Posted by Victoriah Nichole Little on September 17, 2004 at 05:59 [12.202.62.190]
In Reply to: thanks posted by kalory on September 17, 2004 at 04:51
But it is exactly that sort of thing that makes me worry about how the Internet affects us poorly. It removes the human aspect.
In person, I am not nearly as intimidating nor as abrupt as I am online. This I have on good information from several friends who have met me first online and later face to face. When I can see someone's face, I can gauge how they are reacting to what I am saying, and change my tone to match that. At the same time, they are able to see my face and hear my tone, so that they are able to understand the spirit in which I say certain things.
Also, the Internet inhibits our social maturity. If I interact with somebody on the net, as Kalory said, if I get annoyed with them or simply don't want to deal with the person anymore, I can click a button and they go away. You can't do that with people in real life. While it may be easy and seem nice to be able to do that on the Internet, it keeps one from growing to the point where they can deal with such a person face to face. When that happens, certain people revert to verbal insults (something you can easily get away with online) which when used with other socially immature persons will invariably lead to physical contact of an unpleasant manner.
For these reasons, I think it best to at least match your online time with "real" social interaction.
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