Untroll Thursday

My favourite YouTube comedian Megan MacKay wants us to #UntrollTheInternet.

I’ve written before about a point she makes, which is that we can take responsibility for the comments we allow to be published on our content. It’s not just about one douchebag commenter and how we feel. It’s about all the other people who have to see abuse or deliberately-triggering language, on our watch.

And there’s another really important point Megan makes: We can disagree. We can have good active discussions. We can talk about dark, horrible things – and we should. But there’s a really clear line between discussion and hurling abuse, or making personal attacks,

Of course that’s something I’m guilty of, and whoever you are, reading this,

And we can uplift positive stuff, if only to remind ourselves that this amazing global platform we share doesn’t have to be a force for vileness. So taking Megan’s lead I’m going to try posting something fun, useful and chill each Thursday.

Let’s start with the Canadian comedian herself, who is side-splittingly funny.

For a grown-up version of the classic Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, may I present Geoguessr, the game which drops you into a Google Streetview location … somewhere … and invites you to figure out where you are.

Chris Hadfield may no longer be orbiting our planet but his videos about science in space are still up.

And my latest favourite internet thing – though delivery fees to the northern suburbs are a bit of a bugger – is Food Ninja, the Wellington online food delivery service you’ve been dreaming about.

Happy untrolling, people.