[Loser]

Originally posted by Gryphin:
Come on guys,
How different would this conversation be if tone inflection and body language could be read?

It is my belief that communication of text-only or even voice-only nature lends itself to dehumanization more easily than face-to-face conversation.

This is not to say that I haven't seen face-to-face debates of certain matters (religion, politics, how to raise one's children) turn into aggressive, physical conflicts, but that the attitudes that lead to these sort of conflicts come much easier when we cannot see, and perhaps smell, each other.

I worked in a call center for several years, and found that people on the phone were more likely to get angry, irritated, or condescending than they were in person. It is only worse in text.

The truly frightening part of this is what happens to children who experience social interaction only though inhuman means such as these. I have met some kids raised on the BBS, and while they might be eloquent, convincing, and confident in text and chat, most of them are troublingly deficient in real world interpersonal relationships. (Most, don't take this personally unless you feel this applies to you.)

If this does cause a problem, what of TV. Do actors correctly portray proper body language in all situations? Do they react to stimulus naturally? I am certain the answer is no to both.

Perhaps those of us raised on television are all distanced from true humanity by being surrounded by false or forced drama while we grew up. Perhaps this is the reason so many people express their lives in such dramatic terms, and resort to dramatic levels of emotion so easily. We live as we were taught and we were taught by television, where drama and inappropriate reactions are scripted in for entertainment value. Perhaps this has not been noticed because it affect some more than others, and the mostly unaffected majority cannot see what is 'wrong' with themselves.

But would this not be true of other media: what of books. Think of the people you knew while growing up who always had a book with them. Would not the artificial situations, expression, and reactions in any form of fiction teach children to dramatize their lives? Do not the bookish, escapist, drama-club-types describe their own lives in excessively melodramatic terms? Surely the answer to both is yes.

But we cannot live a life without fiction, without escape: I certainly won't. Surely it must be a matter of proportion. If a growing mind spends enough time in the real world, they will react to real world stimuli in an appropriate, real world manner.

This is terribly off topic, and even off the off-topic topic, but the words just seemed to line up in my mind, ready for the keyboard. It seems I am inspired. Inspired to make a fool of myself.