From: KPJ (kpj@sics.se)
Date: Mon Feb 07 2000 - 07:52:38 MST
It appears as if Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net> wrote:
|
|QueeneMUSE@aol.com asked:
|
|> Is there good reason to be arrogant on the net and not in person, when you
|> are ashamed of that behavior?
Personally, I believe that people show their ``true self'' more on-line than
off-line, as they experience less social control on-line. The socially
``nice'' person off-line experience lots of social control from the humans
it encounters and thus will show more of its ``real self'' than off-line.
|Heres a different spin: the reason is because... *we dont really have a
|choice!* We really *cant* be exactly the same in the flesh as we are
|online, because of deep seated social programming since the time we
|were zero to *be nice* and pleasant. Thats just what we do. It
|would be damn hard to overpower those instincts, and furthermore,
|its a good thing.
Instincts? Can't? Huh/Eh? Interesting hypothesis. Specify proof, if any.
|Consider: suppose Queene, you and I met at one of Natasha's lovely
|gatherings and I acted or said some goofy thing like what I sometimes
|write online, something that *if you read online* in the safety of your own
|home, you wouldnt think anything about. Suppose I said, "Hey, that
|Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Id like to finger her wattle." You, sitting
|there now, safe and alone, might just laugh or say "Silly person." If
|we were face to face and I said that, you might be thinking "Uh oh,
|if he comes another step closer, Ill kick for the groin, scream and run
|for that exit..."
In my experience, the reaction to any verbal comment depends much on the
non-verbal communication accompanying it.
I therefore presume your BtVS routine would less provoke a groin-killing
reaction if you accompanied it with non-verbal communication ``I am harmless,
don't kill me, please!''.
[Assumption: ``wattle'' does not refer to a Acacia subspecies. !-]
|My point: online behaviour should be *allowed* and *expected* to be
|a bit wackier, more open, more expressive, more free of the societal
|taboos we have all been carefully programmed to observe. It isnt just
|freedom to be arrogant: one is freer online to lavish inappropriate
|complements and blatant flattery. Its all part of the fun of it. We
|cannot and should not even *try* to match in the flesh our online
|personalities. spike
Allowed: yes. Expected: no.
Some sentient network life forms know the truth ``Internet does not forget.''
and avoid unnecessary information leakage to the Net on their internal data.
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