October Music Weekly
Have been asked to resume my column at Music Weekly, the most circulated music periodical in China. I did a weekly column from about 6 years ago, and it was really brutal churning out a column every week, also really good training for my Chinese. This time I think once a month is just right. I actually write it first in English and then translate to Chinese.
To answer your question, I use ChatGPT to help with the research, but not to write. Below is the first column.
The Online Jungle
The setting is a cool, dark concert hall filled to capacity with 1000 … no, 10,000 audience members. On stage is a world-class violinist giving a lecture-recital on the concerto that helped launch his international career. He alternates between speaking and demonstrating passages on his twenty-million-dollar Stradivarius, mixing illuminating musical observations with sensible advice on technique and practice. The audience leans in, quietly murmuring in discussion and occasionally raising questions which he fields with wit and expertise honed over thousands of performances.
You listen absentmindedly to the words streaming endlessly out of his mouth, as your eyes drift between the stage and people around you. Perhaps you are an amateur music lover with a passing familiarity with an instrument or two, or maybe a student aspiring to become a professional, or even the parent of a child learning an instrument. Regardless, as the lecture concludes, some ancient force possesses you to stand up. The usher brings a microphone to your mouth as you say casually: “Although I don’t play the violin, I find your playing not very pleasing. I think you should consider practicing more open string.” There is a moment of shocked silence, and then the audience instantaneously explodes in disbelief — not figuratively but literally — as the remains of blown minds rain down and modern civilization collapses in a shower of emojis.
Unimaginable? In fact, this exact scenario played out online a few months ago with the parent of a young violin student — and it continues to happen daily, globally, and across all professions. Picking up your phone and swiping through your favorite social media platform brings endless examples of parents lecturing professors, students instructing professionals, and just plain clowns grandstanding. While this behavior might seem puzzling to a sane person, research shows that the psychology behind online misbehavior boils down to five simple human conditions — ranging from the trivial to the sinister.
Boredom
Recall the last time you were bored in public, perhaps waiting to get into a restaurant or sitting in a classroom lecture. Did you stand up and blurt out something offensive just to scratch that itch? Most likely not — the chance of being shamed and asked to leave would have stopped you. Online, however, instant recrimination vanishes, removing the barrier to a thoughtless, flippant remark. In fact, research shows that trolling is often driven by the simple subconscious desire for relief from boredom (Scriven, 2025). Spewing a comment kills time even if it leaves a stink in the comment section, but who cares since you won't be around to smell it. So, the next time you find yourself mindlessly scrolling, remember: idleness breeds mischief.
Ignorance
Next is ignorance — or more precisely, ignorance mixed with lack of self-awareness. Psychologists call this the Dunning–Kruger effect, after the landmark 1999 study showing that the less people know, the more likely they are to overestimate their expertise (Kruger & Dunning, 1999). Imagine the mother of that student in an actual lecture hall, surrounded by real people. Would she really stand up and scold the famous violinist to “practice more open string”? The ensuing scorn and alienation from parents and faculty would deter her from acting. Yet online and without immediate social pressure, her superficial exposure to some beginner lessons led her to assume she possessed “expert” knowledge.
Unfortunately for her, her anonymity quickly unraveled as her homepage revealed her identity and even her children’s. Overnight she became the target of tens of thousands of contemptuous comments and even international news coverage, all because she “did not know what she did not know” -- wise words from great thinkers like Confucius and Socrates that we should all remember or risk becoming the punching bag for the Internet’s collective grievances.
Envy
In game theory, there is the concept of the zero-sum game, where every win for your opponent is a loss for you. And while that may be true in some situations, most of life can be win–win. Therefore, as we work patiently and pragmatically toward our own goals, we should also celebrate and learn from the accomplishments of others. Nonetheless, some people don’t see the world this way, and the successes of others only serve as a reminder of their own shortcomings — in studies, in careers, or even in something as simple as living a healthy lifestyle.
