Tuesday, December 23, 2003

Woah..tired already?
Oh man, it's 9:30 pm and I'm ready to go to bed, heh. Of course, I was sleeping earlier, and just woke up from a nap, so..yeah. My body wants me to go down, and I suppose I will right after I post this.

The internet is a considerably different place than real life, and for some, it's becoming sort of an..alternate reality, if you will. Someone living out their life in the real world can come home and throw themselves into the world of the internet, altering their day for the better or worse. Message boards all over the internet are helping to create communities of people who share similar opinions, likes, and dislikes, but no one can argue that things could not have gone as far as they have if it had not been for AIM.

Taking instant messaging to it's peek, AIM lets you talk with people from all over the world..instantly. Instead of using long distance to call them up on the phone, you can do it online with no extra cost to the internet service that you already pay for. It allows you to chat with multiple people at once, either on multiple IMs or in a chat room, and you can talk despite whether you are eating or are sick or there is something else to affect how you may talk in real life.

I honestly feel that the greatest thing about instant messaging is the ability to talk to and make friends with people all over the world, based on your own personal interests. You don't have to depend on people where you live liking what you like, and you can choose your friends based on what you like and not base yourself around what other people like. When you instant message someone, you aren't (usually) talking to them based on their physical looks, but rather judging them on the person inside. I think that's a very important distinction to make.

Of course, not everyone is truthfull on the internet. They may lie to keep their personal life a secret, or in the case of the sick individuals with intent on hurting others, they will tell you only what you want to hear. It may take a while talking to someone to find out if someone truely is who they say they are, but it's deffinitly worth finding out if it means making a good friend. Who knows, I could be lying to you right now. ~_^ Eh, don't count on it. =p

Still, despite how truthful someone could be, they still very well may be an entirely different person offline. Believe it or not, I'm actually fairly quiet in real life. While on the internet I can be extremely talkative and say, or rather, type, things with ease, I'm that kid in class who just sits at his desk and does his work, not talking to anyone except those who may talk to him first. Even in the case of friends, I don't talk that often and stay out of a few choice discussions, known as "Quiet Boy" even around them. It's all good, though, heh. I know they mean nothing against me.

Now there are multiple reasons for differing personalities on and offline. In my own case, I feel much more secure on AIM to say what I truely feel, and can use emoticons to express the feelings that I truely feel. In real life, however, I come off as a very serious person and while my voice is a little deep (ahem) I don't speak too loudly in fear of embarassing myself around other people whom I do not want to know my business. Another thing, too, is that AIM gives time to write and edit a response, respectively. In real life, try to imagine someone saying, "Hey what's up," and you just stare at them, take a tissue and blow your nose, walk out of the room, go to the bathroom, come back, shrug, and say "Eh, not a lot, yourself?" That's not how it works, lol. And it's not exactly very easy to erase things you being to say in real life, as apposed to the internet.

I hope this post has brought up some thought to the differing worlds of internet and real life, and created a more distinct picture of what I'm really like offline. It's not that I choose not to be outgoing, not at all; sometimes you just have to follow the path with what you were given.

-Syk3
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