i wanted him to be HAPPY! :(

you did make him happy.. in a manner of speaking. see! he's looking down at you now from hamsterland in the sky, smiling happily. despite his little crumpled spine and grotesquely bulging eyeballs.






.

( i had 3 tonys in a row.. 2 more after tony no. 1! )

great!


(nobody ask her how tony2 and tony3 met their maker)

tony no. 2 killed himself whilst trying to escape from his cage.

after tony no. 3 died ( a very wholesome natural death ), my parents bought a guinea pig for me.

i named it tony.

quite right - tony's the best name for any kind of rodent - why change it?




guess what his name is - EXACTLY - it's tony

^big nosed rodent, that one

ok then "tony big-nose"

oooh, do you remember that thread where someone tortured their pet to death?

can the next question be about something other than pets please?

no

why not?

^ that would make a good question of the day

"why not ?"

answer of the day:

--> because a toothless hag told me it was a bad idea

^^
don't talk about erzo like that!

:eek:

new question:

is your online personality a true reflection of your real self?

how could it not be ?

eta:
What i mean to say by that is, even if you are playing a role and giving yourself an online "persona", the sock puppet that you hold out in front of everyone else is still a reflection of yourself. It's simply impossible to be the observer and the observed at the same time, so even when you think you are cleverly dissimulating your "true" personality, bits and pieces of it are seeping through.

I don't know. I defer to those who know me irl.

no mad is really meanier irl

I hope that avatar's not misleading.

it's more a imperfect reflection of part of my illusory self, but I post in good faith.

Irl snake is more girlish than she appears. I wish I had a better word but it's close.

In general, I agree with T.I.P. My observation is that people who (seemingly) try to hide or minimize aspects of themselves end up more transparent than they probably would ever want to know.

it's not a question of trying. i just am different to craig johnston.
let's face it, no one could be that chipper! i never consciously set
out to create an online personality, it just happened, and i was
wondering if others had had the same experience.

well, of course there's stuff i won't talk about here (like work) and i don't go around using my real name.. but that's mostly because i don't want any next employers read about my hasselhoff fetish.

i do respond here like i would irl. i have no clue on how to pretend i'm someone else. i'm good at acting whenever there's a script and character description to follow, but freestyle sockpuppeting is not my thing.

maybe rob can enlighten you guys on how i am irl.. we met up a couple of years ago.

when people meet me for the first time they'll often remark upon my great sense of humour, come-to-bed eyes and smouldering looks. then they'll say, for example: "omg zero - yours eyebrows!! you, zero, are very similar in appearance to academy award-winning puerto rican actor and film producer benicio del toro." yeh, admittedly i tend to play that side of me down when i'm online, so's to avoid a big fuss.

so, am i the only one being myself here? :confused:

how does anyone "develop" an online personality, how does this work?

No, and as i said i think most people here are also being themselves, whether consciously or not. If I felt compelled to change my personality to fit in here, i would probably think better of it and leave.

I'll add that online environments (like Second Life, for instance) can allow people to live in alternate realities and escape the drudgery of their everyday lives. They can be rich, beautiful and the life of the party online, when in reality they are rather ordinary. Those environments are fine as long as they remain a game - a place for testing real world things, like opening a business or whatever else you would need a testing ground for before taking it to the real world.

The danger is that some people become attached to their online persona, and try to escape the disappointments of real by living permanently in their fantasm. They stop trying to do cool stuff in real life because they can't control outcomes in real life the way they can online.

I guess that kind of escapism is possible, to some extent, on a bulletin board.

ok now my message is way too long. ack.

individual quotes not working for me and it's only my opinion.

I'll never know the real you on line because I'm missing a big part of you, your physical presence. It's a fine line. Most people will say things on line they would never say irl to a stranger. Real life is far more intense and complex. Being online is like being a pleasant or an angry tourist, either way eventually you have to go home.

smart and practical in today's world, a necessity unless it's your job or you're an independently wealthy eccentric. People have lost their positions because of their online personality.

I believe every word.


