The Faceless Society

Something I (and maybe others here) have wondered for a while is what does the internet do to us and what do we do to the ourselves? Now a lot of you will agree that 99% of the internet is made up of retards and jerks and people who are relatively inconsiderate if others. IF you take me for example, I have had several breakdowns, mood swings whatever it is you guys like to call it, but not in real life. So the question that this begs to ask is, does the internet turn us into these "monsters" if you will, where we're not afraid to say or do things because in a way, we're not people. We're just a bunch of text and text has no face. I can't look at your text and see into your soul the same way I could say if I looked into your eyes. Or, are we already these monsters to begin with, but due to societal pressures and fears of consequence in RL, these monsters are kept hidden, but are still in us and the internet gives us the freedom to be who we truly are. Many people (parents especially) are afraid of something like foruming or blogging because they fear that we're talking to potentially dangerous people that we really know nothing about, but in my opinion, if the second option rings true, that we are naturally these monsters, I would say that I would know any one of you guys better than anybody I've met in RL simply because I can see your "dark-sides" if you will. I dunno, it's just some musings, what do you guys think?

What keeps some people in line is fear of consequences. But then there are people like toa, and some if not most of us, who are kept in line by their nature.

Ah ha, but even toa has a dark side that I've seen. Odd thing is, a lot about a person can be told from their humour, usually the random off jokes about doing or thinking something and then saying, "oh, I'm just joking." To pick on Toa, Toa is extremely gullible and will believe pretty much anything with enough convincing, despite what he already knows. Toa also does not tell you if he doesn't like something or wants it done differently, but instead goes behind your back and remakes it himself or redoes it or tries to at least and then present it saying "this is what we'll use." This shows something about his nature that he can't face people and probably can't even face himself and would rather insult someone by not telling them what he actually thinks and by goading them onwards, only to tear it down in the end.

Of course when you spend enough time with someone you are bound to find their flaws. I'm a great example of that as is Terra. When we both met on here, we both got along quite well. However, as more time passed there is more of an animosity or hatred of sorts between the two of us, where deep down, we simply don't like each other because we've both seen to much of our flaws. Usually, what you say to someone in anger or human is truer than if they were calm simply because anger and humour are impulsive and spontaneous emotions based on something we feel inside of us. So Terra could come back now and say "oh, I don't mind you DW" that would in effect be a lie simply because of what she has said in anger consistently shows what she really feels about me. And the same goes about me towards her. Granted, you can't take everything at face value in these matters, however, it is true that anger tends to bring out our true feelings

usually you dont get to know people very well on the internet.

people's dark side doesn't come out as often in person as it does on the internet, but it really shows nonetheless.
just have to sort through all of the assholes before you find a real friend i guess

which is true of sites like youtube and whatnot, but on a place like this, well I find in some ways people in RL hide more from you than people on a forum community or something.

Well, we don't have much at stake here. If i reveal something really embarrassing or do something really embarrassing/bad, i can just log out and never log in again. In real life, if i do the same, the news will spread through my social circle and other social circles, badly damaging my social life.

that's a good point which brings out something interesting, and that would be the social circle. If you said/did something embarrasing, you would assume that you social circle would be there for support and not to make fun of you. But I don't want to get too far into that one because that's my next topic.

List of Topics to do in order:
Friendship
Relationships

Before I start, I'd like to say I don't think 'dark sides' are the right term. 'Eccentricities' would be more on the mark - excessively happy, excessively sad, excessively angry, etc. Multipolar rather than monopolar, if you catch my drift.

I think part of this phenomenon is that a lot of the people who are regular internet users may be more inclined to live a double life than others. A lot of the people who I know who use forums are very unsocial, and who only open up in writing rather than words. Mind you, most of them are nerds, and probably quite a lot of them are borderline autistic -nothing wrong with that, but they are typified by the internet, not the other way around. You associate their actions and character with the internet because you don't properly see/know them in RL.

Personally, there are only few people in my village who share the same interests and temperament as me, so this place has been an extension of my normal personality. But to a certain extent, I act differently. EH provides fast-food friends, here or not here whenever you want them, and as Thingy said, if things go too far, you can just log off and never come back. TBH, I don't think the internet can ever equal the depth of friendships in RL, and that will make people more willing to take risks.

very interesting opinion. I shall go see if I'm autistic too now

But yeah, dark-side was a bad choice of words, I just couldn't think of anything better at the time

I don't think any of our stalwart members are autistic, relax guys! My diagnosis is always correct! But you know the tons of idiocy that is about. Zulian, for example, must be drooling out of his mouth trying to pass that pesky maths test for the fifty-third time. Poor JTull was a nice guy at heart, but as we knew he couldn't properly socialise. His boasts of conquest of the female heart didn't exactly rub.

