This thread has been an interesting read. I’d actually seen the Fb page that started it off, did a 🙄 , and ignored it, but many on this thread have made some interesting points, far too many to go back over and c’n’p them, although I will point to tazzy’s up there ?and say spot on. The whole cyberspace/meatspace argument does get into a whole philosophical area that can get very bogged down, though, and I prefer to think of any online social interaction, be it STW, Fb, Twitter, or whatever as being essentially the same as F2F, (face-to-face), and try to treat people the same irrespective of the circumstances.
If I think someone’s talking bollocks, then I’ll say so, but I’ll try to avoid getting into a slanging match, or trolling, and just leave it.
None of us is perfect, and, as junky’s rightly said, those subtle nuances that convey meaning in meatspace are totally absent in cyberspace, and missing punctuation, or an emoticon, or whatever can render a cheeky aside as something that can be taken very personally. It’s happened to me where a little joke about someone’s car, which most of my friends would have just responded to with a ” you cheeky git”, was taken to heart and the person concerned was deeply offended!
It’s a flesh-and-blood person reading what’s on the screen, and offence can and will be taken, even if the comment was intended to be light-hearted.
The ‘chinky’ reference earlier on is a good point, and I may have referred to an incident where a friend asked if my then g/f and I had stopped off for a chinky when we were late getting to a wedding reception; we hadn’t actually twigged what he’d said, and his flustered attempt to wriggle out of it by then saying ‘or an Indian, or fish’n’chips or something’ made us both laugh out loud. Kim being half Chinese, you see…
We used to refer to Chinese meals as having a Chinky between ourselves, so we laughed it off, but I can see how some could be offended, although I do sometimes think it’s a case of getting offended on behalf of a particular group, ethnic or otherwise, who couldn’t actually give a toss themselves.
Social interactions nowadays are becoming a real minefield, and, as I believe Cougar has said, we are rather slow in dealing with the consequences of things that we say online.
Again, one of the things I love about STW are the many and varied subjects that come up, and the fantastic amount of love and care that contributors will give to those suffering loss or serious health issues, alongside threads like this one, and I hope that it continues for years to come. Mods like Cougar make me think that it will, so thank you, everyone. 😀
