During my time in the internet (aol) chatrooms I met and got to like many people I will never meet in person, and this gave me a strange feeling of somehow missing out on something. But that's always the case, isn't it... I drifted back and forth between national and local chats, taking note of the difference in flavor.
In the local chats people knew each other better, and there were fewer amenities, and a little more reserve. Perhaps human behavior is more restrained when potential consequences are closer.
I went out on dates with a couple of the local ladies. One in particular I went out with a half dozen times, and each date was great. She and I got along great in person, and on the telephone, but we argued incessantly online. My theory is that people are more aggressive and belligerent at a distance.
Any group of people who spend time together in an online chatroom will be far more combative than the same group face to face. This is a phenomon I encountered repeatedly, and still encounter to this day. Messages typed in real time on a computer screen generate more aggressive and defensive behavior than messages spoken in person.
People prefer to avoid conflict, but at a distance are far less inclined to avoid it. Maybe that's why nations have disputes, and why chatrooms were doomed from the start, and will likely never return: fundamental human nature.
scroll down for other articles in this issue of The Truthless Reconciler!
No comments:
Post a Comment