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3 February 2009

Just Because a Person is Rude and Abrasive on the Net

does not mean they are not useful.

Today I posted a question on a chat room and, embedded in the personal witterings of one of the posters, was the answer I needed.

Some of the invective that offends and alarms many people on the Internet is a form
of mental static to my mind. It crackles away in the background, and while it may be a nuisance if one is tired, it's not to be taken personally.

I was told I was extremely rude and possibly making a jibe recently.
I had used the expression "going at it bald-headed" and was seriously reprimanded.
Since I have never met my critic and now have every intention of avoiding contact with them in any circumstance from now on, I thought very little of this except to remind myself that English as it was spoken in the past is now very changed.

I've been told that I'm boring on another chat room. That is helpful, because it will save me wasting time there. Friends say they would find such an accusation very rude and hurtful. I find it honest.

People deduce many things from an online identity.
If you spend your day fulminating against the Government, hunting in packs as some very entertaining (mostly male) posters do, or bewailing one's lot, you may be interesting for a moment.

Unfortunately, you may be forming a public persona that is clownish at best or unemployable at worst.

When I chose to make contact for the first time with a person who was looking for employment on the Internet, I was taking, in my own limited experience, a very great risk. I chose a poster who was kind, considerate and took time to explain things clearly to other, less experienced posters on that site. My judgement was not wrong and we have benefitted enormously from the contact.

3 Comments:

Blogger David T. Macknet said...

The internet is ... full of people who do not know how to communicate. It's easy to take offense, and difficult to be completely inoffensive.

2/03/2009 5:56 pm  
Blogger Tales from the Birch Wood. said...

Tell me about it...

Having managed to be boring AND offensive in one week, it's back to the photos with me.

Hope your studies are going well and that the snow is not overwhelming for both of you.

2/03/2009 7:04 pm  
Blogger David T. Macknet said...

We're ... learning to live with it. It will go away, and we'll leave, to warmer climates, eventually. :)

2/04/2009 7:05 pm  

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