2008-09-19, 01:38 AM
How co-incidental 
I used to feel strongly about the exact same thing - well, not exactly the same. (I've never been into 4chan.) But for a while there I did earnestly and honestly believe that the internet had been terribly good for me and helped me lots with various things I felt I was "immature" at.
Perhaps I'm getting old, but now that I look back, I can see that at that 17 year old stage I was also motivated to defend my use of internet, and that "need" to justify myself, even if I didn't admit its existence, may have somewhat biased my thinking. Again, looking back, I realise that even though I thought I matured, it wasn't as dramatic as I thought - nowhere near.
If the thought is flicking on the edge of your mind too, I'll be absolutely brutally frank, I think internet does bias us a little. For some reason people seem less mature, for whatever reason, and we sometimes get tempted into thinking "wow I'm so much more mature than that person even if we're the same age." That's something we'll never know for sure.
[spoiler=My main reaction follows and is slightly off your topic, but it relates directly to your post. I hope you'll forgive my indulgence.]There remains to be elaborated my endlessly fascinating (at least, to me) observation that people are simply obsessed with language, especially written language (in this case, typed), and especially, with how other people use it. Everyone in the world, it seems, gets annoyed by other people typing in caps or missing out punctuation, or using a comma splice. Or a fragment. For that matter. . Well-formed grammar seems to be valued so much on the internet, so much as to affect how you, Ben, view me, Sign. With some interest I'm also noticing how you have observed your written language, and your grammar, as well as your nicely capitalised and paragraphed post. And I'm thinking, actually, yeah, wow, this really is a way we measure maturity. Language and grammar really is, at least psychologically, important to us.
Just an interesting observation that flashes in exciting pretty lights "RESEARCH TOPIC" to me every time I see it. :o[/spoiler]
You sound like a very thoughtful and reflective person, regardless of your other, quote-unquote "non-serious" posts. Thanks for your thoughts.
I used to feel strongly about the exact same thing - well, not exactly the same. (I've never been into 4chan.) But for a while there I did earnestly and honestly believe that the internet had been terribly good for me and helped me lots with various things I felt I was "immature" at.
Perhaps I'm getting old, but now that I look back, I can see that at that 17 year old stage I was also motivated to defend my use of internet, and that "need" to justify myself, even if I didn't admit its existence, may have somewhat biased my thinking. Again, looking back, I realise that even though I thought I matured, it wasn't as dramatic as I thought - nowhere near.
If the thought is flicking on the edge of your mind too, I'll be absolutely brutally frank, I think internet does bias us a little. For some reason people seem less mature, for whatever reason, and we sometimes get tempted into thinking "wow I'm so much more mature than that person even if we're the same age." That's something we'll never know for sure.
[spoiler=My main reaction follows and is slightly off your topic, but it relates directly to your post. I hope you'll forgive my indulgence.
]There remains to be elaborated my endlessly fascinating (at least, to me) observation that people are simply obsessed with language, especially written language (in this case, typed), and especially, with how other people use it. Everyone in the world, it seems, gets annoyed by other people typing in caps or missing out punctuation, or using a comma splice. Or a fragment. For that matter. . Well-formed grammar seems to be valued so much on the internet, so much as to affect how you, Ben, view me, Sign. With some interest I'm also noticing how you have observed your written language, and your grammar, as well as your nicely capitalised and paragraphed post. And I'm thinking, actually, yeah, wow, this really is a way we measure maturity. Language and grammar really is, at least psychologically, important to us.Just an interesting observation that flashes in exciting pretty lights "RESEARCH TOPIC" to me every time I see it. :o[/spoiler]
You sound like a very thoughtful and reflective person, regardless of your other, quote-unquote "non-serious" posts. Thanks for your thoughts.