People's thoughts on Online Communities

Each person was asked the following:

Please write your experience, thoughts, and or opinions on online communities, online dating, how technology has changed our forms of communication and identities (or anything related).

Here are their thoughts:

[irf2k says:]
I find that the Internet allows people to pretend to be someone they're not. I'm not talking about the warning we received in high school of people going online and pretending to be teenagers for perverted reasons, but instead people who go online and act totally different. In school, a student may be considered shy by most of his peers, but when he goes online and enters a forum he can recreate his identity so people get an entirely different perception of him. With the advent of online games, this has become even more popular, as teens and other avid gamers spend more and more time creating their online identity. With some, these games are just a means of recreation, whereas to others it allows them to escape reality while still interacting with other people. For most people, these dual identities are harmless, but with a growing few it becomes an obsession that is definitely unhealthy. How to deal with this problem and others that arise from it will be, in my opinion, a major issue in the future.

[Eyes of Horror says:]
Technology is improvement with pros and cons
pros: news is travelled a lot faster
easier ways to communicate
cons: takes away social life a bit
people become lazy
online dating services: lame
you like someone before meeting them
can be fake
well the liking someone before meeting them has it's ups and downs
because it skips physical attraction
but then again, fake profiles
they can fool anyone

Andrew says:
hmm, i dont know where to start on something like that
lol
see i am very jaded though lol,
even though i work in the technology industry, i think technology is ruining our society as a whole
it makes things to easily within everyone;s grasp, and nobody wants to work or put forth effort to strive to success... so many people out there have become lazy and dependant on the push of a button
if that button isnt there to be pushed ... then they just turn their back
haha
i am such a loser eh
lol

monkeyman935 says:
online identity generally manifests itself to be a more bold version of what the original personality may infact be in person due mainly to the sense of annonymity that goes hand in hand with conversing with a large group of people expressing their opinions all whilst knowing that they (should they choose to) will never be found out to believe otherwise. The unfortunate side effects of this are however, should you choose to pursue anything more than an online bassed relationship with a cyber aquaintance, the annonymity is removed and the subjectsare forced to interact the way mankind was originally intended to... in person. Depending on the personalities, this may infact not be a bad thing. Assuming that they are both very sociable people, and were simply being themselves no holds barred, it shouldnt be long till they feel comfortable with one another and interact as they originally were. However (as ive have personally experienced) one, if not both of the personality may infact be naturally shy and uncomfortable inrteracting with new people (which often enough is why they turned to meeting people in such a way in the first place) in which case they encounter does not go as had been planned and ends up dissapointing both parties. Another problem increasing in size nowadays is the temptation for people to lie about who they are. For what ever reasons people get caught up in the fun of being who ever it is they want to be and forget that should they choose to encounter their online friend that eventually the truth will come out. Although this is not uncommon practice in real life interaction its far more common (at least in my experience) in online encounters for people tosay what they think the other wants to hear rather than what the truth may infact be.

BrownSouljah says:
The invention of the internet has affected the lives of people in ways that can’t even be described. It has changed the way we we do research, the thousands of books in the library are being replaced by the little address bar on the explorer window. We have abandoned traditional means of interacting with friends by opting to keep in touch through e-mail, instant messengers and chat rooms. The internet has also expanded on its many conveniences as it is now the primary tool by which we find music, movies and other forms of entertainment. Although many people refer to the online community as something virtual and often try to separate it from real life, I believe that it has become a very real part of our life and that in some ways is actually the reality in which we live.