Simple: avoid forums, avoid chat rooms, avoid Youtube comments ... in fact, avoid anything online where you can read people's opinions. And news, avoid the news.

I spent the last two hours going through Youtube comments and a few other sites containing comment sections and, dear lord, it really makes you lose hope for humanity. I think, if anything, the Internet crushed any romantic notions we had/have about the rest of the world by making it obvious that the entire world is filled with narrow-minded biggots, assholes, dick heads, wankers, etc.

When you reflect on this, I wonder if you could be happier if you avoided forums in general like how I've avoided the press and news for the last two years. Avoiding the press sure made me happier since the likes of Fox News and most other news channels are painfully ignorant and biased, blowing things completely out of proportion and doing at least as much harm as good. I may not know about the latest bits of news but if anything big happens or has happened, I'll hear about it anyway.

So to extend this to online sites, do you think you'd be happier if you weren't constantly reminded that there's many MANY people out there that really lack any notion of logic and have spades of ignorance and yet believe their opinion is flawless even though a blind hermit could spot holes in it from miles away?

Not to mention that the sour attitude so many portray tends to rub off after a while - if anyone was online 10-15 years ago, you may remember people being a lot more polite and less vocal online. It was much easier to find people online with netiquette before the "unwashed masses" flooded the Internet and polluted its waters. Or maybe this is just the natural order of things? All I know is, that ignorance is bliss in more way than one and I sure wish I hadn't discovered just how fucked up most people are ....

Nope. The GOG forum is proof that forums make you happy, as well as cure most diseases.

I feel like I meet less messed up people online than in real life.

Well I guess it depends where you go to in RL and online :p. Half an hour on Youtube and I think you'll find that hard to say.

GOG forums are a bit of an exception, really. Of the 10 or so forums I've visited the most during the past 13 years (1999 = when I first had proper Internet access), none 'survived' to remain useful and/or enjoyable to post on.

But yeah, in general my point was: I think people in general would be happier if they didn't have to be confronted with how narrow-minded and biggoted so many people are and 'thanks' to the Internet, we can no longer avoid being reminded of it again and again. Sure, ignoring them helps but it still serves to remind you of anything. I think that, in a way, being ignorant can have its advantages and maybe the Internet teaches us too many things we'd rather not know about.

we are all ignorant one way or another, as someone said the one who believes, is an ignorant. The guy who said is also ignorant thus its better left aside and live the life the best we can

There may be something to this. The people who were online 15 years ago grew up without the internet, and so were used to the fact that if you talk shit to people, you may get unwanted (and immediate) repercussions. Nowadays though, a lot of the people online grew up with the internet, and therefore have deeply ingrained within them the knowledge that online you are invulnerable. This may well lead to more extremes of behavior, because who's gonna stop them?

It does seem like the internet has had a slight progression toward cynicism, but in my observations that's the case in real life as well.

Well there's ignorance as in, literately being ignorant of some fact or other, and there's being ignorant, as in, being "a simpleton, a fool" as the dictionary states. You can be ignorant of something and accept it and that's fine, or you can be ignorant and be a twat, acting as if you know everything when barely knowing anything. Americans calling Obama a communist = ignorant for example.

It's the latter ones that really make people the most annoyed - and I think only a minority of people has the common sense to say "well I don't know enough about this subject, so I'll remain impartial until I've put some time into it". Most simple run their mouths based on the very limited and biased information they have and brandish it about as undisputed truth.

I'm sure I'm a minority but if I read a discussion on a forum which interests me, I'll first use Google to read up about it from different sources so I can make my own informed opinion. I don't just jump in and add my half-baked opinion with no foundation of facts to support it. So why do so many people do that anyway? Is it ego?

Well, if you're doing anything someplace where your real name is attached to your username (like facebook), you can end up in jail depending on what you do and where you live. At the very least you can miss out on a job opportunity if you act like a retard online and somebody googles you during the interview process. For a regular forum like this one, or someplace like youtube, you have nothing to worry about... probably.