And then theres Dondon, who was just basically a real attention getter...

Shemuel wrote:I don't think any of our stalwart members are autistic, relax guys! My diagnosis is always correct! But you know the tons of idiocy that is about. Zulian, for example, must be drooling out of his mouth trying to pass that pesky maths test for the fifty-third time. Poor JTull was a nice guy at heart, but as we knew he couldn't properly socialise. His boasts of conquest of the female heart didn't exactly rub.

*cough*JPB*cough*

sorry, what was that? and yeah, it's just too bad that the internet does seem to bring the idiot out in us. I mean how many of you feel at least in some ways that you're more of an idiot/jerk when you're on here. I know I do, but then again, I am special (if ya know what I mean )

I've always wondered why JPB and Raffitz don't go out clubbing together....

See, that is the sort of thing that in real life I would normally not say until I had considered the consequences.

i'm not entirely sure what you mean by clubbing, because I'm envisioning JPB and raffitz beating each other with clubs until one of them dies

Heheheheheheheh.

No.

i just died a little on the inside shem

I'm special too, cause my mommy tells me so!

Yeah, um... I don't really act any different here than I do anywhere else. Somewhat of an ass, really energetic for no reason, etc. It's strange cause I, no lie, used to be one of the nicest people ever on the internet.

I think I understand why people act differently on the internet than they do in real life. Mainly they're somewhat antisocial in real life and then take out their frustrations on the internet. This is how you get your patented Internet Tough Guys and camwhores, who have no friends in real life. There's no consequences on the internet and you can release your inhibitions.

And Shem, most of the time people that say they're autistic/have Ass Burgers syndrome/etc. are either just stupid or trolls.

Autistic is a nicer way than saying 'unwanted rejects'. But why bother to be at pains to be polite, eh?

or portugese. OK, that one was a little uncalled for but meh, it's the internet, in my case, I don't have to log off, I just have to hit the ban button to whoever opposes my rule over the internet!!!!

and I;m more than a bit anti-social, but I agree about it as a place to let go of your frustrations, but in my case, I still have let lose all my inhibitions

The internet is for assholes who really don't care about propriety, like me!

so where do I fit in then if it's about ass holes who don't care about propriety?

Your asshole is filled with corporate propriety

well that just made even less sense

Corporate as in corporations? I'm a supporter of human rights, not companies getting bailed out for nothing.

and I'm in favour of protecting the panda bears

And the penguins and the polar bears and dolphins

Then you support the work of the Chinese government? COMMUNIST!

KEEEL HEEEM!!

I support North Korea and their conquest of the universe

Shit! I've been found out!

Josef! Back to the Commie-Cave! *Hops on the Commiemobile*

release the hounds!!!

we really have a way of getting off topic pretty quickly don't we?

Yes. Yes we do.

it's like a gift, sort of like the force

Gifts are abused.

like the force

I think though for sake of both sanity and activity, some off topicness is good

apart for Thingy's sanity and activity.

yeah, but like I learned a long time ago, nobody cares about the head admin's sanity

If i go insane and become a serial killer that goes after people who go off topic on forums, i'm coming for you guys first. Just FYI.

Seriously though, i don't care. Go off topic as much as you want. Unless the guy who made the topic tells me to kick your asses back onto the beaten path.

well, considering I'm the guy who made the topic and therefore I would probably do some ass beating, it's ok

how appropriate

Sir Anthony Hopkins is a beast

He's Welsh!*

*And half sheep. As proven by Silence of the Lambs.

Dang, he is Welsh. All goes to show that Welsh actors > English actors

right, well, now that we had our fun little tangent, what was it we were talking about? oh yes, people being themselves on the net, or the net making them somebody else.

So someone said that you know people in RL much more than on the net, why? They can lie just as easily to you in RL as on the net. Just throwing it out there, trying to keep discussion going, activity, save the forum, that kind of stuff

Yeah, except you actually have means to find out if they'd telling the truth or not in real life. Jtull said he was a genius kid with dyslexia when he actually was just a hormonal 12 year old. No one believed him because it's implausible. On the other hand, you can claim things to be true on the internet and, as long as they are somewhat believable, no one will ever find out if you're lying.

being an admin though (and perhaps this gives a deeper insight because I have to be more suspicious of people) over (usually a short-ish) period of time, you can tell that they're not telling the truth or telling the whole truth. But an argument against that is when I was Solar Star for a short while, very few suspected until I said one thing wrong (about being in NS). There's usually at least one giveaway if you're looking for it. However my argument for RL being more truthful is that in RL one would have body language to assist them