Howardism: Internet Rudeness, Part 2

Internet Rudeness, Part 2

As I mentioned previously, I recently joined a philosophy club. Nah, it isn't that stuffy, and it isn't very formal. Pretty much a place where you can chat online with both regulars and new-comers, but the depth of conversation has the potential of getting past the weather and into some substance.

Of course, substance can also bring about conflict… segues nicely into today's story…

One day, Chaim arrives at this Philosophy House. He's obviously new here as he's still decked out in his default attire, white T-shirt and blue jeans. I invite him to pull up a stump and take a virtual load off his back.

I asked him how he became interested enough in philosophy to want to teleport to this plot in the virtual space… small talk mostly.

Screenshot of the 'Philosophy House' in Second Life

Eventually, I mentioned some of my thoughts on Bonobo apes and commented that I felt the line between humans and animals is quite fine, and appears to be little more than a difference in degree and not one of essence.

Chaim then chimed in that the difference between humans and animals is fundamental and obvious… humans have a soul. At this point, one guy muttered, "Oh no, here comes a discussion on dualism ", excused himself, and left.

Well, the discussion got worse as this guy was a young earther , who said that "all evidence points to between 5 and 10 thousand years for the age of the Earth." Once, I spent a great deal of time going over such evidence and was far from impressed. It was apparent to me that those who espouse such views have first come to the conclusion that the Bible is literal, and then shifted around to find "facts" to support that conclusion.

At this point, I expected the flames to fly. For if this was a public chat channel, forum, or any other Internet conversation, disagreements of opinion always degenerate into name-calling and other forms of low-brow verbal violence.

But not here.

The few people in the channel, argued the idea of both a soul and an Earth still in its infancy. It became pretty evident that this guy was alone in his ideas in this area, and clearly, the discussion would not be convincing or even enlightening for either side. I was getting frustrated that we couldn't talk about something a wee bit more interesting, so when my network connection broke, I didn't bother returning and just went to bed.

But later, I mused about the civility shown. As I've mentioned before , people are down-right rude when they are not in front of each other, and I wondered if the fact that because these avatars did a better job at representing the real human behind the pixels, perhaps this kept our manners higher.

It also could be the kind of people that hang out at this place and many other factors. So, I've decided that Second Life will become a personal psychological experiment of sorts.

In mentioning my experience with my sister, she mentioned that she didn't think people were any nicer in Second Life, for wanting to be different, she created a very fat-looking avatar, and thought that people treated this avatar just as poorly as they would any other over-weight person in real-life.

So tonight, I'm going to make a, uhm, chubby avatar and see for myself…

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	How Long is Long? Our Ego, Who art Projected in Heaven What is Quality? Meaning, Quality and Determinism. Oh my! The Mystery of the Mind Dialog on Plato's Eugenics I'm So Open Jung, a Tarot Deck and a Pile of Clouds Why Hate Philosophy Philosophy and Parenting Read other entries in Philosophy...	Update So, I got busy and enlarged myself. But while this is an experiment, Second Life, to me anyway, is still just a game… So, I started to model my avatar on the big smiling Buddha you'd find in a garden. So can see it here on the left. OK, the lamp on the necklace was a fanciful extension… Internet Rudeness, Part 2 As I mentioned previously, I recently joined a philosophy club. Nah, it isn't that stuffy, and it isn't very formal. Pretty much a place where you can chat online with both regulars and new-comers, but the depth of conversation has the potential of getting past the weather and into some substance. Of course, substance can also bring about conflict… segues nicely into today's story… One day, Chaim arrives at this Philosophy House. He's obviously new here as he's still decked out in his default attire, white T-shirt and blue jeans. I invite him to pull up a stump and take a virtual load off his back. I asked him how he became interested enough in philosophy to want to teleport to this plot in the virtual space… small talk mostly. Eventually, I mentioned some of my thoughts on Bonobo apes and commented that I felt the line between humans and animals is quite fine, and appears to be little more than a difference in degree and not one of essence. Chaim then chimed in that the difference between humans and animals is fundamental and obvious… humans have a soul. At this point, one guy muttered, "Oh no, here comes a discussion on dualism ", excused himself, and left. Well, the discussion got worse as this guy was a young earther , who said that "all evidence points to between 5 and 10 thousand years for the age of the Earth." Once, I spent a great deal of time going over such evidence and was far from impressed. It was apparent to me that those who espouse such views have first come to the conclusion that the Bible is literal, and then shifted around to find "facts" to support that conclusion. At this point, I expected the flames to fly. For if this was a public chat channel, forum, or any other Internet conversation, disagreements of opinion always degenerate into name-calling and other forms of low-brow verbal violence. But not here. The few people in the channel, argued the idea of both a soul and an Earth still in its infancy. It became pretty evident that this guy was alone in his ideas in this area, and clearly, the discussion would not be convincing or even enlightening for either side. I was getting frustrated that we couldn't talk about something a wee bit more interesting, so when my network connection broke, I didn't bother returning and just went to bed. But later, I mused about the civility shown. As I've mentioned before , people are down-right rude when they are not in front of each other, and I wondered if the fact that because these avatars did a better job at representing the real human behind the pixels, perhaps this kept our manners higher. It also could be the kind of people that hang out at this place and many other factors. So, I've decided that Second Life will become a personal psychological experiment of sorts. In mentioning my experience with my sister, she mentioned that she didn't think people were any nicer in Second Life, for wanting to be different, she created a very fat-looking avatar, and thought that people treated this avatar just as poorly as they would any other over-weight person in real-life. So tonight, I'm going to make a, uhm, chubby avatar and see for myself… Tell others about this article:
	2014, Howard Abrams Some rights reserved	Originally written on 14 November 2007. Updated on 8 February 2014.