Internet culture and the real world

[kuwaizair]

Has any of you personaly felt the grasp on the internet drag your soul into the world of the cyberland? Do you have friends how use "LOL" in a sentance or do you, yourself?

Is to much technolagy going to degread the structor of interpersonal realtionships and cause the downfall of modren socioty? The thing we workd so hard for, to get here, will it come crashing down from a meer chat speek, spoken in words outside a chatroom?

do you think this will happen? is any good going to come of this?

would use of chatrooms and forums cause a kind of avoidance in people, where they rather chat in text in their house than go out in the world and meet people? I know myself I am more compheratable chatting on line compaired to using the phone. I have been "phone shy" for a while.
I also find the word "LOL" funny but haven't blurted it out.


Is talking about internet stuff to people lame? Like a forum or a flash cartoon/web comic? or the people you've meet in one's travals and the stupdity and horrble things you have found?

Let us look at this subject.
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few runes short of a set of 27

[Yvl]

I detest chat speak, and I hope it meets a slow painful death.

I actually know someone who has barely been allowed to leave his house due to his mother being a paranoid psychopath. His only contact with mankind has been through the internet. When I realize that when he has to go out to the real world and may have no idea how different the worlds are, I begin to feel more and more malice towards his mother.
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[LordKratos]

If one you frinends said "lol" instead of laughing I would beat them up, how can you be so absorbed into the internet that you say "lol" instead of laughing that's just stupid....
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IN AMERICA!

[Ikano]

Putting chat speak aside

I do not think the internet world is chaining society down into a more primitive form of the real world. True there are cases that little kids become dumber because of their interactions in the online world but at the same time the internet lets us reach out to one another in a way that could never be done in a physical realm.

I will present myself as an example. I am very closed up so to speak in the real world. It is too harsh for me in my mind... There is a sense of insecurity for me always lurking in the real world. The internet on the other hand--while that feeling is still there it is comforting to know that there will always be a wall between what happens in the internet realm and the real physical you. That wall is the computer and the other materials necessary to connect you online.

If you are caught in a corner in the real world you can not easily escape. However if an undesirable situation occurs in the internet realm you can ignore it more easily...walk away from it more easily. Because it is not your real physical body there. Only your thoughts only a shadow of your presence exist on the internet.

Granted this is a double-edged sword in that since it's so easy to "walk away" from a problem on the net some may see that as an open opportunity to do daring things online that they would be looked down upon in the real world.

NOW...back to the subject of 'chat speak' since I feel I cannot avoid the subject. I rather see it as a form of shortening how one talks. I mean that in a sense...for example when I take notes during class I often shorten words when the teacher lectures too fast etc.
Unfortunately some have taken chat speak too seriously and use it not only as a joke but as their main reason for communication...there is nothing you can really do as long as much of the internet realm is text-based communication...

The only thing I could see as possibly 'solving' the negative issues I mentioned about the internet realm were if people--and I particularily mean the younger generations--had a good lecture from someone about what to expect on the internet and what sort of habits are generally looked down upon...internet etiquette so to speak..unfortunately in addition to the fact that many parents today don't seem to care about it nor don't have the time anyhow...the internet has evolved so much from the days they used the net they themselves most likely no longer know/are out of date on it

:? It's an ever changing enigma of a problem....
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[Njord]

I never got LOL, not even when I use it in the real world.

The internet is just a retrieve from real life for me, I have a busy active life at the moment, but I still come here because I just need a break from that life, just like when I had all the free time I would run away from the internet world and just try and find something to occupy me in the real life.

Both worlds are different, with different set of rules, both can suck you in, you just need to balance the thing, and be at ease of mind, health and everything.

[Seraphblade]

[Luceit]

[Cloudless Eye]

Chat speak is probably the most retarded form of any excuse for a vocabulary. It's even worse when it's used in real life. I mean, wasn't it originally created to make typing long, boring words and sentences easier?? If people are getting that lazy that they have to resort to using these terms and abreviations, they might as well just speak gibberish eventually. Or.. I suppose you could just see them so much that you just get used to saying them.. Just begins to materialize as words un-intentionally.
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Hello. How are you?

[Luceit]

Extreme chat speak is retarded, but small amounts of it can be funny to use, especially when the other person doesn't get it.
Caution: Use sparingly.
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[SwissStopwatch]

Yes, use very sparingly. Actually, I'd substitute never in for sparingly, there. It does annoy me when chat speak gets used in real conversation. Like a few others of us here, I really don't much like the stuff at all and I almost never use it, but I definitely don't think it works too well in actual conversation. I mean, it's not even that funny.

As for the larger topic, define isolation. For some people who would otherwise be more active outside of the internet, it certainly has been a temptation to retreat to the safer haven the internet can provide. On the other hand, people who are for the most part shut in or otherwise isolated can use the internet to expand their opportunities to communicate and socialize. So there are upsides and downsides to this aspect of it, like there are to most things.

