Technology and Anthropology

Cadaverous Pallor · 12-19-2006, 09:15 AM

When I'm dead, I want all my posts bound in a book and published.

I love all your posts, you guys really nailed it in your own ways. I've tried many times to write a book on this message board thing and it's too big an idea for me.

The stigma IS going away, and it's a wonderful thing, as well as an obvious conclusion. When only freaks and weirdos spent time on the net, saying you met someone there was embarrassing. Now that most people (in certain income brackets) have an online presence, everyone understands that the person you met online is just another person.

I believe our little board here is a wonderful case in point on internet relationships. We met on a larger board with a broader appeal. Those of us that stuck together and remained here have one huge thing in common - our posting ability. We all use punctuation, capitalization, and pretty good grammar and spelling. (Yeah, there are plenty of exceptions, but have you BEEN to most message boards??) We do a very good job of explaining what we mean, and most misunderstandings are cleared up quickly. To steal an analogy - we are the highly evolved versions of message board posters, and as such, we have survived for years in this same format.

Speaking of evolving - I feel like a chimp every time I need to text message on a phone, especially when I see a 13 year old blazing away on one. For the first time in my life, a popular technology seems out of my reach, but not because I don't have the smarts, but because the technology has splintered so much that I'm not a part of that side of the revolution. This tech thing has become bigger than anyone can really master, unless you're still a hardcore geek. Can you really be a perfect message board maven/text messager/console gamer/Warcraft master/digital cam wiz/photoshopper/manic mp3er/etc etc etc? A lot of invested time and practice is required to use all the myriad tech devices correctly....or maybe I'm just excusing myself from falling behind.

So what's the same......I'd say, finding people that click with you. Chemistry online is still chemistry, though a different kind of chemistry....but as we've seen, it transfers rather neatly to personal relationships IRL. Much like any pursuit that gets people together, posting is a great way to bond with people, and once you have met them IRL, your posting experience is greatly enhanced. I remember the early days of putting faces to names and then coming home to post and read - it was a heady time. It's still endless interesting to REALLY get to know people in person and see their posts in a whole new light.

Stan4dSteph · 12-19-2006, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

When I'm dead, I want all my posts bound in a book and published.

Even the ones that no longer exist in cyberspace?

I find it depressing that most of my relationships outside of work exist only in cyberspace. I have not found a good way to meet people where I moved, so I've pretty much just maintained the ones that started virtually, morphed to IRL, and now have moved back to virtual again.

Cadaverous Pallor · 12-19-2006, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stan4dSteph

Even the ones that no longer exist in cyberspace?

Before I owned a computer I was a teen with a telephone. I used to wish I had every wonderful late-night phone conversation transcribed or recorded so I could keep them forever and ever. I still have every note I passed in high school. When I began emailing I horded my emails as a gold mine of history - when I wasn't sure how something went down, I could search my emails for it - but eventually the file was corrupted. I very nearly cried.

My obsession with such things is probably because my memory is so bad. These days I'm not as concerned with documenting every step of my life. Still, every few months or so I'm back at Mousepad, searching up some minor detail of my history. Just a few weeks ago I used an old Mousepad post to figure out which family we go to for Thanksgiving on even years and which on odd years.

Anyway, my post above was more of a joke than anything. I would like to publish a book of poetry, but if not that, then a "Best of Lounge of Tomorrow's Open Mic" would be great too.

Alex · 12-19-2006, 05:52 PM

To follow up a little bit on my last post.

Part of it is also the scale. In the "olden days" you could self-select groups but it was mostly self-limiting as the granularity you could achieve. They were, after all, generally limited to physical proximity.

With the geographical requirement removed by modern technology the ability to coccoon yourself to a very narrow cocoon is amplified. In the entire Bay Area there are probably only a couple dozen people who would subscribe to my mix of atheism, skepticism, and libertarianism. But with modern technology I could (if I chose) essentially limit all of my "social" interactions to such people and also allow them to filter all of my interactions with those outside of that group.

