A vote for yes. I consider the interactions I have here to be real interactions and are by their nature often ones in which the positions are more fully articulated and thought out. Not a replacement for real life interactions but clearly something that is in someway fulfilling. Real interactions but not quite real relationships, if that makes sense.
It is an odd beast. A regular poster here who I had been interacting with and who had been asking health related questions and who is told it really could be heart related, serious, and that really getting to her doctor was a good idea disappears apparently forevermore on the day she said was her doctor’s appointment … the visceral response is different than real life interactions. Partly because I have no way to know if she just coincidentally stopped posting here or died. Partly because my relationship is, while not fictional, not real and not intimate; it is a small sliver of a reality experienced at a distance.
OTOH the nature of anonymity allows some to reveal more about who they are then many would in real life.
There is in these interactions both a depth to conversation and sometimes more who the person is to the behaviors than most real life social interactions and an unreality which precludes it being the same as a real life social interactions, both the result of the same curtain.
This is a feature, not a bug. I am guarded and hesitant to be fully honest with people in 99% of real life conversations because humans don’t like being disagreed with to their face. People don’t like facts, they don’t like being corrected, and they don’t like being asked to support their statements with reason or evidence. Simply having what I consider a “conversation” with someone – something that is deeper and more interesting than just a string of "yes"es – seems to infuriate most people.
So yes, I obtain that kind of interaction on the internet because 1) there exist places online where I can have those kinds of discussions without people thinking I’m an asshole and 2) most people who don’t like being challenged leave quickly, and these communities – the Straight Dope, Hacker News, among others – are full of those who stuck around. They are self-selected to have thick skin and accept challenges to their ideas as entertaining diversions rather than attacks on who they fundamentally are as a person.
I don’t understand what most people want to get out of social interaction, but it mostly seems to center around the weather and approval – and anger if you stray from those topics.
No. Or at least “fulfilling” is not the word I would use, since I don’t personally know anybody on this board. True social interaction is not really possible without the nuance of the spoken word; the written word is too often misconstrued and leads to misunderstandings that could be cleared up in seconds face-to-face. That’s frustrating, not fulfilling. I come here to get information, be entertained, and to provide any information that I’m capable of providing. Most every time I get sucked into some political or other argument, I regret it.
This, pretty much. The board is supplemental to, not in place of, real conversation.
My interests aren’t narrow as much as wide and weird, and I can almost always find people here to share them. Good for instance - we just had a nice thread about Stan Freberg. In real life almost everyone I know would go “huh?” if I brought him up.
Mostly I have the need to shoot off my mouth (and have been doing it on line since the mid-70s) and this is a great place to do it.
That reminds me of an old thread in talk.origins about how you know you’ve been posting too much.
SO says “I love you.”
You respond: Cite to a peer-reviewed technical publication?
I wouldn’t say I come here and post for social interaction, but rather intellectual stimulation. Like others have said, there’s a wide variety of topics and a wide variety of viewpoints, and the vast majority of them are cogently presented and well-reasoned.
So it keeps me on my mental toes, and exposes me to viewpoints and outlooks that I wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to, or that I’m exposed to in a way that’s not the usual way.
For example, it seems that most of my family and quite a few of my friends are fairly staunch Republicans/conservatives. None are quite Tea Party level stupid, but they all seem to be pretty lock-step in tune with the party. The relatively small number of liberals I know IRL seem to be either ethnic minorities with an axe to grind, or they come across as patronizing and shrill. Here on the 'Dope, it’s much less shrill and patronizing on either side, believe it or not.
Or, to use a different example of intellectual stimulation, I have very few people IRL who I could go talk about economic topics, historical what-ifs, and similar things. But on here, those sorts of threads are as common as dirt.
Not usually. There’s other forums where I get more “fulfilling social interaction” but they are smaller so you know everyone better. Here it’s more of a “small fish in a big pond” feeling and, while I enjoy reading and sometimes posting if I have a contribution, I don’t feel the same rapport.
Way back in the day (1999-2000), I felt more of it but stuff happened and I posted little for a few years and the place grew up without me. I assume people who have been active here since the early days and have a bajillion posts get more out of it.
I get what you are saying, but have witnessed people putting off RL conversations with friends or family to continue posting/surfing online. It’s generally the under 30 crowd where I notice this. I don’t get it - to me RL friends always override online encounters, even if I coudn’t go back online and pick up where I left off.
I came here primarily for book talk and have since expanded that to café society stuff. I love talking about books and movies and art here. Love it. I see so many different takes on stuff. I don’t know a lot of people IRL who read the variety of things I do but here there is always someone who has read whatever I read, watched whatever I watched.
I do get some social interaction, how could I not? It can also be frustrating. But I have an SO, so my primary social interaction is with him. This is just supplemental.
Wow, it was really illuminating to read everyone’s replies. Thanks for the responses.
It sounds like for the majority of people, posting on this board is absolutely not a substitute for fulfilling social interaction, but people get a different sort of fulfillment from posting on the board. It seems to provide intellectual stimulation.
I am sooo glad to know someone else has done that. Some time back I was with a bunch of friends talking and the one guy was saying some strange things. Without thinking I said “cite?” and then got stared at during this long silence.
