People are living in a world that is constantly changing. The Internet, one of the biggest innovations of human being, has been changing the entire of the way people communicate to each other. Vietnam, in the opening process to the world, has adapted this new innovation really fast and it is easy to see how the Internet is changing the Vietnamese society, especially young people. According to Internet World Statistic (2012), the number of Internet users in Vietnam has been sharply increasing, from 200,000 in 2000 to over 30,000,000 in 2012, about 150 times in 12 years and it is 34% of the whole population. The most interesting thing is 42% of Vietnamese Internet users are from 15 to 24 years old. This young viral community is growing bigger and generating its own cultures and values. However, if people read news, go to forums and social network every day, they can realize one culture and characteristics of this community when they look at a discussion created by young people about any topic and issue on the news, forum or social network. They maybe surprised that the way young Internet users on that site argue with each other really aggressively and in a criticizing way. From that problem, the term “anh hung ban phim” or “keyboard hero” is created. So why young people like to criticize and aggressive argue with others? What is an explanation for this, anyway?
“Anh hung ban phim” or “Keyboard hero” is a world Internet users use to describe other users who they believe cannot do anything in real life but only talk on the Internet.
Everything, as the consequence of the behavior, should start to be analyzed from the basic things: behavior and attitude. There are two factors that effect on human attitude and behavior which are personal factor and environmental factor. In this case, we have the personal factor as the Internet user and environmental factor as the Internet. Let’s look at the environment factor first, the Internet.
According to Nayar and Pramod (2010), the Internet was created in purpose to give people a freedom of speech. On the Internet, everybody is equal to each other, no matter how old you are, which job you are doing, how much money you are earning. It is a flat platform for all people. In addition, the Internet has created a new way of communication which human had never experienced before, many to many communication (Shirky 2009). As the result, for the first time in the history, people now can be both audience and publisher. They now can be seen, heard and listened from the community which is the thing that people could not do before. However, the nature of human is not to be equal.
“Men are not gentle, friendly creatures wishing for love, but a powerful measure of desire for aggressiveness” – Bettmann/CORBIS
Texas A&M University states that two of the basic natures of human are: to dominant and the desire to be right. The second nature seems to be in its highest level when people were young, especially from 18 to 24 years old, interesting, right? Pham Hong Tung (2011) maintains that at this age, people have a high desire to be right. They have a high ego and they do not want to put themselves in perspective of others. They also do not want to be controlled and they want to try and experience new things. They want to be listened and recognized. And for some of them, they are the center of this universe and their “identification” is the most important thing in this world. Unfortunately, even with that high desire and ego, people at this age are still lack experience and in the developing state. Therefore, it is likely that most of them cannot do anything great to be listened and recognized (small number of people are still studying hard at this age and recognized by others but these people do not always participate in an online discussion). In addition, according to Anh (1998), a Vietnamese typical family has two of three generation living under the same house and children are dependent and controlled by their parent even when they go to the university. This statistic proves the fact that, students, at this age, are still usually told what to do from their parents and their ideas are not also listened. Those personal factors are where everything comes from.
According to Alzheimer’s Society (2014), when the basic need of human such as the freedom of speech, the desire of to be right and do things that people like to do is not fulfilled, when have chance aggressive behavior will be caused as the consequence. And in this case, the Internet, where everybody is equal to each other, where people are all publishers, where people are listened and recognized, has come as a chance for these people. With those powers that the Internet gives them, they now can practice their high ego and desire to be listened, to be right. It, finally, has turned into the thing that we call, online aggressive behavior, or “Keyboard hero – anh hung ban phim”. Actually, it is nobody’s false, it is just because the Internet has exaggerated the difference between people. The more the difference is, the more aggressive the online discussion will go because everyone want to protect their difference. Never before, the Internet has made right and wrong so difficult to define because it depends on the personal perspective to perceive it.
“Like most technologies, the web is not a cure for human nature but an amplifier of human nature – both the good and the bad” – The Virtual Revolution, “The Great Leveling”.
On the Internet, if it is good, it is really god, if it is bad, it is really bad. Everything is more extreme than it truly is.
The anonymous characteristic of the Internet is also a reason caused this culture because users can tell anything without afraid of people knowing their real identity. However, I believe the very basic reason of this culture comes from all the things that I have discussed above.
References:
Alzheimer’s Society 2014, ‘Dementia and aggressive behavior’, Alzheimer’s Society, viewed 21st March 2013, < http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=96>
Anh, TS 1998, ‘Family size and children’s education in Vietnam’, Demography, February, vol. 35, issue 1, pp. 57-70.
Miniwatts Marketing Group 2012, ‘Vietnam Internet Usage and Marketing Report’, Internet World Stats, viewed 21st March 2013, < http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/vn.htm>
Pham Hong Tung 2011, ‘Characteristics and major tendencies in the lifestyle of Vietnamese youth today’, Social Sciences Information Review , vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1624
Shirky, Clay. 2009. “How Social Media Can Make History,” TED.com
Texas A&M University 2011, ‘ Human Nature’, Department of Philosophy, viewed 21st March 2013, < http://philosophy.tamu.edu/html/research.html>
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