I find myself equally comfortable with chatting online and talking face to face, via other mediums, etc. The advantage to being online is that you get to edit yourself, of course. Usually. You do miss a few things from one medium to another, though. For example, you can't instantly materialize hex color art of Kirby in a face to face conversation, but you certainly can do that in an IRC room.

As for discussing internet topics in real life and vice versa... I tend to keep the topics mostly separate, myself, and I even keep different places I am online partitioned to some extent. I have no problem with talking about one place in another, or the internet in real life, etc., I just don't tend to do it. Some things should really never be shared, but finding something you think a friend would like is good reason to tell them about it, online or no.

[Luceit]

Somehow, I accidentally use the words, and proper English is never spoken around here anyway.
I know people who don't use the Internet yet they're miserable, and those who use it yet are happy. It really depends on the person.
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[Calvin]

I have friends that say things like "lulz," or "pwned," sure. But, these days its basically just slang. There is a time and a place for things, really, and I don't have a problem with people saying stuff like that in casual conversation--whether it be in a chatroom or simply hanging out with friends. I do have a problem with it being said in more formal situations though, such as in serious discussions on message boards or at work, or something of that nature. I basically lump it all into the same catagorey with the rest of the slang words--whether they be curse words, or otherwise).

As for the rest of it, I think there are many different reasons why people find themselves gravitating towards the internet, but one connecting factor with a lot of people is probably how impersonal it is. A lot of people have a much easier time socialising with others on the internet because all it is is typing--you don't know the person, you can't hear their voice, and they aren't anywhere near you. All you see is internet handles and words on a screen. A lot of people probably find comfort in that. Personally, I find that I am more likely to be open and chatty in an online forum or chat, whereas in real life I am more guarded. I haven't made the internet my life, however--I still go out to do things with friends and family, and have my own hobbies that don't have anything to do with the internet.

I don't think that the internet will ever become a replacement for in the flesh interactions between people--its just too different and impersonal. There really aren't that many people who I've "met" online that I would view as friends to the same degree as friends and family I have in my real life--1 for sure, and maybe 1 or 2 others. And even then, I've had conversations or interactions with these people outside of the internet.

All that said, anything in excess is probably not to good for you, but I'd say that the internet in general has only improved society. When you once had to go to a library to get information, now you just have to go into the next room. Its good for business and government to--in my line of work we use the internet to make information available to many people at the same time, which cuts down on phone calls and miscommunication.

So, in closing I think the internet is a good thing that can't really replace flesh and blood interaction--however, nobody should spend their entire lives doing one thing, as that isn't healthy.
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I changed the number on my phone so you can't call me up at home, and you can't say those
things to me, that make me fall down on my knees.

[kuwaizair]

I think Zonder hit it on the head, its now going to turn to nerdy goofy stupid slang. I almost felt compelled the other day to make a shirt with a cartoon cat face laughing and text saying "I LOLed" a true sad story for me to tell. Over one summer I saw some cheese, LOL cheese. I forgot it stood for "Land of Lakes", ahh "internet cheese", pretty sad huh?
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few runes short of a set of 27

[Phamex]

Great, LOL cheese. That's about as bad as Bimbo Bread. I won't lie, I use some internet terms offline. The occasional "lol", or a few others I picked up from the MMO I play. I don't see it as a problem now, as it stands, or as a problem we'll have to face in the future. As Zonder said, there's a time and place for such things, and the boundaries are easily recognizable.

I personally think all the chat programs we have on the internet are a good thing. Obviously it's a two way street, but it helps people become conversationalists and learn tact as much as it helps them to distance themselves from each other.

As for talking to people about what you've found on the internet, why not? It's just another form of media for spreading thoughts and ideas. Honestly, relaying something funny you found on the internet isn't any less amusing than if you'd heard it in real life. It's all communication so it's all good in my mind.
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[nach0king]

The main change I see isn't so much in the way people communicate, it's in the dual nature of relationships now: at the same time we can stay in touch with people, or meet new people, no matter where we and they are on the globe, but due to so many people being within constant reach, a lot of these friendships may just be throwaway things.

My Myspace says that I have around 110 friends. I don't actually have 110 people that I'd call friends. Maybe 15-20 of them I'd call that, and all but one of them I've met in real life, and out of those the vast majority I already knew before we got online.

When I meet new people either in real life or the internet, after a while I ask myself, would I make an effort to keep in touch with them even if I wasn't able to do so with great ease over the internet? If I would, that's how I know they're a "keeper." But I guess I still talk to people who don't fit that category, so I'm guilty of cheapening relationships. For me, that's the biggest change.

Of course the best part of the internet is being able to relive old games like Suikoden series and Earthbound with others, but... :off topic: :wink:
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