Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I was out for a beer a few weeks ago with an old skool forumite, who doesn't really post very often these days, and we got to talking about people we'd met, who came over very differently online compared to "real life". As a result, I've been meaning to start this thread on online personas, but kept forgetting to do it until now.


So, do you feel that you are basically yourself on here / facebook / twitter etc, or do you act differently?


I'm not talking about trolls, who are just weird little people who get thrills from just trying to stir up trouble online, because they have no life. They are a separate group who are probably beyond help. I am talking about your average person who uses online forums, or social networks.


Personally, I'd like to say that I am totally myself, and don't try to be different. I am honest about my opinions on things, and I try to be fair, as I would in the real world.


HOWEVER


By the very nature of being online, you are operating in the written word, and everything is there in black and white to go back and double check. As a result, I admit that I probably do edit before posting at times, in order to sound more concise. Also, things that people say which I may not pick up on, or may let slide in the real world, are there in black and white, and so I may reread them, and think on them, and get angered by them. As a result, I think I allow myself to get wound up by things that really wouldn't bother me in real life. And I admit, I rise to them, and get involved in arguments.


So, that is me, on me. Do people feel the same sort of way, or are most people totally themselves when online?


There are some people online who I just can't imagine getting by in the real world without getting themselves beaten up, because they are so abrasive and rude. Do these people act this way because they feel brave behind the anonymity of the internet, or are they just like that?


I am hoping this will be an interesting thread of discussion rather than a slagging match...

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/23938-online-personas/
Share on other sites

A few posters who I met through the forum first rather than in the real world have commented that I'm much nicer in the real world, but that my debating style is very similar regardless of on or off line (although you can't hear the chuckle online).


I just spend the majority of my time on here debating stuff, which I don't do quite as much in real life.

El Pibe Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Also you are pretty much you if that helps.

>

> Is your old skool forumite an drunken ranter in

> his occasional posts? In which case that's EXACTLY

> what he's like in real life ;)



Ha ha, who could you possibly mean? ;-)


No, not him, a lovely lady who has become a top mate.

I think posting online gives you licence, as Huguenot says, to debate more. I get irate when I debate with people who are idiots, on or offline, and worse, people I know not to be idiots but seem to be adopting idiotic positions. I never say anything on here that I wouldn't say to someone's face, but I know that I've upset people that I wouldn't in real life because the debate just wouldn't have evolved in the same way down the pub.


In "real life" I'm an incorrigible flirt and take considerable delight in a good innuendo. I try to rein it in on here - not always successfully - because it's unbecoming to hint at your sexual proclivities to 20,000 people.


And I'm hilarious. It's just you lot broke my funny bone.


edited because I can't type for shit today.

Otta - I think you're fairly similar online to real life, but a little more "verbose" on here than you are face-to-face.


I'm more abrupt on here than I am in r/l. On here I'm sometimes quite quick to wade in with "you're talking rubbish", but if I were talking with them face-to-face it would be a rather more polite "not sure I necessarily agree" type of thing. But the same applies to a lot of people with online discussions... it's the nature of the beast.

I probably come over as right wing, libertarian Torygraph reader.


In reality I'm a a pretty tolerant, slightly cynical, live and let live kind of person with a deep, very deep, suspicion of any prescriptive solution to the world's ills believing more in the cock up, rather than conspiracy, theory of life and history.


And this is me - many years ago!


file.php?20,file=52753

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • And from what I remember, she eventually cut the tea shop for a similar  reason to chandelier.  Chariot style buggies
    • Oh yes, it could have been about there, I can't remember exactly. At one point there seemed to be a load of pizza places opening on NCR. I vaguely remember the one we used to use was put out of business by another one which opened. Wasn't Grace and Favour's food offering more of a tea shop at the back of the actual shop? If memory serves the owner, whose name escapes me now, was one of the earliest people I know to move to Hastings. Which must now be crammed with South East Londoners 🤣
    • That Neal Street veggie cafe was great. Food For Thought ❤️
    • Hi Dogkennelhillbilly, You won't be aware that i proposed infill sites for housing in East Dulwich - the garages on Bassano Street and Henslowe that respectively became 1-4 Dill Terrace family houses and the 78, 80, 80A Henslowe Street family houses. These were council owned garages and it was frustrating how slow the council was to go from my idea to completion (roughly eight years). East Dulwich has some other vacant WW2 bomb sites I'm guessing that the private land owners have been sitting on.Owe for a land tax for vacant land.  WRT to the builders yard by East dulwich station. Southwark Council has an agreed policy the area should remain suburban 2/3 storeys maximum. But the approved scheme is 9 storeys of student accommodation. Very hard to put this genie back in the bottle. The council has recently publicly stated lower ratios of social housing will be required. I will be amazed if the developer doesn't submit another application now they have the 9 storeys approved but with significantly less social housing. The less social housing the higher the land values. The higher the land values the less social housing viability reports state are possible.  If we really want to increase home supply - Southwark have over 6,000 empty homes. Vancouver charges a low % of the value of empty homes and rapidly eased this problem. Parts of Wales have introduced under Article 4 planning permission is required for second homes seeing within 12 months a dramatic decrease in property prices. Southwark Council have Article 4 requirements - why not add this one? It takes National political will to solve this AND regional and local authorities such as the second home council tax premium and these being used promptly. 
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...