FreeThinker
Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2005
- Messages
- 4,462
The attached poll allows for multiple answers, and is anonymous.
Whilst reading another thread, I noticed a poster saying that, while Dimensions is something of an "online home", this person always feels like a bit of an outsider looking in.
In a response, another poster, in offerring reassurance, referred to this first person as one of "the old guard".
Eureka.
Could it be simply that older folks like the poster in question (and myself) feel somewhat "outside" more because of where Dimensions is rather than what Dimensions is?
Dimensions is an internet-based forum.
Well, duh.
The significance of that, however, may be that, to the younger generation, being on the internet means being with people, yet, to us older folk (despite our protestations that we are modern thinkers who have adapted to the changing times), being on the internet means being away from people.
Do those of us who are "of a certain age" view the mere act of being online as an antisocial activity rather than a social one?
Maybe it's just my bias showing, as a 41-year-old who has only been online for a little over three years.
I can't help thinking of posting on Dimensions (or any web forum, although this is the only one in which I regularly participate) more as walking onto a stage, whereas I think the younger folk may view it more as entering a room. The feeling of cameraderie, of intimacy and immediacy, is more natural, perhaps, to those who have had this medium available for a greater portion of their lives.
I am often surprised (and gladdened) by how quickly and easily some young new posters seem to fit into our community (even calling it "our community" seems presumptuous on my part), particularly in light of my continuing sense of being "the new guy" here.
Am I out of my head, or could there be something to this?
Whilst reading another thread, I noticed a poster saying that, while Dimensions is something of an "online home", this person always feels like a bit of an outsider looking in.
In a response, another poster, in offerring reassurance, referred to this first person as one of "the old guard".
Eureka.
Could it be simply that older folks like the poster in question (and myself) feel somewhat "outside" more because of where Dimensions is rather than what Dimensions is?
Dimensions is an internet-based forum.
Well, duh.
The significance of that, however, may be that, to the younger generation, being on the internet means being with people, yet, to us older folk (despite our protestations that we are modern thinkers who have adapted to the changing times), being on the internet means being away from people.
Do those of us who are "of a certain age" view the mere act of being online as an antisocial activity rather than a social one?
Maybe it's just my bias showing, as a 41-year-old who has only been online for a little over three years.
I can't help thinking of posting on Dimensions (or any web forum, although this is the only one in which I regularly participate) more as walking onto a stage, whereas I think the younger folk may view it more as entering a room. The feeling of cameraderie, of intimacy and immediacy, is more natural, perhaps, to those who have had this medium available for a greater portion of their lives.
I am often surprised (and gladdened) by how quickly and easily some young new posters seem to fit into our community (even calling it "our community" seems presumptuous on my part), particularly in light of my continuing sense of being "the new guy" here.
Am I out of my head, or could there be something to this?
