Working Out Sometimes Causes My Brain To Get Sudden Bursts Of Oxygen I Guess... [View All]

[SPKrazy]

Meh, so it's a little boring, it makes one feel better, right?

Anyway, I start thinking about all the things that I try to avoid thinking about most of the time, and they rattle around and clink and clank and so on...

Then I realized some things that puzzle me, or maybe not so much really... I was reading an article the other day about the internet, it was really an editorial in Discover magazine, and it talked about how the author thought that some of the "mean" or "nasty" things that people say to others on the internet may be the result of the history of how the internet was built and who the builders were. Here is the link:
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/mar/jarons-world-internet-and-the-war-on-drugs/?searchterm=jaron's%20world

I offer no snips from it, but feel free to read it and agree/disagree with my interpretation and thoughts generated by the article.

The idea being that the developers of the internet came from different areas, the defense department, academia, and silicon valley geeks who were fearful of the government because of drug use :rofl: okay that one got me laughing a bit. Anyway, the idea that did get me to thinking more about this is the recent Skinner thread about the lounge, and the perception that there is drama and there are problems, and things like that.

Some things in my personal life grafted themselves onto those thoughts and ideas and I realize that the internet, for better or worse, is in FACT A PART of my life. It isn't my life, but it is a part of it. So, is the person I portray on the internet really me? Or am I the d00d in real life that portrays a father, husband, worker, taxpayer, liberal, etc., or are all of these persona's the same? Or are they parts of one entity, me? (getting a little too heavy for a Saturday afternoon.)

So I think about some of my own personal drama... having someone that I didn't want to read my posts on DU reading my posts on DU for months and comparing the DU me, with her perceptions of the me she knows and wondering where the two diverge and re-merge since there appears to be some disparity between the two.

Are we more vicious online because of anonymity? Is viciousness at times an expression of what we really think? Do we express displeasure with our lives online because we need to see how it feels to have the opportunity to do that?
Why are we (me) comfortable with the idea that the anonymity (not true either) makes it "safe" to disclose things we wouldn't? Or are we trying (me again) to be "cool" or to fit in a realm that has no real rules for who we are or have to be.

I had a discussion of sorts with a friend about how she and someone she was involved with had both been on a message board together, at the invitation of one to join. The thing that was amazing was that she said that this person described themselves and interacted in such a way as to be completely different than the person that my friend knew. So even when there is known to be two people who are on a message board community together, the person who knew them outside saw a different persona online than they knew in real life.

So once again, is the persona online more accurate if it is different from the real life persona in terms of describing the hidden inner life that person has? Or do we judge who a person really is by their actions in real life. Is posting and interacting with others online also not a part of "real life".

These are all things that I'm busy stirring around in my head, and will probably not be so much after I post this because it is after all, the result of oxygen in the brain and by now I'm once again back to my near hypoxic state :P

So feel free to read, not read, reply, not reply, whatever... It is just some thoughts I've had today and I wonder if others think in such ways as to be what is probably no more than mental masturbation (had to get masturbation into the post somehow :evilgrin:)


:hi:


What do you think?

:shrug:

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: