Do you care about online life? Is the internet meaningful?

[fstarcstar]

I can honestly say I do enjoy talking to some of the posters, but I personally am not attached to the forum. The difference is that if the forum didn't exist I wouldnt be discussing anything with any of you guys so it kindof goes hand and hand.

[John Galt]

[The Comrade]

[Professor]

[broken robot]

I've lurked around here for quite a while, and the whole thing leaves me quite numb, probably on account of the cliquish behavior and inside jokes ("libruhlz" I lol'd...sorry, was that the right lingo? i mean some of the shit's funny, but usually it's just annoying) I've participated in various kinds of forums before (including original pcf), and met some in real life who were good people. The original Radical HQ at PCF was great, people were mature and generally cool (I genuinely miss folks like A.D, d_the_sandman, social, DarkMerlin, norulers...shit I think I'm talking to myself here). You could have an actual discussion in which people were intellectually honest, curious, and respectful.

I think the internet can be a valuable way of creating new types of relationships, but emphasis is on "can." Usually it's not, and I get depressed just thinking about the hours I waste staring silently without ever actually building meaningful relationships. I wonder how different it must have been in my parents' days, meeting actual people at every moment during the day. I'm sure they had their own issues, but again the internet seems to be a rather cheap substitute. The internet is full of cheap thrills, but there's no real emotional payoff in terms of having long conversations in a place that you can later associate with familiar memories. I guess metaphorically you all can claim there's some sort of continuity among the members who keep re-appearing at this forum and its different incarnations, but the reduction of the senses and the thinning of actual experience make it seem pretty hollow. What sound, smell, touch would you associate with the users here? (yeah, you could be touching yourself) Long story short, no I probably wouldn't be sad if this forum collapsed tomorrow, I'd find some other stupid shit to waste my time like wikipedia and youtube.

The future's not going to be utopia or dystopia, it will be bland and tasteless, kind of like Weber's iron cage.

[PoS]

[Grandma Death]

[Sazari]

Do you guys really spend all your time on the Internet? Don't you get bored?

[broken robot]