I’m a huge fan of online chat.
“But Auntie,” you say, quite reasonably. “You’re cynical. You hardly ever believe what people say, and you know for sure everyone lies online.”
Ahem. Not everyone. Some of us just choose our words very, very carefully.
Be that as it may, I treat live conversations with liberal (albeit metaphoric) pinches of salt, and I enjoy my online buddies… whoever they really are.
How people say what they say is just as important. That’s not my cliché so let’s stipulate it and move on.
More interestingly, a similar effect happens online.
You might not be the a/s/l you advertise. That’s none of my business, nor do I care.
I do care if you get my obscure 70s TV reference, or have the good manners to claim to hate a film I loathed. Have you read a book I love? Cite it and earn my eternal devotion.
Manners, in fact, show up as clearly online as they do on the street. Appropriately timed responses show interest. Nice ones bring smiles. If someone favorites my tweet, that can be anything from a pat on the back to a hug. It’s all good. (Sorry, Sis, but it is.)
I don’t care if you chuckle, snort or lol, as long as you liked my joke.
When you’re chatting with someone online, your personality is right there on their screen, plain as day. You can hide behind an abstruse avatar or a false i.d., but you can’t hide your character.
If you’re whiny or self-obsessed, that will show. If you’re pleasant and kind, that will show too. A sense of humor shines like a beacon in the vast beigeness of Internet blather just as much as it does in the gridlocked monotony of the real world.
But the real reason why I love Internet chatting so much is that, lipstick be damned, you can’t see me.
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