Not Enough Mystery In The World Nowadays?

[shade]

You can find out basically all you want to know about someone through the internet. Things like myspace, facebook etc...people just put out all of their information for anyone to see. People on msn put such dumbass things in their names...you basically know when people are taking shits nowadays. Does anyone really care when their friends are showering? And Cellphones...oh god why...everybody is talking to someone but we are all kind of alone on the streets...it's really impersonal.

 

Sure, I like my alone time...but I also like shooting the breeze with people that I don't really know.

 

I'm not angry or anything at all really, just kind of depressed nowadays. What are some of your opinions on the matter?

 

From a music standpoint, I think bands are much better when they have some mystery. Knowing their shoe sizes kind of taints the experience as a whole.

 

Call me Crazy. This isn't a "rant" by the way...if it were it would be the shittiest one ever.

 

People are People. LAUGH OUT LOUD!?

[ecnarf]

People who talk to you while wearing headphones.

 

Every time someone does this to me I want to punch them in the nose.

[Computer]

I couldn't agree more, I feel that the internet has ruined our personal lives. I loved the days before msn and the internet when people actually got together and phoned each other not on their cell phones. I feel incredibly disconnected from everyone.

[Muran]

In some ways I can agree, the internet has such a sense of disconnection, while at the same time being so completely open and available.

 

But I think it also depends on the kind of person you are, in terms of communication through the internet. Some people just need that little bit more contact, something as little as a voice, in order to feel connected.

 

Sometimes it's nice to be able to have an IM conversation, just because you have that time to think for a moment, about what you're going to say.

 

Everything in moderation, I suppose. As long as IM'ing isn't the only mode of communication one uses, it's all good.

 

I know a lot of people (including myself) who just leave their computers and MSN on 24/7, to act more as an answering machine, than anything else.

[wonks]

I couldn't agree more, I feel that the internet has ruined our personal lives. I loved the days before msn and the internet when people actually got together and phoned each other not on their cell phones. I feel incredibly disconnected from everyone.

how is talking on a cell phone any different than talking on a landline?

 

and while I agree that people do tend to put stupid and annoying shit in their msn names, I can still keep in touch with them, for free, even if they're on the other side of the world.

 

could you have done that 10 years ago?

[Computer]

The point being that phone calls were scarce, when I see people calling each other daily on their cell phones just to see whats up. People phoned to make plans and catch up on news, in a sense it's not that different but it is to me.

[ecnarf]

People who talk to you while wearing headphones.

 

Every time someone does this to me I want to punch them in the nose.

I will now ask on behalf of everybody;

 

What the fuck was that?

[Computer]

Wrong thread ell oh ell

[mself084]

I'm one of those people who leaves their msn on 24/7... like someone said, it's an answering machine. Plus I like waking up in the morning and someone was piss drunk and wrote a bunch of stuff to me - it makes for a good read.

 

I guess we are less personal in some ways, but more in others. We talk to people over computers instead of face to face, but I can talk to more people this way, and it costs alot less.

 

I feel like going into an "I love technology" song... like Kip in Napoleon Dynamite... "I stilllll love technology, but nottttt as much as you, you see.... always and forever"

Edited October 17, 2006 by mself084

[borntohula]

i'll admit, i do participate in most of the things you find annoying. i find certain aspects of them annoying too. the main criticism i have of these social networks is that a lot of times, i feel that these people aren't being honest with themselves as well as the people they are speaking out to in internetland. i don't mean everyone on myspace is dishonest, but i'd say a good portion of the people on there are. i might fall into this category as well, but it's hard to be objective in this circumstance.

 

now, let me explain this notion of "honesty" i'm going on about. everyone uses myspace to affirm their individuality, when it's quite the opposite. myspace is a fashion, and people use it to fit in. myspace is a social networking tool, but it's also one of exclusion and conformity. if people were really happy with themselves, the way they look and who they essentially are, we wouldnt be seeing so many photoshopped/doctorred photos of people floating around. or better yet, people wouldn't be taking pictures of themselves from "the angles" to make themselves look thinner or more appealing. heck, if it were really based around social networking, then why need a picture section in the first place?

 

there are other things too, like the favorite movies or music sections... all intended for you to show off what you're a big fan of.... what commodities set you apart from everyone else. except the similarities between people are innumerable and oftentimes frustrating.

 

what keeps me coming back is the fact that i like the ideas of letting everything about you out there because you own those experiences as much as the next person does. it's hard to be honest, especially when you know everyone's watching. but i think the more honest people are, the better myspace would be.

[Muran]

I'm one of those people who leaves their msn on 24/7... like someone said, it's an answering machine. Plus I like waking up in the morning and someone was piss drunk and wrote a bunch of stuff to me - it makes for a good read.

haha I love that, as well.

[EvanofEdmonton]

Plus I like waking up in the morning and someone was piss drunk and wrote a bunch of stuff to me - it makes for a good read.

i'm always the guy that does that

[bishopx]

I believe that technological advances, pushes the evolution of social dynamics.

 

From Mail delivery to the internet, each has changed the way we communicate.

 

Mail helped evolve literacy. When people were given the ability to keep in touch be mail, they learned to read and write. At that time, literacy was very limited.

 

Sadly the telegraph and the phone, forced a bit of a retreat here. But not a large one.

 

The internet, actually forces a return to literacy...however...web abbreviations(as mentioned in another topic) are a form of dumbing down...(one I don't like very much.)

 

I for one like the ability to talk with friends and loved ones via IM and email. To me, though it can never take the place of playing catch with my nephew, having tea with my nieces and their dolls, hugging my mom, or kissing my girlfriend. Technology only limits you, if you let it. I have made a lot of friends over the web, including two of my favorite authors, whom I have met and spent time with socially.

 

I would rather go walk on a beach in Maine, than play a game that allows me to take a walk on a beach in mine.

 

Rule technology, not the other way around.

[borntohula]

The internet, actually forces a return to literacy...however...web abbreviations(as mentioned in another topic) are a form of dumbing down...(one I don't like very much.)

i disagree.

[bishopx]

The beauty of free speech...disagree as much as you like.

[borntohula]

The beauty of free speech...disagree as much as you like.

well maybe you should've waited for me to explain myself before you got snooty.

 

anyways, i believe that abbreviations on the internet serve to benefit literacy (or at least, don't degrade one's literacy), seeing as how they are symbols that denote words and sayings. if there is a time when people don't know what "lol" means, and just use it because it is a convention of internet speech, that's something else. but people who use these abbreviations know what they mean, so they are in fact quite literate. just because you substitute one thing for another doesn't make you any less literate.

[ecnarf]

But Orwelian thought states that the simpler language becomes, the simpler thought becomes. And we all know what that leads to.

[bishopx]

I wasn't being snooty, I was being honest...and I agree with you to a point...when a person in direct verbal contact with another actually uses "lol" or "Lmao" in a conversation...I consider them to be an example of a literacy breakdown...

 

Someone spoke like that during a job interview...I didn't hire them.