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The internet is not the real world.

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Hodor
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08 Apr 2008, 5:59 pm

A philosophical answer: What is real?

A better answer:

tang wrote:
The internet, in many ways, is a new form of entertainment. Replacing the television, and phone, and especially, the real world of challenging in-person contact with other human beings, negotiation of the physical world, being a part of the real-in-person world of people, things, the environment.


How is television challenging in-person contact with other human beings?

Quote:
Instead, people lay waste looking at a computer screen and keyboard, separate from the world. They almost always use anonymous names, or just their first name. And "speak" to others who are the same. Figments of people. Specters typing words. Rarely do people know each others names, or what they look like.


They might be separate from the physical world, perhaps, but not separate from the actual world. Most internet users have contact with other people - it might not be physical face-to-face contact, but that's often a good thing for us, who can find nonverbal language difficult. There's no nonverbal language on the internet (except smilies and pictures,) but that doesn't make conversations any less real. You're real, I'm real, everyone browsing this page is real. I might not know what you look like, but I know you're a real person.

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They go from one website to the other, feverously, like going from gambling table to gambling table. You start at one, and then get tired, and then wonder what's going on at the other, and then go there with a shot of adrenalin, and so on and so on.


Analogies can be drawn from the 'real' world here. People swap jobs, move houses, emigrate, etc. Besides, some people stay as a regular member of the same website for years. But what are you proving here, anyway?

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The world of the lone person and the computer, sitting there, believing it's the real world. Replacing the real world with their loving computer and the "world wide web".


Most people know it's not the real world. I see your point here though. It is possible to be addicted to the internet just like it's possible to be addicted to more or less anything. Moderate use of the internet doesn't do any harm, though. It could be some people's favourite and most comfortable way of communication. Is that so wrong?

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Look at people's blogs. They believe they are speaking to the world. Look at how they write, as if they are addressing the public. Fairly pathetic, and very unfortunate.


Again you have a point. But blogs are not always written to be read by other people. Blogs are good for pouring out your own emotions and feelings in a socially acceptable way. Even if no one ever reads your blog, if you enjoy writing it, what's the problem?

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Many people find via the internet a way to master-mind lie about themselves and promote themselves. And a way to profit. And they can reconstruct who they are, their history, and everything else, and lie at length about it all. And hide behind their screen, and simply close website windows as they like. They don't feel accountable to others nor themselves.


I'm Brad Pitt. Believe me?

Quote:
Organizations, movements, people, groups, etc, who have their start in the internet should be taken with great caution. These were formerly voiceless people who now prey upon this new communication-medium. The real/true organizations, usually, are the ones that start with real people getting together in person, meeting together in person, traveling to be together in person, discussing ideas in person.


Yes, you have to take care on the internet. But unscrupulous companies exist in the real world, too. What about door to door salespeople, or those telephone calls you sometimes get when a stranger asks you for your bank details? Conversely, many internet companies are perfectly trustworthy and honest.

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The world of challenges, people, the natural environment, the public, transportation, civil life, the changing of the times ... is missed by the internet-person.


A gross overstatement.

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Sadly, many with autism and aspergers lay waste on the internet. They likely could do much more in the real world, but it would be challenging, involve some anxiety, involve working hard to meet people and do this communication with actual people rather than "with people electronically". Here there is the challenged-chance for expression of real emotion, expression of ideas with people, being with people themselves, rather than the stonefaced expression of emotion through words while faceless and nameless.


Oh, thanks. What if we find it difficult to communicate with 'actual people?' I agree that we shouldn't use the Internet as a substitute for meeting people, but the real world isn't always friendly towards people with Aspergers. That said, a healthy balance between real world interaction and going on the internet isn't a bad idea, but that applies to everyone.


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patrick6
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08 Apr 2008, 6:17 pm

tang wrote:
The internet, in many ways, is a new form of entertainment. Replacing the television, and phone, and especially, the real world of challenging in-person contact with other human beings, negotiation of the physical world, being a part of the real-in-person world of people, things, the environment.

Instead, people lay waste looking at a computer screen and keyboard, separate from the world. They almost always use anonymous names, or just their first name. And "speak" to others who are the same. Figments of people. Specters typing words. Rarely do people know each others names, or what they look like.

They go from one website to the other, feverously, like going from gambling table to gambling table. You start at one, and then get tired, and then wonder what's going on at the other, and then go there with a shot of adrenalin, and so on and so on.

The internet is a great pacifier, providing many with the opportunity to get away from the real world and satisfy themselves with this electronic world of video, images, words. It keeps them quiet, and satisfied, like television, games, fast food, entertainment.

The world of the lone person and the computer, sitting there, believing it's the real world. Replacing the real world with their loving computer and the "world wide web".

What a brilliant invention. It provides a world for those who were having difficulty. But it is a delusional world. Look at people's blogs. They believe they are speaking to the world. Look at how they write, as if they are addressing the public. Fairly pathetic, and very unfortunate.

Many people find via the internet a way to master-mind lie about themselves and promote themselves. And a way to profit. And they can reconstruct who they are, their history, and everything else, and lie at length about it all. And hide behind their screen, and simply close website windows as they like. They don't feel accountable to others nor themselves.

Organizations, movements, people, groups, etc, who have their start in the internet should be taken with great caution. These were formerly voiceless people who now prey upon this new communication-medium. The real/true organizations, usually, are the ones that start with real people getting together in person, meeting together in person, traveling to be together in person, discussing ideas in person.

