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Originally Posted by abaya
 Well, I wasn't hiding in bushes with binoculars, but I see what you mean. But I liked doing things the old-fashioned way... it felt more real. I guess I feel that these websites take all the work out of actually getting to know someone on a person-to-person basis, without any clues or hints from them on some carefully honed and prepared website. it takes the work out of spending time with them, asking intelligent questions, learning to read body language, etc. It takes the risk out of talking to people face-to-face, right off the bat... and I don't like that, even though it is probably comforting somehow.
Are we going to lose these interpersonal skills over time, because of things like myspace? Or do the websites enhance our social lives, and I am just missing the point because I don't need "hook ups" and my friends are all bitter women who stalk their exes (seem to be the primary uses of these sites, so far)? |
I never had really good interpersonal skills growing up without the Internet. I have social anxiety and anything that reduces the initial risk of rejection is great for me.
Posting on message boards has helped my conversation skills actually. I know what types of things people talk about and some topics and questions that I can ask.
myspace does take a lot of the anonymity away from the Internet. If my identity was exposed on a different board, there would be a lot of personal info that I wouldn't want anybody that I meet in real life knowing. But, myspace also allows me to put some positive information about my interests.
*I actually looked up a girl that I had a crush on in high school(we're 26 now), and found out more information about what she liked to do than I would have ever found out by interrogating her in the halls in between class. She would have thought I was pretty strange or psycho if I asked her some of the questions that were answered on her page. And I feel it would have been much easier talking to her if I knew we had a lot in common.