Queue on 7/9/2010 at 15:05
Since I wasn't around recently, I think I missed a bunch in this (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133213&) thread, but now I'm sitting here wondering why the over-sensitive dramatic meltdowns?
It's like those that post a thread to say they are taking a break because of RL issues, stating that they're going to cancel their account. And? Just take your break! You don't need to make a proclamation, do you? And why would you cancel your account? Seriously, is that like "killing yourself electronically in your mind?"
Come on, folks. The silliness that goes on is just that: Silliness. It's just some words on the internet for fuckssake, it's not your
life--and if it is then I'll supply the bullets to end the misery.
Now granted, there are those that set out just to be dicks with comments. But I generally assume that their a bunch of kids who didn't get enough beatings from their parents when they mouthed off (yet mommy and daddy still buy the little fuckers everything and pay for their cellphone and internet access--so they can't help being spoiled shits) or that they're losers still living in mom's basement and don't get laid often because ... well ... what girl would want to go home with them, and all that backed-up poison has gotten to them. Beyond that, I just can't wrap my mind around this notion of high-drama and hurt feelings arising from supposedly rational people over something on an
internet forum and wonder if this is a product of the internet generation losing touch with what is actually important (and by that I mean the face-to-face emotions and feelings one experiences with true, in-person human interaction) and are incapable of dealing with emotions correctly since people are turning away from the tangible outlet that nature has provided, but is mostly ignored for the unnatural; or if our over-use of technology has finally distracted us to point of simply becoming socially retarded.
Seems silly to me.
Stitch on 7/9/2010 at 15:24
Not that I want to defend TBE too much, as he pretty much handled events in the worst way possible, but there is nothing "silly" about the aggressive thread shitting that occurred. Jokey "we're all friends here" pal razzing only works if we really are all pals.
Queue on 7/9/2010 at 15:32
Quote Posted by Stitch
Not that I want to defend TBE too much, as he pretty much handled events in the worst way possible, but there is nothing "silly" about the aggressive thread shitting that occurred. Jokey "we're all friends here" pal razzing only works if we really are all pals.
Like I said, I missed the whole thing.
Though I used TBE's thread as an example, because it was recent, I'm wondering more in general why people seem prone to a meltdown over what happens in a thread (or anywhere else on the internet for that matter) when it honestly, in my mind, doesn't matter.
Or is that just a cold a cynical thought on my behalf in thinking that it shouldn't matter because there is a real world out there?
Vivian on 7/9/2010 at 15:48
Nah, you're dead right as far as I can see. If you start getting upset on the internet you've got yourself into a pretty hopeless situation.
Stitch on 7/9/2010 at 15:48
While I agree that online drama should be ultimately kept in perspective, it's still as "real" as anything. My "real world" has been shaped (in part, of course) by discussions that transpired on here, friendships that have been made as a result of TTLG, and mini-vacations have sprung from these friendships and, in turn, further developed them.
Again, I'm not saying that TBE didn't behave poorly, but writing off online interactions as inconsequential as they aren't "the real world" undersells this place considerably.
Chimpy Chompy on 7/9/2010 at 15:52
Also not wanting to defend TBE too much - it's always helpful to have a thick skin and not go off the rails at the first Cynical Internet Guy. But this place does matter as a community to some of us.
and yeah what Stitch said, internet interactions can be valid, fruitful and worthwhile. I mean there's plenty of room for dick jokes too. But people here on TTLG shouldn't feel they have to maintain some kind of barrier of detachment that only permits such things.
Vivian on 7/9/2010 at 15:55
It is somehow categorically different, however. I mean forums are not as far removed from reality as in-game sledging, but they're not that far away either. I find myself acting and reacting in a different way in a PM/private chat (not that kind of private) than I do in the more 'public' bits of the internet, and of course I act in another way in actually IRL mouth-talking. So I would get annoyed if someone just popped round to my desk to call me a cock, get a bit less annoyed but still annoyed if someone PM'd me to call me a cock, view it as a challenge to say something funny and/or more inventive if someone said I was a cock on a forum, and pretty much ignore it or set them on fire if someone said it in TF2. It's like different stages of another persona, if you see what I mean - when someone insults you in a forum, they're not really insulting the you you, its the online version of you, which usually has a different name (although not in my case) and often has slightly different attributes.
Kolya on 7/9/2010 at 15:57
TBE was revealing a part of his real self though, hence making himself vulnerable to an attack on his real identity.
Vivian on 7/9/2010 at 16:02
I dunno if I really think of it in that way. I guess its just that insults are way easier to dismiss online.
Queue on 7/9/2010 at 16:02
Quote Posted by Kolya
TBE was revealing a part of his real self though, hence making himself vulnerable to an attack on his real identity.
Then should the answer be to never be real since there are those out there that feel they have a given right to be asses and tear apart everything?
Did GbM just say this was "pot roast"?
