The parable of my neighbour's dogs or why we should be nice on the Internet

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I live in a nice neighbourhood where everybody has a big strong metal fence all around their property. My next door neighbour used to have three tiny little dogs living inside his fence: a mother, a father, and a baby.

I believe that these dogs were there to keep strangers away. Or possibly to keep my cats away. Regardless of their purpose, they barked at everyone. For a long time. As loudly as they could.

I watched them for months. I noticed that when no one was looking, they played together, and that sometimes they spread out and took luxurious naps. I noticed that they were cute when they weren't barking.

Every time I passed, even though they barked at me, I made nice noises to them and told them it's okay. One day a neighbour boy showed me that he could put his hand up to the fence and the biggest of the tiny dogs would smell his hand. He was very careful never to put his hand inside the fence, and warned me to keep my hand out.

Over time, I kept doing this with the dog, and eventually I was able to pat the dog by putting my hand inside the fence. NEVER TRY THIS WITHOUT AN ADULT. Or maybe even never try this. It took me months of being gentle and kind and letting the dogs get used to me and my smell before I was able to make contact.

Eventually, they came to trust me and we developed a mutually beneficial relationship of kindness.



This is why I think we should be kind on the internet. No matter how people bark, if we respond with kindness while taking measures to keep ourselves safe, we may find that we create connections across barriers which previously seemed impassable. You never know what someone else is going through, or what is making them think it is a good idea to bark.


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