What They Did To Someone With No Face
"What happened to my FACE?!?!" - SKHS
Some years ago when I was in college, we did a project in Sociology
class. We divided into groups, and each group picked some social norm.
The bravest one in the group would break it in public, while the others
watched and made note what happened.
My group decided to see what would happen to someone with no face, and I
did the honors. I put a big paper bag, a grocery bag, over my head, and
sat in the University Center. I wore baggy clothes so no one could tell
if I was male or female. And I just sat there.
People came up to me, yelled insults, made noises, threw things, and so
on. Why? I wasn't hurting anyone. For all they knew, I was someone who
was having a very bad problem. Or someone who was carrying out a big
dream. Or both. No matter; they disrespected me and treated me very
badly. I couldn't figure this, then or now. I wouldn't throw stuff at
someone just because they were sitting in the UC with a bag over their
head. But then maybe I'm weird.
I've been thinking about this incident the past few days as I see how
things are getting here on Internet. There is so little real talk any
more; most threads consist of innane comments or people picking up on
some phrase that someone else said and taking off on their own tangents.
Very few people seem to be able to write coherently, or to understand
what they read. I hardly ever see anyone say anything original lately,
or anything that really relates to anything that anyone else has said.
Something's going on.
Yet the people here are (theoretically) intelligent and literate; it
just seems that they don't want to take the time or trouble to
understand or make themselves understood. Many posts are barely
coherent. There's lots of thoughtlessness, disrespect, and even some
abuse. Conversations degenerate into namecalling, and people never
seem to get past the same points.
Another thing. On just about every subject there are "party lines", and
woe to those who deviate! I've made some very provocative posts lately,
and expected to see a lively thread the next day. But in most cases, not
a word. Am I being shunned? Or is it just that no one could find a way
to hook into the party line from what I said?
As a final straw, recently a friend and I busted ass to post a very long
text file to expose some very harmful myths, and mostly all we got in
return was a mailbomb, a form-letter flame, and a lot of "duh..."
requests to email people the same huge piece that we'd uploaded all over
the place. My friend and I have talked about why this is...
Part of it may be TV. Since this is a screen, and TV is a screen, some
people seem to be in the same state of mind while at the terminal as
they are when they watch TV. Short attention span, high emotional
arousal, brain on idle. Commercial breaks right when things get hot.
Everything is equally (un)real, equally (un)true. Time for a smoke
break.
Part of it may be because people do a lot of stuff online rather than
capping the stuff and thinking things thru and reading and answering
when they have time. People tend to get carried away, and blurt things
out that don't always relate to what the other guy said, or don't even
make much sense at all.
But these are probably symtoms rather than the cause. Maybe people who
don't want to think too deeply are drawn to the nets. I've actually
gotten a few replies to my recent posts which start off something like
"I havn't read all of your message yet but ..." and then go on about
what they *think* I said, which is usually not what I said.
What gives?!?! People don't seem to have any trouble understanding what
they read when they read a newspaper or magazine. A 100 line post is
too much for some people to follow, but they have no trouble reading a
10 page magazine article or a 1000 page book.
Internet could have been so good. It might even have been a place made
of windows, centered in the East, where we all talk and make decisions
about the future. Why has it come to this?
I think it's mainly because we can't see each other's faces.
I'm winding down my Internet involvement. It was fun at first, but I've
known all along that it's just part of the Lie. I've got some other
writing and other things to do. If anyone would like to talk with me,
send me your snailmail address and we'll take it from there.
"The Fat Lady's singing
by the light of the moon
The Blue Star is dancing
to a brand new tune." - SKHS
WEJOT 68
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Subject: Re: What They Did To Someone With No Face
From: sbjohnston@aol.com (SBJohnston)
An annoymous ass wrote...
> I put a big paper bag, a grocery bag, over my head, and
>sat in the University Center.
That's what you're doing now as an annonymous poster.
> There is so little real talk any more; most threads consist
> of innane comments
To you they are innane, to the writer/readers they could be very germane.
>or people picking up on
>some phrase that someone else said and taking off
> on their own tangents.
Such as when people converse??? So there's no talk here?
Think your idea through again, Mr Annonymous.
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Steve The Reverend Doktor S-bo sbjohnston@aol.com
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"Shoot! A fella could have a pretty good weekend in
Dallas with all that stuff." Slim Pickens
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Original file name: Someone with No Face
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