Re: Deeper understanding

[katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris n Vickie)]

In article <1a345tINNql7@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> you write:
>
>In article <01GP47K9VDTG90MYSJ@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU> MTARR@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU writes:
>>Jessica brought up a wonderful point about computer interaction
>>in the "Deeper Understanding" discussion.  Right now I am sitting
>>physically alone in my room in an empty apartment.  Yet all I
>>have to do is turn my computer on, dial a number, and I'm hanging
>>out in a room with about 50 of my closest friends, reading mail
>>and corresponding with people literally spanning the globe,
>>getting to know them from the inside out, so when I do finally
>>meet them in person it's just adding another dimension to our
>>relationship.  That's about as far from "cold" and "impersonal"
>>as you can get!
>
>Allow me to play devil's advocate for a bit. I've been involved with
>various aspects of the online scene for a few years now, and I can sayy
>from personal experience that it's not all rosebuds and spam. Modeming
>can be, to paraphrase "The Breakfast Club": "social. Demented and sad,
>but social." Maybe my experiences are different from yours, but I've
>found that even in the midst of fascinating information and discussion,
>there is still a pale isolation to online communication.
>
>I'm not badmouthing netters, mind you. I just feel that in "Deeper
>Understanding," Kate Bush was on to something. I see it as a sort
>of modern Pyramus and Thisbe: the thrill of companionship is offset
>by the continuing isolation, and vice versa.

I agree with Meredith and Jessica. I've made so many friends on the
net and I know I never would have met them otherwise. Many of those
friends I've met in person since getting to know them on the net.

Klaus Kluge and Claudia Spix just came to Chicago to visit us and
Chip & Michelle Lueck and the other Love-Hound/Ectophiles in the
Chicago area. They had planned to come to the United States anyway,
because of the World Science Fiction convention, but the *only*
reason they extended their US visit to include Chicago was because
of the net people (us) that they'd "met" via the computer. If that's
not personal interaction, I don't know what is.

Ed Surayni came to visit us, Larry Hernandez came to visit us,
Steve VanDevender came to visit us, and none of them had met us
in person before. Others who have stopped in to visit while on
their way to somewhere else include Joe Turner, Christine Waite
and Andy from Nevada (not IED Andy, who we knew before rec.music.gaffa
even started.) Perttu from Finland called while in Chicago, but we
missed meeting :-(. 

When we first moved to Chicago, Jorn Barger spent hours working hard
to help us move our belongings from the rental truck into our
apartment. We'd just spent the last of our ready cash putting down
the deposit and the first month's rent, so Jorn took us out to
dinner and bought us pizza, then lent us money to get us by for the
next few days. We had never met Jorn before that day, and actually,
had hardly had any e-mail contact. Because of the net, we had a 
bunch of built-in friends when we moved here. Besides Jorn, there's
Mike Mendelson, Kiri Hargie, Mitch Pravatiner, Chip Lueck, Michael
Kaufman...it's quite amazing!

The other, very important, examples I can mention are 

1) When Chris and I went to London for the convention, we made so
many friends there, some of whom we had had prior contact with and
others that we hadn't. Many of the friendships have continued to
this day, and even those people we haven't interacted with since,
I still feel close to, just because we were *there* together and have
that common bond.    

2) When I went to Albany and Philadelphia earlier this year for
Happy's first ever Warpaint concerts, the warmth and friendship
I felt from the other Ectophiles was *amazing* and *awesome*!!
There really aren't any words to describe it, because anything
I say would surely sound smarmy and sappy, and the whole experience
was so important to me that I wouldn't want to reduce it to such
a level. In the context of this discussion though, I have to give
special mention to Doug Burks from Colorado, who I spent 3 days with, 
and Jessica Dembski (creator of Ecto) who invited us to stay at her house.
None of us had ever met before, except on the net. The trust and
friendship and companionship we all felt were, again, as far away from
"cold and impersonal" as you can possibly get.

Those are my personal experiences with the warmth of the net, and
mileage certainly does vary among people, but the lines in DE "hello,
we bring you love and deeper understanding" certainly have true
meaning for me.

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Vickie                                   "My ears are lucky to hear
katefans@chinet.chi.il.us                     these glorious songs" HTR
vickie@pilot.njin.net         _________
                             |_  _ | _   The Happy Rhodes mailing list
"Imagination sets in, then   |__|_ ||_|  ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu
 all the voices begin" KB                Jessica Dembski-Ecto Goddess Lady
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