I do think it's kinda interesting that people will often post comments on facebook as if they were posting anonymously. And then they're suddenly surprised when they have to face the consequences of NOT being anonymous.

The people who were online 15 years ago, were mostly students and/or professionals who had a lot more manners than the people that followed once the flood gates opened. Counter Strike had a great community until it went retail and it got flooded with new players and in the space of a few months, the community was ruined and the "NOOB" and "FAG" comments prevailed. I think if anything, this shows that what hurts the Internet the most, is its popularity with "the masses" (as elitist as this sounds).

I believe that the very reason GOG has such a good forum, is because it caters to a niche market of older people and people who aren't prone to name calling at that. The retro gaming communities are among the most civil you can find online. ANY community which overlaps with popular subjects tends to be a disaster, I found. The only real sin these communities have, is elitism (especially forums of particular games or genres) - like Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

You have written some words of wisdom. I think it is a good idea to avoid reading the thoughts of others because the world is indeed filled with narrow-minded biggots, assholes, dick heads, wankers or simply people who are your enemy due to their beliefs being the opposite of yours etc. You should also avoid reading the news. BUT you should continue hanging around GOG general discussion. This forum provides a gamer with a treasure mountain of knowledge related to gaming that will enhance your life as gamer and news that will save you hundreds of dollars/pounds/euros on games. So GOG general discussion is worth the price of a piece of your sanity.

You're right, it does sound elitist, but that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't true. In the early days of the internet most of the people online were, for better or worse, geeks, which among other things means people with technical abilities, probably higher-than-average intelligence, and the patience and interest needed to find out how complicated things work.

Retro gamers, and particularly retro PC gamers, are likely to be even more "civilized", for want of a better word. Not only did they manage to figure out how to edit config.sys and autoexec.bat files in order to squeeze the maximum performance out of the hardware they had, they are now also older and more mature. Possibly also more grumpy and cynical, but basically more civilized than "the masses".

Both demographics, then and now, could conceivably contribute to keeping the level of discussion above "yo mamma".

Now I feel like an elitist bastard :-/

Oh Pluuuueeaaasse...

And here I really thought this was an interesting thread, hoping that there is some philosophical debate about what games to play on GOG to achieve happiness and a tranquility of mind.
But no, someone just whining about how bad You-Tube comments are and how potty mouthed the youth is on the internet.

I am seriously pissed by the fact that you talk about retro gamers and older people like they are something special, something superior. Like "The Chosen Ones©" the "Master Race" stuff.

I'm very close to go on and start insulting all of you thinking that way, just to show that old people do that, too. But since you don't even fathom my age you probably dismiss me as a kid, too.

Just to give you a hint:
Every f*cking day I'm working with kids that are at least 1/3 of my age and thus I consider myself some very old bastard.
I had more profound conversation in facebook and in real life with young people than with most of my colleagues that are either the same age or older.


Some of the kids are douche-bags, but before blaming them start looking at the mirror. It's our generation that taught the kids how to behave and since according to you we just failed utterly we are the one to blame. So go out and change something. Don't have kids? Well, start making them and stop being a hypocrite.
Have children of your own? Teach them some respect and humility, and pleasse please teach them not whine about the new generations after them, that will obviously be so much more insulting and stupid whatsoever.

As far as I know, you have no demographic how old these users who leaving those ridiculously stupid comments there are.
Todays youth (at least in Europe) has more freedom and less responsibilities than ever.
Mothers paying for the kids' iPhone, buying them Call of Duty and other bullshitty games.
Giving them free reign over the PC and TV in their own room.
Neglected by they parents and oversaturated by this consumerism they don't know how to behave properly.

You know what, if you really feel happy about that, go on, blame them. It's always easy to blame the kid with the foul mouth for your bad experience in the internet.
But you are not much better than them in any way. In my opinion you are much worse.





Thank you, I needed to let off some steam.
Happiness restored, this thread really helped :D

Here's my secret recipe.

Add in equal parts and mix slowly throughout your life.

1. Health
2. Time
3. Money

Good luck :)

The secret to happiness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjOtxviwmw

Quick! Hurry before the comments section is flooded with idiocy!