I actually find that cyberspace is more crude than real life.....
......In cyberspace, people tend to get the courage to speak what's on their mind .
Originally Posted by shorty
I can see and agree with your first point but I'm not sure I agree with the first line of your second point.
Communication is more than just words, whether they are written or spoken. In that sense, we pick up on much more when we speak face to face with people...particularly their body language, their tone when they do speak etc. When you communicate via a secondary method (phone/mail/internet etc) the options you have for communicating are much more limited and to a certain degree a struggle of understanding is much more likely to ensue. Issues that wouldn't become nearly as complex or heated in person (just by being present and seeing)become radioactive on internet forums. In addition to this, people are generally not as invested in the people we meet online even if we interact here frequently...because we are not a part of each others daily lives in person. The relationships here are much more transient than the ones we have in real life with friends and even people we don't know well but see often such as the mail man, shop assistant etc. So my point is, I don't necessarily think people do speak their mind on the internet....but not intentionally. I just think much is lost in such limited forms of communication...sometimes it's the content and sometimes it's the style and delivery but I certainly think that this 'loss" is what leads to higher levels of frustration that you'd see in your day to day life. Of course, there are adults that do intentionally hide behind the net and other secondary modes of communiacting..but that's a whole other topic.
As a provider I don't send or reply to text messages. It all starts with an email..and at some point we will talk before meeting. I have a really simple approach to how I view emails. I ask myself, "If a man I didn't know approached me in person and spoke those words to me would I respond?" If the answer is yes, I will reply..if not, "delete." For me, it's just an indication of his ability and willingness to communicate. I always try and reply in the same way. If we can't communicate fully clothed, then I'm not interested in finding out if we can communicate naked. of course, the hope is that communication gets even better (with the same person) over time..but if it starts off feeling complicated I'll leave it there.
One thing that bothers me about the internet/technology is that kids are learning to communicate that way. If it's not FB or twitter, its myspace or some high fallutin chat room that is the current dog bollocks of cyberspace...and when they are not on the net they are texting like crazy. Learning how to communicate in person is becoming a lost art...because these kids have too much technology to rely on, or worse still, to hide behind when the going get tough. There has been way too much cyber bullying in the news lately and it's only going to get worse. I don't know how you control that because of lot of the cases that have resulted in deaths have involved young people that are too old to cybernanny on the net. They say that technology helps us to communicate more easily but I'm not sure I agree, I think it just helps us to communicate faster..and faster is not always a good thing....that's why we have speed limits. As someone said in another thread, this is a society of instant gratification and sometimes the price of that is just too high. Just MO...
C x