From the author: A short observation of psychological games in the Internet environment. Makarov and his comrades are collecting data on modern psychological games in Russia. Well, there are all sorts of financial pyramids, games with government agencies, beggars, businessmen-"philanthropists" and so on. I think there is also one that has been very popular in the last decade: “Osri Topikstartera”* (on its basis, another one is often developed - “Holivar”). Moreover, there are two varieties of this weight: “soft” and “hard”. “Soft” is criticism without a request, non-constructive, but, in general, the speaker does not want to omit the author of the post/article/note. “Hard” is aimed precisely at douse it with slop and mix it with mud; The commentator is not interested in anything else. The characteristic features of this game are: 1) distance (communication via the Internet, and not directly; the distance here is greater, even than in the case of personal letters - paper or electronic), 2) some anonymity (not always), a feeling of impunity in connection with this / permissiveness (to a greater or lesser extent) - “I can do what I want, and nothing will happen to me for it, since no one will find me,” 3) the presence of at least two players - the author and the commentator, usually more (author vs. a crowd of commentators, sometimes joined by a third party - those who support the author). The game allows you to: 1) kill quality time (there is always something to do, something to take your mind off real life and affairs); 2) get a large amount of emotions: a) emotional release: you can “safely” (in quotes, because safety is only for the commentator and even then is in question) to drain aggression onto another person, for which in ordinary life you can get punched in the face , b) emotional feeding: in the process a large number of emotions are born, usually negative (aggression, fear - by the way, the latter can be specifically followed by: silent observers (and not only) who come to read horror stories and then not be able to sleep or eagerly retell it to friends in real life), but positive experiences are also possible - the so-called. “a sense of community”, belonging to a group; 3) create a feeling of multidimensionality, brightness of your own life (false, because those who have a really busy life usually have neither the time nor the desire to spend energy on holivars); 4) raise their own self-esteem (not for long, then you should go again for recharge, because this is an external support, not an internal one); 5) create, increase a sense of one’s own value, significance (the notorious PSV): the illusion that my opinion is very important for the author, as if I must set him on the right path, give him a blessing kick to changes that seem positive to me; the illusion that I know better what he needs, and what exactly his problem is; 6) relieve internal tension caused by any reasons: “why is he sticking out?! Does he need it more than anyone else? Danger! Competitor for life and resources !", "How dare he say that he feels good when I feel bad!", "How dare he eat when I'm on a diet!" etc. If you have anything to add, write. *I deliberately do not soften the wording.