The internet and social life

[Hermit]

The only thing the internet has accomplished is the ability for an individual to say... anything. Anything, in any tone, for whatever reason, without fear of repurcussion.

I feel really sorry for you.


Forums are an integral part of my social life. No matter whether I communicate with people via the internet or "in real life", interactions are apt to engender the entire gamut of emotions in me. Love, exasperation, joy, despair, anything at all, it is all there, and it is caused by letters on the screen that real people with real opinions and emotions type out at their respective terminals.

In this context I prefer the term 'consequences' to 'repercussions', by the way. It's more neutral.

Edit:

Geppetto up there needs to realise it's a community of people, and not just a collection of pixels put there for his amusement.

Nice summary of what I was trying to convey.

[Faithfree]

I'd love to meet Clinton someday.

I'd love even more to meet the real person behind that character who has kept us so entertained.

This too, I would like to buy him a beer one day!

I'd buy him a nice glass of Bordeaux any day!

+!

[devogue]

@Dev. I didn't mean to sound arrogant, and I don't think of it as arrogance. I really don't think you are in a position to be able to criticise us if you choose to interact here the way you do. Maybe you intend no criticism, but your saying that this is a game utterly belittles some of us here. I am not a plaything, and Geppetto up there needs to realise it's a community of people, and not just a collection of pixels put there for his amusement.

Does saying "life is but a dream" belittle life?

Love is a game, life is a game, this forum is a game. But it's not just a game for my amusement, as if I am a cat toying with a mouse, or blowing the head off some whore in GTA - no, the game is infinitely complex and facinating, and it is for everyone to enjoy. Hopefully everyone gets as much out of their involvement here as I do.

Ultimately, however, those of us who decide not to meet with other members in real life (whether it be a conscious decision or imposed by circumstance) understand that if the plug comes out of the wall and Tigger, Paco, CJ, Pappa, Bella and Ayaan disappear forever from our lives the impact would be infinitely less than if our real life friends left our lives. This community means as much to me as it does to you, but for completely different reasons. I take different things from it, I have totally different expectations of it, and its place in my life overall just happens to be far less important, perhaps, than it is in yours.

Geppetto up there needs to realise it's a community of people, and not just a collection of pixels put there for his amusement.

Geppetto does realise it's a community of people, he interacts, he has fun, he PMs, he gossips, he gets involved in drama, he jokes, he laughs, he plays, he cares - but his community is entirely internet based and the internet is the primary meeting area and, arguably, raison d'etre for this community. That some people have decided to meet up and take their involvement in the community to a new level should not mean that he has to adjust to do that as well, or that he has to change his approach to the forum.

One last thing - you are wrong. If Gepetto's mate Heavypetto comes along and joins in the fun and is perfectly pleasant and nice to everyone but he feels that ultimately this is just a collection of pixels for his amusement while he works his way through a bottle of wine on a Friday night, then that's exactly what it is, to him at least.

[Tigger]

I was going to create a Geppetto sock puppet then, but I couldn't be arsed.

[Hermit]

If Gepetto's mate Heavypetto comes along and joins in the fun and is perfectly pleasant and nice to everyone but he feels that ultimately this is just a collection of pixels for his amusement while he works his way through a bottle of wine on a Friday night, then that's exactly what it is, to him at least.

If I want to interact with just a collection of pixels while working my way through a bottle of wine on a Friday night, I'll play Minesweeper, or whatever. Regarding people's attempts at communicating as just a collection of pixels doesn't even begin to make sense for anybody other than sociopaths.

[floppit]

If Gepetto's mate Heavypetto comes along and joins in the fun and is perfectly pleasant and nice to everyone but he feels that ultimately this is just a collection of pixels for his amusement while he works his way through a bottle of wine on a Friday night, then that's exactly what it is, to him at least.

If I want to interact with just a collection of pixels while working my way through a bottle of wine on a Friday night, I'll play Minesweeper, or whatever. Regarding people's attempts at communicating as just a collection of pixels doesn't even begin to make sense for anybody other than sociopaths.