In the past few years, this has become especially evident with music competitions. The ugly and personal attacks at young musicians who have scaled the peaks of international competition are both shocking and faintly absurd, and it can only happen online, because in a real concert hall no student would dare to boo another classmate, especially one accomplished enough to compete internationally. Research on envy and social comparison has shown that resentment of others’ success often fuels hostility, and tearing down something beautiful serves as an outlet for that negativity (Smith & Kim, 2007).
With the 19th edition of the Chopin International Piano Competition underway, I would like to encourage everyone to be supportive of these young artists. Each will bear immense pressure as they step onto that stage to share their music with the world. They have worked their entire lives for this moment, and whatever the result, they deserve applause for their accomplishments — not the ridicule of those watching a live stream from the comfort of their couch.
Tribalism
In a similar vein, sometimes the success of others triggers not just personal envy but also tribal loyalty. As the fan of one star musician, you feel personally insulted when a different star musician succeeds. As a student of one conservatory, you feel threatened by the accolades of another conservatory. In the real world, this would rarely go beyond private grumbling in the practice room. Online, however, tribal instincts turn comment threads into fierce battlegrounds, with masked warriors nitpicking every triviality, not to illuminate the music, but to prove they are on "the side of righteousness.” Scholars have described trolling in these contexts as a form of self-identification — a way of elevating one’s own status by showing membership with the "virtuous" tribe (Hardaker, 2010). Seen this way, many of the ugliest online disputes are less about music and more about affirming one's life decisions. Go team!
Malice
Finally, we come to the darkest motive: malicious sadism. Sadism is the tendency to derive pleasure from the suffering of others, and research has shown that internet trolls consistently score high on measures of sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism (Buckels et al., 2014). In other words, for some, cruelty is not a product of boredom, ignorance, envy, or tribalism — cruelty is the pleasurable end itself.
In recent years, I have witnessed certain online personalities build followings on coarse, relentless mockery of others. They become rallying points for like-minded individuals to spew toxicity at victims unable to defend themselves against faceless mobs. But words can cut like knives, and the psychological wounds often spill over into real life. Countless young musicians, athletes, and students have been driven to despair — and in some tragic cases, even suicide — under the relentless barrage of online bullying. Online or offline, our actions carry weight. Choose them wisely.
Parting Thoughts
So, what’s a well-meaning netizen to do? Be silent? Of course not! The communal experience of listening to a performance together is a sacred part of live performance. Please, share! Even if you’re not proficient in any instrument — many respected critics aren’t — your feelings mean something. But, be respectful and stay focused on the music. For example, instead of “Boring!” try specifics like “the rhythm and dynamics seem a bit flat.” Or, instead of a personal attack like “No talent!” try “this doesn’t really connect with me emotionally.” Or, even pose the comment as a question, "Why does the performance make me feel this way?" Better yet, just talk about what you liked.
When in doubt, follow two golden rules: treat others as you would wish to be treated. And ask yourself — would you say this to the person’s face in public? Because even if the virtual stage lessens the immediate social consequences, the stage is still real, the people on it are still human, and the online element actually expands the audience to potentially the entire world and the eternity of backup storage. So, choose your words wisely, and whatever you say, don’t recommend “practicing more open string.”
Scriven, Paul. 2025. “Online Trolling as a Dark Leisure Activity.” Annals of Leisure Research 28 (1): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2024.2358764.
Kruger, Justin, and David Dunning. 1999. “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77 (6): 1121–1134. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1121.
Smith, Richard H., and Sung Hee Kim. 2007. “Comprehending Envy.” Psychological Bulletin 133 (1): 46–64. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.46.
Hardaker, Claire. 2010. “Trolling in Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication: From User Discussions to Academic Definitions.” Journal of Politeness Research 6 (2): 215–242. https://doi.org/10.1515/jplr.2010.011.
Buckels, Erin E., Paul D. Trapnell, and Delroy L. Paulhus. 2014. “Trolls Just Want to Have Fun.” Personality and Individual Differences 67: 97–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.016.