€uroMeinke · 12-19-2006, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

With the geographical requirement removed by modern technology the ability to coccoon yourself to a very narrow cocoon is amplified. In the entire Bay Area there are probably only a couple dozen people who would subscribe to my mix of atheism, skepticism, and libertarianism. But with modern technology I could (if I chose) essentially limit all of my "social" interactions to such people and also allow them to filter all of my interactions with those outside of that group.

I understand what you're saying, but even with that kind of immersion, you're still not divorced of the physical world you live in, though you could be a hermit geek I suppose. I guess I just have a hard time fathoming someone who would want to do this, though I suppose I've done it in the negative so why not.

Do you think this may be what's happening with radical Islamists on the net? They certainly seem to exist in a cyber-environment as well as the real world?

lashbear · 12-19-2006, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Still, every few months or so I'm back at Mousepad, searching up some minor detail of my history. Just a few weeks ago I used an old Mousepad post to figure out which family we go to for Thanksgiving on even years and which on odd years.

Spooky - particularly after I went back to MP to dredge up 3894's Lashbear Sig immortalised in this thread.

I expect there will be traces of me around WAY after I'm gone - which is kind of nice.

12-19-2006, 09:15 AM	#1
Cadaverous Pallor ohhhh baby Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Parental Bliss Posts: 12,364	When I'm dead, I want all my posts bound in a book and published. I love all your posts, you guys really nailed it in your own ways. I've tried many times to write a book on this message board thing and it's too big an idea for me. The stigma IS going away, and it's a wonderful thing, as well as an obvious conclusion. When only freaks and weirdos spent time on the net, saying you met someone there was embarrassing. Now that most people (in certain income brackets) have an online presence, everyone understands that the person you met online is just another person. I believe our little board here is a wonderful case in point on internet relationships. We met on a larger board with a broader appeal. Those of us that stuck together and remained here have one huge thing in common - our posting ability. We all use punctuation, capitalization, and pretty good grammar and spelling. (Yeah, there are plenty of exceptions, but have you BEEN to most message boards??) We do a very good job of explaining what we mean, and most misunderstandings are cleared up quickly. To steal an analogy - we are the highly evolved versions of message board posters, and as such, we have survived for years in this same format. Speaking of evolving - I feel like a chimp every time I need to text message on a phone, especially when I see a 13 year old blazing away on one. For the first time in my life, a popular technology seems out of my reach, but not because I don't have the smarts, but because the technology has splintered so much that I'm not a part of that side of the revolution. This tech thing has become bigger than anyone can really master, unless you're still a hardcore geek. Can you really be a perfect message board maven/text messager/console gamer/Warcraft master/digital cam wiz/photoshopper/manic mp3er/etc etc etc? A lot of invested time and practice is required to use all the myriad tech devices correctly....or maybe I'm just excusing myself from falling behind. So what's the same......I'd say, finding people that click with you. Chemistry online is still chemistry, though a different kind of chemistry....but as we've seen, it transfers rather neatly to personal relationships IRL. Much like any pursuit that gets people together, posting is a great way to bond with people, and once you have met them IRL, your posting experience is greatly enhanced. I remember the early days of putting faces to names and then coming home to post and read - it was a heady time. It's still endless interesting to REALLY get to know people in person and see their posts in a whole new light. __________________ The second star to the right shines in the night for you
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12-19-2006, 05:52 PM	#4
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	To follow up a little bit on my last post. Part of it is also the scale. In the "olden days" you could self-select groups but it was mostly self-limiting as the granularity you could achieve. They were, after all, generally limited to physical proximity. With the geographical requirement removed by modern technology the ability to coccoon yourself to a very narrow cocoon is amplified. In the entire Bay Area there are probably only a couple dozen people who would subscribe to my mix of atheism, skepticism, and libertarianism. But with modern technology I could (if I chose) essentially limit all of my "social" interactions to such people and also allow them to filter all of my interactions with those outside of that group.
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