I learned..." or "Be careful of..."

But then JzzyGirl497 will make a nasty comment like "You dumbass..."

Then Mom2Sara will respond with "That's inappropriate."

And JzzyGirl497 will say "F*CK YOU STUPID MOM@SERRA ..YOU SHOULDA BEEN ABROTED YOU B*TCH"

And so on and so on.  And Mom2Sara is probably in tears.  Her husband is pissed. 

The point of the article long lost.

I would say I was exaggerating, but I'm not.

And here I sit in Nevada, getting angry at JzzyGirl497 who is probably the baby mama to Joe Moron and I've wasted my valuable time on this planet giving this a thought.

All I wanted to know was how to pluck my eyebrows.

If I elect to comment on a post on a social media site, like Facebook, I accept the possibility that I ca be attack by any fool with access to the Interwebz.

If I'm reading an article from a major publication, my input isn't necessary to the world  If they had wanted my opinion, they would have contacted me for a quote.

Online comment sections have become the adult forum for bullying.  It's annoying. It's disruptive.  It's rude.

It brings out the worst in people.

Remember when AOL first started?  You could go into chat rooms with like minded fools and say whatever you wanted.  They even would block or kick the big morons out.  Now, comments seem to be overwhelming sites.

I completely stopped reading my hometown paper online.  There are people who viciously attack others in what seems to be a side profession for them.  I would mistakenly make a comment from time to time on an article and a few days later would see that apparently my silly comment had started a war.

They talk about how divided the world is.

I blame the comment sections.  They are full of vitriol and hatespeak.

We don't need it as a society.  There are enough wars going on.  We don't need to fuel them with our alleged "intellectual" debates of uneducated, opinionated fools.

Again, what is their purpose?

I just want a news source. 

So please, if you are a major news publication, will you do me a favor and delete your comment sections?  If people want to comment, they can write a letter to the editor with their name and address- just like in the old days.  You know 10 years ago.  Feel free to set up a chat forum for members (you need $$, so charge a fee) and the bobbleheads can fight it out in the back room, away from the rest of us.

I have more important things to do.

Like pluck my eyebrows.