I think that both statements can be true, although I'm always cautious with the word sociopath.

[devogue]

If Gepetto's mate Heavypetto comes along and joins in the fun and is perfectly pleasant and nice to everyone but he feels that ultimately this is just a collection of pixels for his amusement while he works his way through a bottle of wine on a Friday night, then that's exactly what it is, to him at least.

If I want to interact with just a collection of pixels while working my way through a bottle of wine on a Friday night, I'll play Minesweeper, or whatever. Regarding people's attempts at communicating as just a collection of pixels doesn't even begin to make sense for anybody other than sociopaths.

You and I play Minesweeper, someone else uses here.

As long as they don't hurt anyone and they add to the colour of the community, what does it matter?

[floppit]

As long as they don't hurt anyone and they add to the colour of the community, what does it matter?

Strikes me that would be hard going if a person really never appreciated the words as coming from another human being - hell it's hard enough not to hurt people despite knowing!

[Bella Fortuna]

It makes it sound as if you see this place (or any other like it) as a private vaudeville show, in which you sometimes like to take the spotlight when it strikes you to put on your costume and greasepaint.

[FBM]

Anyone who has ever been made happy, sad, angry, outraged, titillated, etc, by something they read in a forum is acknowledging the reality of the people with whom they're interacting and the degree of significance they allot to them.

[devogue]

It makes it sound as if you see this place (or any other like it) as a private vaudeville show, in which you sometimes like to take the spotlight when it strikes you to put on your costume and greasepaint.

It's only private in that people I know in real life don't know about here. As I've said before, my enjoyment of this forum is dependent on everyone else's enjoyment - it's all about give and take. I make no apology whatsoever for what I take from this community because I happen to think that I've put at least as much in as I've taken out over the years.

Your slightly sneering and aggressive post insinuates that there is something grubby, sinister, negative, perhaps Machiavellian about my presence here, that I see this forum as some kind of doll that I like to stick pins in every now and again, whereas your presence is entirely selfless, giving, positive and happy. Hmmm.

Tigger asks me to "join you", as if meeting in real life lifts those who do so to a higher consciousness or something, as if it's the natural thing, the right thing to do. Well it's not - it's another thing to do, but it's not the be all and end all.

[charlou]

I actually understand where Dev's coming from with the separation of forum persona and 'real life' person, and I think he's just making honest observations about forum use, from his pov.

There was a time quite a few years ago when I wouldn't have wanted to meet anyone I interacted with online, prefering to keep the two separate, to maintain a certain aloofness, not wanting to get too emotionally involved because that's how I am .. or was ... Then an exception eventuated, the development of a friendship and love with my now partner.

Later, my association with this community started at RDF, but it wasn't until we moved on to TAF that I started to really feel a part of it, made a very good friend in Pappa , and my sentimental involvement with this community of people has grown since. I would really enjoy meeting just about anyone here ... and I have an aching desire to ... well ... some things are best kept private.


SB, you were Dev when I met you in Adelaide .. and Dev, you're SB when I see you here online. For me there's no distinction .. Dev is SB is Dev.

Maybe it's easy for me to appreciate that because I myself rely on the internet format to communicate with people far better than I can manage in real life, and that's because it's in text, and there's time to think. IRL I'm not great at communicating off the cuff and can be pretty fucking inarticulate really .. while here my personality and intellect is given free rein without any of the pressure. My views and basic nature are the same, just the way I manage to express myself is different ...

[Beelzebub2]

Anyone who has ever been made happy, sad, angry, outraged, titillated, etc, by something they read in a forum is acknowledging the reality of the people with whom they're interacting and the degree of significance they allot to them.

Ain't that the truth!

Were it not for the webz and the internet my world would be approximately 50 km wide.

[charlou]

Were it not for the webz and the internet my world would be approximately 50 km wide.

Thank fuck for the webz

[Bella Fortuna]

Were it not for the webz and the internet my world would be approximately 50 km wide.

Thank fuck for the webz

Yep. My life now feels as wide as the world.