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NuevaVida -> RE: The decline of collarme (1/2/2013 9:38:12 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Aswad
I guess my fascination is with the idea that one can't care as much about virtual people as one does about real people.
I don't care more when people are real, I just don't care less when they're not.
That make any sense?
Yes, it makes sense, and I see your point. I'm not sure I see it in terms of more or less; just different. For example, when my "poofed" friend vanished, I was concerned at first, but then ultimately reminded myself that she may have been full of crap all along - since we never met, I wouldn't really know. When I saw everyone cheering her return months later, I rolled my eyes and thought "Oh brother." Sure I was disappointed in the situation, but I moved on quickly.
But then I do that with real-time people, too. I've had friendships end and I just move forward and leave them in the past. Disappointed, but I get over it pretty quickly.
quote:
Apologies. I see how it might come across that way. My mistake occured to me a bit too late to edit the post.
Thanks, and accepted.
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It's about different personas and their properties. A persona in a book is very limited, not even interactive. A persona on a forum is able to interact. A persona in the offline world can touch. Plants aren't very talkative. Junkies tend to be unreliable and sometimes they die unexpectedly. Online personas tend to disappear periodically and may not correspond to any offline persona.
I think I see your point, although I think a lot of real-time people present personas which aren't truthful, too. Obviously in-person friendships are much more enriched than online, but - for me, personally - I do consider those I interact with online to be people, and try to show just as much compassion for them as I would if they were sitting across a table from me.
As for book personas, those aren't two-way interactions for me, so they're just characters created to entertain me for awhile. Much different than people I interact with. Same with plants - they have their purpose, but there isn't two way interaction. Online, there's interaction. Even if it's interaction that may poof away, or may lie, etc., I still see it as human contact. I understand others see things differently, and I'm not trying to argue who's wrong or right here - I guess my eyes were a bit opened to learn how others view these interactions.
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I'm currently sinking time and money into a project for someone on here, for free; someone I've never met, or even spoken to.
That's cuz I have room in my heart for accounts, too, without losing sight of the inherent limitations of an account.
A person is a pretty abstract idea to me, and they come in different varieties.
IWYW,
— Aswad.
It just seems so cold to me to consider each other as accounts, but that's my own perspective. I remember years ago, when I once expressed my entire music collection was stolen (about 800 CDs at the time) and how upset I was to lose something so dear to me, one of our fellow posters emailed me and asked for my home address. Some time later I received a package in the mail, consisting of 10 CDs comprised of compilations of all of his favorite music. I was so touched by that. It's something I'll always be grateful for. I do not consider that person an "account," even though we've never met. I thought that was a loving, caring thing to do, and to think of him as anything other than a really cool person would feel insulting to me.
Thanks for explaining where you're coming from - this is an education for me.
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