Extreme online personalities are hit and run, but an average online personality will typically keep their personal information isolated. Regardless, you're always giving up a little bit of your privacy and perhaps a tiny piece of your soul because the internets never forgets and administration has your ip ;)

but we act in different ways in different places, even in real life, no?

If you have that bent in your personality you'll end up finding a way to escape disappointment regardless, if not online, drugs, drink or therapy.

nah, on line social networking is a very compelling and modern topic, each year it's having a greater and greater impact on our lives. Most people in my day to day have never even heard of you tube. I am now a corrupting force of nature ;)

you forgot exquisite

an "exquisite" corrupting force of nature ;)


Don't take it too seriously though, i probably wouldn't have had the guts to say that in real life :p

isn't this real life?? :(

is too! i resent that :mad:

^must've been developing hers offline arse as well.








.

i would say i'm very similar offline to how i am online with one exception that i think is fairly common. online i'm more aggressive. what i mean is, offline i'm far more likely to be conscious of how my words affect people and consider those consequences before opening my big fat mouth. i'm also more likely to consider how intimately i know someone before opening my big fat mouth. online i'm less likely to consider the consequences and since most interpersonal contact is not intimate, i don't usually consider how well i know someone before responding to something.

actually i don't know if aggressive is the right word, now that i think of it. i'm frank/blunt and say what's on my mind both on and offline. but offline i'm far more likely to weigh consequences and other external factors before doing so.

i also would say my reactions to things are more hyperbolic online just for the entertainment value. i'll overreact positively or negatively in an online capacity because i find emotional outbursts funny in a text-only environment. for example i don't really get "mad" about things offline, but i'll express "madness" online even if i am, in reality, not mad. this is particularly true with other strong emotions like outrage. i'll express it online, even though offline it's not something i would give much thought to. if that makes any sense.

it's like an exaggerated caricature version of personality.

but in general, you're getting pretty much the same auntie all ways 'round.

( in real life, i don't carry a bucket on my head )

ok maybe not on your head, but i know for a fact that you do carry one

i am home, i don't feel a tourist here.. or on any other bulletin board i frequent.. or when chatting to friends.. etc.. it's real life. we don't call it "real life", but it became real life, as soon as i made friends, discussed my daily stuff, etc.. and why shouldn't it be real life? :)

I think I have an online persona, but it's not too different from my rl self, or at least I hope not. The biggest difference is that on a message board I can take a long time to type out my post, or even get to the end of a post, delete it and hit the back button. I end up saying more things I regret in real life. That said I still post things I regret.

Also, I don't think anyone can be exactly the same online or offline, because online you can't use body language and expressions. There are emoticons, but they have a very narrow range whereas actual expressions can be very subtle. Face-to-face you can get your message across, then read the other person's reaction and (even unconsciously) alter the way you express yourself until you think they are getting what you're saying. Online you have to do a lot of guesswork as you can't really tell the intended tone of a message, and indeed many flaming matches start because someone reads an angry tone into a calm message.

Well technically real life is what ever is happening to you regardless of the place or platform. But I think the original term irl comes from that fact that there is no physical contact between the people communicating apart from electronic means; practical ideas or fantasy. When I click on my mouse, I am not able to touch your arm while expressing a point or when I type these words I am unable to look into your eyes and speak them. So the tactile audio/visual elements are missing. I'm not saying that strong connections and bonds can’t be formed on line, I recognize that some of the most beautiful and profound moments in historical relationships where through correspondence, but they are different from what society and psychology has regarded as traditional mind and body relationships. I can communicate with you instantly half way round the world in seconds and that's an amazing thing, but it is also limited to the realm of ideas, ebay and pay pal. Forming on line friends and community relationship is pioneering and a whole new science. I believe that for every technological advancement humanity makes something is also lost, but as a realist I also know there's little that can be done to stop change without effort.

It's possible that my online persona is a truer reflection of myself than my irl persona with people I don't know really, really well. I'm not sure. I guess both are incomplete.

Like Hfox, I post in good faith.