The only 'social' technology I like are web-cams. So much better than just talking on the telephone. I wish those had been wide-spread when I was a teenager. I know some people who get a lot out MySpace too (without letting it consume their real lives).
Yeah, web cams are awesome. I remember when I first used one with this girl I knew. She took off her top, then I took of my pants and...
Wait.
Er
I didn't say that. No one else here heard that.
But, really, I was in a discussion about virtual interaction and how it was taking place of human interaction and, well...without virtual interaction, my life would be far less rich than it is now. I'd know less and I'd be more stressed.
See, I have a pen pall. I can and do tell everything that I do to my pen pall. I can get away with it because, unlike here, my mom doesn't *read* my E-mails.
At least she better not.
And there is something very nice about being able to unburden yourself to someone who lives really really far away. It lets you talk without worrying about the consequences. Cause, see, my pen pall is never going to meet any of my friends (unless she bumps into Sam, who actually moved up to Canda...eep) and thusly, she can never tell my friends about all the times I've bitched about them!
Its nice, because I get to bitch to someone who won't and CAN'T blab. And its nice because I get to hear her bitching.
Oh, and we occasionally exchange works of writing for critiquing. Though, lately, we've both been really slow. Sadness.
The following rant is tangentally related to this thread and not aimed at anyone in particular.
So, what really boggles my mind is when people talk about how virtual interaction "scares" them. Or get upset about it. No one here has really said that, but I've seen/heard other people who go wahwah about the internet, instant messengers, Facebook, MMOs and so on. And I just have to say...jeeze lousie, chill out!
IMs, Facebook, MMOs, and so on are NOT going to replace human interaction! There are and always will be a minority of people who replace their lives with computers. But, wait, they're still communicating. They're still talking. They're still living. They're just doing it in a different way. We're supposed to be tolerant, arn't we? So why is it that it seems that people can get away with being intolerant of the lonely nerd's life style? I mean, its their life. How'd you feel if I chose your life style and picked it apart for all the problems it had?
You know, that rant wasn't really aimed at anyone here...its just, talking about this subject lead to me thinking about this other subject...
Hmm. I should put a warning at the top of this so as to not offendinate anyone.
Right. So, now that I've completely screwed up the timeline of this post with my space/time editing and so on, I'll continue.
See, the internet is a wonderful tool like most things that humanity has invented. It can be used for good and for evil. And for pornography. Delicious pornography.
Where was I going with this?
Oh right, and as a only slightly connected comment, I have to say that if someone who loses themselves in a video game didn't have video games, they'd get lost in movies. Or they'd get lost in comics. Or they'd get lost in books.
Some people just don't like the real world. Blaming video games for their predicamant is kinda odd to me...
So, to summerize:
Webcams are fun
Video games are fun.
Fun things used to exsess are bad
Some people always use things to exsess, no matter what those things are
I like pie.
I think that covers eveything. I bet I'm going to wake up tommorow, read this post, and ask myself: Why am I posting at 2 in the morning again?
Oh, and as a PS: I do want to say that calling Video Games time wasters when you are writing NOVELS is kinda hypocritical. Games are just like novels, movies, and TV shows. They're forms of artistic expression that should be explored and enjoyed.
Oh and as a PS, re-written to be less of a jerky thing to say: I do wanna say that calling Video Games "time wasters" strikes me as a bit odd for anyone who writes a novel to say. I mean, novels are "time wasters" by the definition I know. So are movies and TV shows. All of the above are, in my opinion, forms of artistic expression that should be explored and enjoyed by as many people as possible.
