If I Fart In Cyberspace, Can You Hear It?
Good googly moogly Martha! I go away from J/U for awhile and there's a total break with reality. I just skimmed over various articles and their related replies and I'm just shaking my head in disblief. Perhaps it's my impression of a blog; kind of a quasi newspaper/magazine article diary sort of thing with a "Letters To The Editor" thrown in.
I used to work for AOL as a Remote Tech in their old Tech Live area (back when your phone bill was billed for your on line time...hey any way you can get a free account to avoid $400.00 surprises works for me!). Because we were a small community we got close (as close as you can get in cyberdom anyway) and eventually arranged for a "Tech Live" get together. What an eye opener that was. Your impressions of the majority of the folks you chat with are usually way off.
The best example of that I can give would be to read a popular book and then go to see the movie version. Not quite what your mind's eye translated the written word into. Somtimes pleasantly surprising, most times not. How many of you actually envisioned Harry Potter the way he was cast in the very first movie (now that you read the books with the movie character in mind)?
Reality at the Tech Live get together showed that most folks were older/younger, taller/shorter, thinner/fatter and on and on, than you imagined them being. One gentleman I chatted with on line for a long time was in a wheelchair and on oxygen. He never mentioned it on line. I was pleased he showed up. Most of our personalities however were quite different than our on line ones. Outspoken folks on line, seemed more reserved and introverted for example. The ones that oozed sex and inuendo on line were not in real life what they protrayed in cyberdom.
When you read a newspaper article, it's ok to feel passionately about the topic and take issue with the opinions of the writer and/or editor. It is not ok to be so boorish as to call down all manner of curses and bad juju on that person for having an opinion. Nor is it ok to go around slandering that person's good name in public and in private because their opinion is not yours. Writing an article in a newspaper, or on J/U for that matter does not make you a public person, open to the ferocious attacks on you family and lifestyle that invites. Jimmy Carter was a democrat, his policies were'nt always the best. But you know what? Despite my politics or yours, Habitat For Humanity is a pretty damn nice thing.
To continually slam a blogger on J/U and cast aspirations on their personal life or character because of some inference you detected is smarmy and small minded. Get a grip. People who post here are what they want to be, and what they want you to take them as. Precious few are brave, or stupid enough to be 100% candid about whom they really are. Face it, you don't really know them at all beyond their opinion on a particular topic or comment they have made. If you do know them personally, and you're exchanging gossip on J/U, get a clue YOU NEED TO SPEND MORE QUALITY TIME TOGETHER...IN PERSON!
If you don't like some one's on line handle, get over it. People choose their on line names for various reasons and you couldn't possibly in a million years know what that reason was. To criticize it is petty beyond belief. To put them in a position of having to defend it is deplorable and down right sub human of you. My name for instance, offended someone here because they assumed the Nad portion was a refference to the slang name used for testicles. In point of fact, my name is DAN. NAD is DAN backwards. EON you can figure out on your own. I would have given my right arm to see the face of the person whom chopped me off at the knees over NAD when they found out what it really meant!
The point of all is this; Kids heres a tip for you: THIS AIN'T REALITY! It's diversion. Sometimes very cerebral diversion. But reality is that great kid that would really like to spend time with you instead of wating for you to finish a new cutting edge posting for J/U. Reality is getting together with some like minded people and discussing what you can do in the real world about some of the issues discussed on here. Reality is not the soft glow of a flat panel monitor. Reality is a gorgeous sunset in late summer shared with someone you love. Remember it's a tough life out there for everybody in many different ways. Don't bring your egocentric garbage in here. Like the old sign at the public pool used to say: We don't swim in your toilet, so don't pee in our pool!
Have a good evening and remember, it's ok to disagree. It is not ok to hate.