Down the Rabbit Hole-my misadventure with the masses

   Albert Einstein once said, "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." A few days ago, this kindergarten teacher learned a valuable lesson regarding the pitfalls of technology exceeding humanity. I was perusing my Facebook newsfeed when I stumbled upon a Sports Center article about a young female that is generating publicity with her impressive baseball skills. It was a harmlessly written piece that included a video clip of the player on the field and an interview where she expresses her desire to continue doing what she loves. It was objective, credible, and not entirely the reason I am writing this post today. I am writing because after reading the article, I did something I rarely do...I read the comments. And then I did something I NEVER do...I wrote my own.
   I prefer not to go into explicit details about the content of the comments I read, but I will share that they were horribly degrading and offensive. Complete strangers (male and female) to this young girl were ripping her limb from limb with derogatory terms and crass jokes. Some opinions went on to attack the entire female population, baseball as a sport, and specific MLB players. It was truly eye opening how hateful the masses can be when protected by the veil of 'anonymity.'
   Against my better judgement I reached out. I primarily expressed my disappointment and a couple counter arguments pertaining to a few conspiracies stated in the thread (women were trying to take sports away from men). No hate was expressed, nor foul language, nor personal attack. I still felt a little steamed about the whole thing, but writing my feelings and hoping I made an impact was somewhat gratifying. I did not yet regret my decision to comment.
   I was baffled when multiple notifications on my iPhone started popping up. There were those in support of my comment, a few desiring to enter a 'friendly' debate regarding my arguments, but most notifications were those of hate. The hurt I felt for the baseball player just hours before was being mirrored back to me as I was called unspeakable names, reamed for arguments that I did not make, and most often told to shut up. After the initial sting of personal attack subsided, and the anger associated with indecipherable and nonsensical arguments that COMPLETELY took my comment out of context subsided, I put on my educator hat.
   In a society where freedom of speech is taken to entirely new levels, and the internet serves as an outlet to express any type of hate desired, how can we teach our students to use the internet respectfully and responsibly? Better yet, how can we prepare our students for some of the unnecessary hatred they may encounter while online, while still pointing them towards the right path? As a kindergarten teacher I know my first steps include teaching empathy towards others, and using a critically inquisitive mind when filtering any 'information' or opinions they encounter. How does your building facilitate digital citizenship and empathy education?

*In regards to the backlash I received, I responded to a friendly debater a couple times and then decided to walk away from the thread. I knew that if I continued, I would only become more frustrated as I plummeted down the rabbit hole.