Everyone on the Internet is an Actual PersonFor instance: you. posted on Jul. 30, 2014, at 12:27 p.m.

Nathan W. Pyle BuzzFeed Staff

Have you ever seen a photo like this?

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

It might be easy to forget that this is a photo of a person. Probably someone who doesn’t know he’s being made fun of.

Thought experiment: Imagine if you saw such a photo of yourself on the internet.

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

It probably wouldn’t feel all that great. Especially if you started to read comments or even just looked at the view count.

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

In fact, it would probably feel like a whole stadium full of people laughing at you. (Because essentially it is.)

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

The crazy thing? We probably wouldn’t do that in a big stadium. We’d look around and realize, Hey, we’re laughing at a person. That’s kind of mean.But when we’re isolated and staring into our screens, it’s easy to forget how mean we can collectively be.

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

And we forget this incredibly important concept.

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

Like a girl who is just learning guitar.

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Or even a kid who doesn’t yet know how harsh the world can be.

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For all you know, it could be someone standing right next to you.

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All I can know for sure is that all of my keystrokes affect real people.

Nathan W. Pyle / Via buzzfeed.com

And there are real people out there who could use an encouraging word today.