Virtuality Bites

The BBQ Pit
1

I direct the reader generally to the topic Do You Feel The Need To Lie and specifically to these words of wisdom from bluethree.

*In real life I do my best never to lie. Online, however, why not? It’s all virtual reality. What’s it to you if I’m making up stuff? We don’t know each other.

I once was in a chat with a guy in Argentina, and he started asking me about my boyfriends? How bizarre is that? Did he think we we were going to get together? Him in Argentina and me in Texas?

He was actually acting jealous about men in my life. We had just met, and that was just online. For a situation like that, the bigger the lie, the better. It’s more fun that way. I don’t feel I owe complete strangers honesty. Real people, yes; virtual people, no.*

It isn’t often that I read something in these forums which has the potential to change my life in such a positive way. I have always thought of the members of this and other message boards as Real People. Sorry. My mistake.

You are not Real, you are Virtual. You have no meaning for me. You have no emotions or aspirations. If I mislead or manipulate you it simply does not matter. I am without compassion.

Compassion is for Real people. But you are Virtual so it’s not the same. I can’t see you so you don’t matter. I can say anything I like to you and I will never have to answer to the consequences.

I am all things to all people. I can tell you what you want to hear. With diligence and imagination I have prepared Legends for myself, Legends which will stand scrutiny by the most persistent of sceptics. I am the Master of Dissemblance. There is none better than I.

Please email me. Or we could chat. You will not be disappointed. I will ‘listen’ to you, I will read what you have to say and select the appropriate story from my Voluminous Files. I am the ultimate Virtual Chameleon. I can tell you what you want to hear.

I need stimulation. I need fun. I need to fuck with the minds of Complete Strangers, and to feel that I owe them nothing as I do this. It is the only way I can function from now on.

I feel that I would have arrived at this point much sooner in my life if only I had not had to suffer the handicap of a conscience. Well, fuck that. Consciences, respect for the feelings of others, doing what is right - these qualities must be reserved for Real people.

Which you are most definitely not.

2

“Real people, yes; virtual people, no.”

I read the link before reading your rant, and was struck by this line. Not surprisingly it’s what you take issue with.

True, there’s no one out there that legally goes by “scout1222” [at least as far as I know]. But there’s a chick out there that logs in as that name. And when you lie to her, you lie to me.

I must admit that if someone’s asking me for inappropriate or personal information I’d be taken aback. But I’d be much more likely to say “I’m not comfortable discussing that” than to spin an elaborate yarn.

Obviously YMMV.

3

Yeah, I don’t feel the need to have to answer questions from strangers online that I feel are inappropriate/personal, but that’d be the same if a stranger asked me the same thing face-to-face when we were talking. I wouldn’t go make up some lie because for some reason they don’t “count” as people if we’re talking via the computer. Sorry, I don’t buy that bullshit. It’s merely another form of communication; it’s electronic penpals in a way.

I have friends “in real life” that I hang out with, I have friends that I grew up with who I mostly communicate with via computer now due to moving away from each other, and I have friends that I encountered via the Internet, some of which I have met face-to-face and done stuff with (gone out to eat, gone to films, etc.). I count them all as real people.

I wonder what bluethree would do if he/she found that one of these “strangers” was her next-door neighbor, or a coworker, or a childhood friend, or discovered while at a party that she was talking to someone who was the recipient of these lies a few nights before. Suddenly the “virtual” intrudes upon the “real”. What’s the excuse then - “Sorry, I didn’t think it’d matter”? “I didn’t care if I hurt your feelings since we were just on the computer”?

4

Heck, sometimes I think my online friends are more real than my “real life” friends.

5

People come here for needed advice.
People compare here to see if they’re “normal”.
People open up here because sometimes a bond is made.

Excuse me bluethree if I don’t make a distinction between “virtual” and “real.”

In fact, I’d never even considered that anyone else would either. Boy, that’s a cold fucking slap.

6

So then you’re not really required to have a flatulence license?

7

[quote]
For a situation like that, the bigger the lie, the better. It’s more fun that way.*

Fuck you.

A friend of mine was jerked around by some bitch online who lied about evrything to her (including her gender). They became supposedly close, and when this “friend” started really fucking around, it affected my friend very deeply. Wasn’t much fun on this end.

I’m sorry you think that because someone happens to have an internet social life, their emotions are worth less than others.

And now, on my friend’s behalf, fuck you?

8

Homebrew, while it’s true that a flatulence license isn’t required…well, let’s just say that for some it should be encouraged.

:: walks away whistling, looking innocent ::

9

This line struck me:-

Hmm. With the arguable exception of my immediate family, everyone I know started out as a complete stranger to me. I find that, if I treat people with a level of ordinary decency, some of them at least become friends, which is a good thing.

On the other hand, if I were to go around lying to people, because they’re “complete strangers”, my social circle would soon consist of “people who know I’m a manipulative lying bastard and hate my guts” and “people who haven’t found me out yet”. Not, in my view, the most agreeable of prospects.

But what would I know? I’m not real.

10

No license required… it’s not like farts are an endangered feces.

11

you are Henry Raddick and I claim my £5