(October 11, 2013 at 8:29 pm)Zazzy Wrote: This makes me really sad. I am so old that when I first went to college, I still typed my papers on a typewriter (and that was still normal), so maybe I am just showing my age here, but I hate the age of texting and email, and though I enjoy internet forums, I only do it because I can't have frank conversations very often given that I am surrounded by theists.
The way things are heading reminds me of the Bruce Willis movie Surrogates, which was terrible, but the idea was really scary: living your whole life through a robot avatar while your real body sat in a sensory deprivation chamber.
I still love talking. I love to sit at bars and talk and argue and debate with someone. I love talking on the phone to my old friends who live far away. Something is missing from online talk: immediacy, tone, body language, image. It bothers me to not know what everyone looks like, or whether they're smiling or frowning when they post. It bothers me how easy it is to be dishonest online (and I don't necessarily mean lies, I just mean how easy it is to be someone who you normally aren't).
The conversations here are real, and I value them, but I like to look people in the eye and hear them laughing. I guess I am old.
Shooting the shit with friends is still cool in real life. But if you're going to debate, I find it's best done on a discussion board, as opposed to in-person.
