URNotAlone

How Do You Spell "adamant"? IWTTFIMLDOI

March 21st, 2008 12:07 pm MDT

There are people in Chat who don't talk to me. Maybe there are people in chat that don't talk to you. That is no surprise. What surprises me - no, amazes me - is how unyielding they are. They will not address even the most inconsequential of comments.

It requires more discipline than I possess to commit to NEVER speaking to a person again, under any circumstances. Some people address me obliquely. If I make a comment, they will respond generally, wothout addressing me directly. But many will not even acknowledge my existence - with one exception. If someone makes a joke at my expense, they wil laugh at it. Not anyone else, only jokes about me.

They fail to realize that if they ignore me, they are communicating to me. If they laugh at jokes made at my expense, they are communicating. They are "shunning" me , in the Amish sense, "including me out" of chat from their point of view.

I never thought of it this way, but someone said to me yesterday, that people  in the Chat room are cruel. Cruel? I don't think so. I don't know what it is, but I don't think it is cruel. I think it is a matter of control. One thing that is difficult to do in a chat room is manage who speaks to you, and who you speak to. Once people  don't want to speak to you, or don't want you speaking to them , they have to ignore you with a vengeance.

I find the whole thing either weird, childish or both. Sure, there are people I don't want to talk to. Sure, there are are people I don't want to hear from. But is it an absolute? They can't mention a train wreck, and I can't say, "That's horrible"?

That's ridiculous!  It was pointed out by our fearless leader, Jon , that we are adults not children. Well, "I Wouldn't Talk To _____ If My Life Depended On It!" is juvenile and petulant (with apologies to Kim).