I’ve been interacting with people on the net through chatrooms, emails, and different fora for a bit over two years now. Like anybody else, I myself have gone through different phases of learning how to interact with others in the manner I see fit for myself.
I too have found countless posts and comments from others to be offensive, boring, insulting, unwanted, and idiotic. I’m sure I myself have contributed to the above from many others’ point of view.
No matter how much idiotic or unwanted I find the material that I hear (yeah, we do have a mean for that in terms of voice chat now) or read, the fact remains that just because I don’t find something agreeable to talk about does not mean that it shouldn’t be discussed by others.
The question becomes apparent in such a case that what to do? Well, I think one thing that many people fail to realize is that the level of exposure that they want themselves to have from a certain type of discussion/conversation is controlled mainly by themselves, not others. Criticizing and complaining won’t just do it.
I think it’s not others who irritate you, it’s you who do that to yourself at the very outset. The simple rule is that if you don’t like something, don’t participate in it. Don’t expose yourself to it. I personally don’t really like the rule but the only thing I can do about it involves me alone, not others.
For example, I get along well with some people around here, and I don’t with some others. I don’t like stuff some people say/write, and I don’t read their threads or replies. It saves me the irritation and/or judgement of their thoughts being idiotic that I might have experienced if I would to do otherwise. It’s people’s freedom to talk about about whatever they like (for limits and restriction of the material, we have moderators for that), and it’s much as an individual’s freedom not to participate in it.
But of course, like any other rule, you can’t consistently abide by it. It’s human nature that you lose you cool or you err. What important is that how often you do abide by it though.
Now the second part. Somebody in the chatroom today said to me that I’m too proud. I think he meant that I’m a snob. I admit that I only talk to certain people in chatroom same as, more or less, that I interact with the selective few on fora. But what’s wrong with that? Who said that I’m supposed to talk to everybody around here? Just because I don’t regularly chat with everybody does not mean I disrespect them.
And I’m sure there are a lot of people who won’t want to talk to me as well, which is absolutely understandable. I mean, you don’t start hanging out or make friends with everybody you meet, right?
I don’t see anything wrong with it, do you?