It is possible that it is ingrained within the human psyche to try to hurt others. Maybe not always physically but perhaps socially. It was evident in the days of MSN messenger when your display name indicated your allegiances, or MySpace when your top friends were shown off. Media was (and is) the new dangled way to undermine relationships inside ‘friendship groups’. Then Facebook came along with the very apt ‘unfriend’ option (thus doing away with sorting out mini spats). Twitter is also rife with indirect insults, comments, and digs all designed to cause harm. I imagine (as I am yet to become a member of the iPhone club) that it is possible to criticise harmless photos of cake on the ‘new craze’ Instagram. Maybe we will go back to a time, when if you didn’t like someone you ceased contact. Surely rehashing disagreements with people you neither like nor intend to can’t be very healthy. Can it?
Probably a societal problem. It’s easier to hide behind your computer than to confront someone in person. So I guess the truth is this trend isn’t going anywhere.