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31 sats \ 5 replies \ @elvismercury OP 23 May \ parent \ on: People who love online life mostly_harmless
Probably each person has a particular definition? You've just given a good workable definition for you. Maybe a general one would be something like:
Interactions, with people or other cognitive agents, mediated by computers and the internet.
Then the form that takes would vary widely, from your relatively sparse engagement on those platforms, to chronically online folks doomscrolling Twitter, maniacally refreshing 4chan, etc.
This is a good example of what I was getting at. I often enjoy talking to people on SN (like to you, now) but I also often take damage from reading people being aggressive assholes. I get stirred up by it, even if I'm not the target of their dickishness. It's like there's some machinery in me that does not distance from it and so I react as if they were standing next to me.
I think a lot of people have something in the ballpark of that. (There's more pathological types of interaction, too, but that's the most vivid and easy to characterize example.) But maybe some people have none of it?
I often enjoy talking to people on SN (like to you, now)
aw look at you guys being pals
I can relate to how you described not being able to gain distance from the dickishness. It's because of this that I am a careful participant online, being thoughtful when I want to engage and taking a long break in between engagements.
How does anyone else do it? I would guess it's a similar approach.
Anyway, it's possible to have a good time - you don't have to drink the piss water
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Calibrating your expectations is important.
Getting to occasionally chat a little with fun interesting people who I can't hang out with in meatspace is a huge value add from online life. That's something it can deliver, if you use it selectively.
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Anyway, it's possible to have a good time - you don't have to drink the piss water
I should get "Don't drink the piss water" as another tattoo. Would enjoy explaining that one at the bar, maybe :)
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I decided to be a little looser with the mute button, because I have the same reaction as you to dickishness. Those interactions stick with me for a while and I'm not very good at disengaging.
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It seems a crucial skill. I wonder if there are related skills that are less obvious? But also maybe less generalizeable.
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