Greets all, First of all, to start...Many words can be cross-referenced here. Mindfulness, tolerance, sensitivity and pure common sense. Something which I have noticed a lot on various discussions forums and in the chat, as well as throughout the world is the immediate inclination that groups of people have to jump down another's throat and crush them if they do something that they perceive as being wrong.
A slight misunderstanding, an event that wasn't thought through properly and details were overlooked sparked a huge fire which leads to a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon and acting without thinking it through properly for themselves. Finger pointing is one prime example. If there is something that people are unhappy with, it is all to easy for them to find a scapegoat and lay the blame on them whilst simultaneously expecting that person or group of people to do something about it.
Everyone, even me needs to be careful of what they write/say/do, both on the board, in the chat and in your life away from the computer. Even the slightest comment that one person doesn't even notice can have a profound effect upon someone else. This week in tutorial we were asked to make a list of the factors that help an organisation/group of people work together effectively. The main factor that I suggested was communications and from their the tutor discussed a few types of communications.
If you are talking to someone in person, you get the most clear picture of the effect that your words are having upon that person, if you are talking over the phone, it is slightly harder as you only have their voice to listen to. Now if you are writing text over the Internet, your senses are restricted even further...be it a post on the board, an e-mail or in a chat room. All you see are written words. All too often a person will read a post and churn off a comment without even giving it a second (or sometimes even a first) thought. There is very little we can do to stop this in other people except combat it when it happens and try to explain our point of view, as I am doing now. I have seen some major examples of this in chat when someone comes into the room. The first example pertains to the type of person who is obviously in a bad mood. This type of person is typically very grouchy and can often be incredibly unsociable, having no apparent qualms in slinging insults about or snapping at people. I have observed this happen more than once, each time the person has had something which they have not been able to vent effectively which wells up and explodes from time to time. The thing that doesn't make it any better is that a lot of the other people in the room are all to eager to turn round and let rip with their own volley of insults. The net result? Well if there is an op in the room people can often get themselves kicked and banned, some people may complain to the server owners and cause the user to have a more severe ban. Yet at no point do the large majority of people stop and think why the person is acting this way. Either the person has a problem which a simple private chat session with them may reveal and help alleviate the stress, or the person is intentionally acting in this manor in order to create a response.
For the first case the response of the majority doesn't really help anyone, and for the second case...well if you want to be led around like those that the Dark so commonly refer to as 'sheep' then by all means, I will not stop you.
Another example is someone who comes in and makes a simple mistake. The prime example of this is a role-player coming onto the boards or into the chat room and mistaking the place for a role-playing site. These people could have prevented either occurrence by a bit of reading before they try to get involved, as is a similar case with the 'newbies' who make the 'student needs master' type of posts. Alas it has been proven time and time again that the large majority of people are only too happy to jump in and get involved without properly surveying the available material in order to make the best of actions.
The people of the community into which these people are entering have a choice of two main ways to act. Some will quietly explain to the person the error of their ways and explain what is more appropriate to their activities either in chat or on the board. Others will just turn around and snap the person's head off, sometimes hurling insults or snide comments at the newcomer.
Now you can choose how you respond in future, The first case informs the newcomer of their errors and what is considered more appropriate conduct and allows them to choose whether they wish to stay under those guidelines, or to move on and find another location more suited to their tastes. The second case, well it certainly will put an end to the situation as 99% of the times the user will be effected enough by the response to ensure that they do not consider returning to the location anytime in the near future.
Now my point is that a lot of people will default to acting a certain way without realising that they are acting that way, or considering what the outcome will be and the effects that their actions will have on the people around them. So this is the idea of mindfulness. It is an arduous task but a lot of situations that a person would wish to avoid if they consciously thought about it can easily be avoided through a few simply written down steps. You should think about what you are doing, what the direct short-term implications are, the indirect implications and the long term implications. Then think about what you would most like these implications to be and find the action/set of actions that creates the outcome closest to you ideals. Some people will go around creating these conflicts intentionally and they have their reasons, but all too many people go around doing it absentmindedly which is to all intents and purposes not very intelligent at all. Remember that the attitude that you display to others can have resounding implications on our ability to interact and/or manipulate these people should you so wish. By subtly altering how people perceive us we can make it easier or harder to achieve our aims and can also effect the way that those around us act.
Also people must remember that the attitude they display about themselves can also have great effects upon peoples perceptions of that group of people. For instance how many times have you heard some old folk comment that 'all youths today are violent and bad mannered'. I bet their old folks said pretty much the same thing aswell. The community will stereotype groups of people by the part that they most commonly hear about and we have factors such as the newspapers to thank for this perception of the younger community and many others.
These are all examples of how your actions, even those that you may consider insignificant can have resounding implications upon both yourself and others which you should be mindful of and act appropriately with your own mind-set, but be wary that others will be influencing that mind-set whether you wish to acknowledge it or not.