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Kyrand -> RE: is someone real (12/8/2006 8:43:06 AM)
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Social life has changed radically since the advent of the internet. You don’t have to be standing in front of someone anymore to say hello, you don’t have to look them in the eye or keep your ears open to “hear them speak”. Even in those times, people lied to each other about who they were and what they wanted. It was all a great game played called the “dating scene”. I don’t think anything has changed much since you’re still dealing with people; it has just become more focused. On-line life is far more black and white in terms of what we see and what we expect. Take IRC for example. What a person says in real life is colored by their body language, by their facial expression as well as their tone of voice. It’s easy for us to understand HOW they mean something as well as hearing that they said. On IRC, you have nothing but the words to indicate how they mean something. What could be flirtation might be taken as insult, what was innocent to one becomes ominous to another. Another aspect of this new world we’re exploring is that you are not meeting people from your own social circle, your own “home turf” as it were. You are meeting people from around the globe and with so many people; you are always going to find a certain percentage whom are social explorers. Sometimes these people are introverts who feel safe talking from behind a facade but panic when the possibility of losing that safety net approaches. Some are social leaches who crave the almost narcotic high of manipulating others, drawing them along on a line of words. We can all see how the internet can be a savory feeding ground. Others are just exploring who and what they are and sometimes find themselves in positions they never expected and can only react instinctually, fight or flight in this case. Don’t judge too harshly, you might find yourself being judged some day and might wish for the same understanding. People are people, flawed, damaged and sometimes cruel; they stand in a changing world and do their best to adapt in the only ways they know how. Some are good, some are bad but most of us are somewhere in between like a faceted gem (I know, a little sappy) with some sides shining in the light and some sides always in shadow. It’s a harsh world out there. I find each person a puzzle and try to focus on the time I get to learn who they are. *steps off soap box and returns to life*
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