Originally Posted by duga

This thread has been an intense 18 page read. Especially your post, Satch. I find it incredibly interesting that people (especially those in the age group that frequent this forum) will throw out "it's just the internet...effin chill" when in reality, the internet has an increasingly huge impact on real life. Your story proves it. It's at the point now where being "weird" on the internet may be just as telling about someone's personality as being "weird" in real life is. I mean, ****...I met my fiance on the net. Kids kill themselves over things on the net. I'm sure Vanilla and Hermione both walk away thinking about things that happened here and it actually affects them throughout the day. I think the next generation needs to be taught "internet manners" or cyberspace will be a very ugly place in the next 10 years.

I did have a point to relate to this topic with all this. I find myself trying to generally be as normal as possible since I always felt weird as a kid. I then filtered out my "weirdness". While that sounds kind of sad, it actually made me incredibly empathic towards people. I can get on an individual's level and get them to open up easily, so my level of weirdness varies depending on who I am talking to.

I was really just reminded of this at a party the past weekend. I went to a grad student party. If you have never been to a grad student part, I recommend it. It's full of a bunch of smart people who know they are smart but also know everyone else is smart but they don't know anyone else's field, so it results in incredible awkwardness and most conversations end up with "So...what's your project"..."blah blah blah...what's yours?" "Yeah, cool..." and both people move on to another person.

Anyway, for some reason this party had a pinata. I ended up talking to one of the guys that helped make it and how it was fun being artistic for a while. I mentioned how I think science is an art and this guy got really excited so we had a great conversation about it. The guy started getting more and more abstract until he mentioned something about "pulling an abstract thought from the dark and illuminating it for everyone to see"...now, I completely get what he was saying but one of the guys standing around sarcastically went "yeah, buddy...I think about that everyday...." and then walked away. It was only then that I realized the conversation might have been seen as "weird".

On the internet I find myself constantly crafting my text to come off just the way I want it, so I think my weirdness is lost even more in this medium.

Geez...now I don't know where I was going with this. If you read it all, good job.