1 post tagged “internet community”

I used to be a big collector of Bad Religion's music.  At some point, I began to pare down my collection to the few recordings I really like.  Anyway, one of the CDs I no longer own had a tune by the name, "You Don't Know I'm All Right".  Its focus was primarily televangelists and how folks learn to trust them through the television and end up giving away their money, sometimes their life savings, to them.

I often think of this song when I'm on the Internet "meeting" people.  The thing that gets me, more than anything else, about online communities like Vox is the certainty people seem to feel about how well they know someone they've run into online.  We tend to make rather rapid judgments about others in life in general, but we do it even faster online because of our obvious limitations with the medium.

We will read one post by someone we've not encountered before and make an instant judgment of their character and whether or not this person is a potential "friend" merely based on words and possibly a few photographs.  Is it not more often than not that the words we read are, in some way, not honest, and that we are "meeting" what others only wish they were and not the individuals themselves?

I find it positively amazing that those with the most in their online "posse" are so often the least revealing of themselves, the most superficial in general, and the ones carrying the biggest smiles on their Internet faces.  And maybe this gets to the heart of it -- are online communities really about true friendship (i.e., being there for someone even during the times you positively can't stand them) or actually about a form of entertainment, call it, "friendship lite"?

It's so easy to make nice, little witty comments sprinkled throughout the sea of cyberspace.  Try smelling me after a workout, listening to me when I'm making no sense even to myself, or helping me come to terms with my inner demons.  Then we'll see if you're my friend, or if you simply want others to like you by making yourself seem likable.