We currently live in a world with an abundance of public online forums, where any individual is allowed to give their comments on virtually anything, whether the purpose is to come together, collaborate, or innovate. Social media has also been a medium where people are not afraid to post their, sometimes malicious or inappropriate, opinions, whether they know the person they are directing a comment toward or not.
In this article the idea of social media’s impact on groups and individuals concerning how likely they are to not only argue with others online, but outright be insulting towards others where they usually otherwise wouldn’t. Namely, the question this paper is intending to answer is; “Do social media websites, such as Twitter, Facebook and Reddit, promote aggressive behavior where there would otherwise be little to none?” It should be noted that this paper is not addressing the concept of cyber-bullying, or specifically directing constant hateful comments to an individual for the purpose of making that person feel at harm emotionally. Rather, this paper is exploring the idea of increased aggression in conversation or aggressive/intimidating comments toward others, and whether or not things are going too far.