Two related pieces caught my eye on techmeme yesterday. One by Mike at techdirt wondering why people are such jerks online and the other by Vint Cerf, the resident evangelist at google.

Whereas Mike believes that the lack of visual cues encourage people to let loose and act like trolls, Cerf argues that the web is merely a reflection of society and that no technology can fix it. He says:

If you stand in front of a mirror and you don't like what you see, it does not help to fix the mirror.

Boy do I agree with this. It reminded me of the blogstorm Mena Trott faced a couple of years ago when, in a keynote asking for bloggers to be more civil to each others, she ended up calling a participant an asshole! Sweet Irony huh? (read the insulted account )

The medium is not the point. Bloggers, surfers, economists...it's just people. There are good people, bad people, smart and dumb people. People full of love and others full of hate.

Ultimately, it will come down to this: We are increasingly empowered as commercial, social and politic beings but, as spiderman would say, with great power comes great responsibility. The web, by shifting the power to us is also shifting the responsibilities. Are we up for it or do we just want the good part?

In 10, 15, 100 years from now when all is known and connected, what will the mirror reflect?

A responsible, ethical society who cares about the future or a cutthroat "every man for himself" jungle? It depends whether you believe that men are good by nature or not. What do you think?