It ’s scarcely news show that the Internet has facilitated a rise in uncongenial spoken language . People often feel well-fixed hurling maltreatment and terror they would never express in somebody , and anonymity can make matters risky . The consequences can reach beyond the blind to get imprint and evensuicide . Finnish software package troupe tietoEVRY have created what they trust is a helpful tool , a font that polish over the bad abuses .
jazz asThe Polite Type , the secret to tietoEVRY ’s labor is not the soothing shape of its letters , although the designers trust people will apprise those as well . Rather it works like a writing assistance programme to turn abusive subject matter into something more gentle . Anyone using The Polite Type to write “ I hate you ” will find their intelligence changed to “ I disagree with you . ” Similarly , words tie in with hate speech such as racialism or sexism will be trade with a less sozzled alternative or blurred out where none is desirable .
Anyone really determine to flip revilement online will notice a elbow room . Test runshereprove the baptismal font is far from infallible . However , tietoEVRY’sKia Haringthinks The Polite Type could serve those with dependable intent surmount their worst neural impulse , a sort of digital translation of counting to ten before responding to something rage - inducing . " We want yob to rethink the word they use and the actual meaning behind them , ” Haring say in astatement . Sometimes just seeing an alternative diction could deescalate battle .
Besides weed out initial reactions , there is the possibility that extended use of The Polite Type will actually make people less inclined to ruffian others . The Sapir - Worfhypothesis holds that our speech communication shapes our thinking . If so , using The Polite Type may make mass less prone to misuse even when not at a keyboard .
On the other hand , there is a risk of exposure those who receive a substance in The Polite Type will see anything the sender writes in the bad possible style , assuming ill will that was never there in the first seat . Some regard passive - aggressiveness worse than explicit anger , and The Polite Type might promote this .
Still , there ’s belike no way to find out if this approach works or not , other than to judge it and see . The Polite Type has been launch with a 1,800 - word vocabulary create in reference with stripling andFinland ’s Children And Youth Foundation . It ’s open - rootage , so others can supply password or expressions they would care to see change .
Problem - take on baptismal font are becoming a growth industry , with one that claims toimprove recallof anything written in it , while othersincrease understandingof neurodiversity .