The world of challenges, people, the natural environment, the public, transportation, civil life, the changing of the times ... is missed by the internet-person.

Sadly, many with autism and aspergers lay waste on the internet. They likely could do much more in the real world, but it would be challenging, involve some anxiety, involve working hard to meet people and do this communication with actual people rather than "with people electronically". Here there is the challenged-chance for expression of real emotion, expression of ideas with people, being with people themselves, rather than the stonefaced expression of emotion through words while faceless and nameless.




You're just an idiot who had it easy so you think that everybody else can have it easy as well. Guess what? Most people with aspergers have difficulty going out in public and communicating with people. If a people with aspergers waste all their time on the internet then why the f*ck did you sign up to this website and leave this contradictory message? Isn't this the internet? Aren't you leaving a message for "figments" of people as you put it? We aren't real people according to you remember? So why start this thread?



silentchaos
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08 Apr 2008, 6:21 pm

My entire life has been changed by tang's post. Now that i know the internet isn't real i am going to steal fake peoples' credit identities and use the money in real life. If someone tries to arrest me i will just say; "But officer the internet isn't real, don't you know that?".



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08 Apr 2008, 6:22 pm

Nonsense. The Internet is an EXTENSION of reality, not a way to escape it. Creating a distinction between "face-to-face" communication and technologically mediated communication, with the former being "the real world" and the later being "not real" is what I like to call the "Back-In-My-Day" fallacy which is the tendency for people to think of the technological environment they grow up in is "the real world" and new technological additions to communication and recreation are seen as not part of the "real world." An example of this is my mom complaining about me being on the Internet all the time while she doesn't think anything of how she talks on the phone constantly. Telephones are part of my parents' conception of the "real world" while the Internet is not, because the Internet did not exist when they were growing up.


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08 Apr 2008, 6:31 pm

I would like to see more people be open to communication by telephone.


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08 Apr 2008, 8:07 pm

Neh.
Well, many of us here are significantly older than the internet, and my social skills were a lot worse than before I went online back in '93.
Because of the internet, I not only understood my kids' problems from research, but also my own problems. And this lead to consultations with a real neuropsychiatrist who gave us the proper diagnoses instead of flailing around with things that didn't quite fit.
And I found support. I overcame depression and anxiety and self hate, and found a lot more friends than in the stuck-up town I had been living in for the last 15 years.

Anyway, I won't take what tang said as trolling. I'll give tang the benefit of the doubt, as a sincere expression of personal opinion.

:wink:


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08 Apr 2008, 8:23 pm

Tang can go eat a pickle.



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08 Apr 2008, 8:27 pm

Indeed it's only an extension of the real world, otherwise nobody would be able to recognize you as the same old hand in a brand new sockpuppet. :roll:

Or does this seem not familiar to you at all:

Quote:
...an immense Internet life, with dozens of message boards used each day, 8+ hours of Internet use per day, the gambling-like excitement of trying to juggle dozens of different websites and dozens of different usernames. The great excitement of seeing who responded to you at the dozens of sites. The great gambling-like energy of going from one to the other, anticipating who responded, hoping, looking, checking.


Or is this your "army of people just like you"?


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Last edited by anbuend on 08 Apr 2008, 8:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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08 Apr 2008, 8:30 pm

tang wrote:

The world of the lone person and the computer, sitting there, believing it's the real world. Replacing the real world with their loving computer and the "world wide web".


Well, Tang, I don't know about you, but I don't think the internet is the real world...nor am I replacing the real world with being online.
I do get out and I do have a decent life. Being online is not going to destroy someones perspective of reality unless they are delusional, which I assure you, I am not.


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08 Apr 2008, 8:35 pm

I would argue that without the internet, many aspies would find it difficult or impossible to socialize. The internet does not prevent social interaction, it fosters it. Now, for a neurotypical person who is capable of developing social relationships easily, spending great amounts of time on the internet could be considered unhealthy. It depends on who you are, what your social interaction is like, what you need socially and in what form you wish to pursue it. Ultimately it all comes down to how a person chooses to spend their time, which - as long as it is not detrimental to others - is really nobody's business but their own.


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08 Apr 2008, 9:06 pm

Real people, real world

We are the world. This is how we communicate. I think, I live and breathe. I am real. This is as real for me as talking to someone in person, and easier to deal with. :D


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08 Apr 2008, 9:21 pm

I am more open on the internet than in "real" life; most people (family aside) in the "real" world would be lucky to hear two sentences from me on a typical day, and these two sentences would be most likely in answer to questions that they'd asked.

As for not being able to see people's faces or hear their voices, I wasn't aware that these things were important to knowing who a person is. A mind is the same mind no matter what shell it's housed in.

The internet expanded my world; it improved my communication skills (yes, in the "real world", too!), it opened up new areas of interest, and it let me know that there were other people like me, that I was not totally alone, that I would not be totally alone forever. The internet enriched my world.


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08 Apr 2008, 9:45 pm

Oh, and my skills have improved from hunt-and-peck to speed-six-finger-weird typing.


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09 Apr 2008, 2:06 am

If the 'net isn't real, then neither is reality.



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09 Apr 2008, 2:57 am

What the hell? This guy changed his post to question marks...



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09 Apr 2008, 7:54 am

He does that when caught.

He turned his post to Age1600 on her thread about police brutality to "...".


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