The gaming/bulletin board generation

bug

I've often wondered if there is a whole generation of people now living their teenage years, (and possibly younger) on the internet.
Ive also wondered if this hinders social and emotional development through these fairly formative years, in that its a way of interacting without neccessarily revealing anything personal in order to form a relationship.

In an age where children are being babysat by pc's and teenagers are finding interaction on bulletin boards what effect is this having if any in your opinion?

I came to the internet fairly late in life in comparison to alot of e.g. boards/irc users, and I often wonder for those who use it alot,does it take away some of the experience that a teen learns purely from an emotional perspective? Any opinions/thoughts on this?

simu

Many of my younger relatives spend time on these activities but they seem quite normal - having friends in the real world seems as important as it ever did. Of course, there are extreme cases of kids with tv and broadband in their bedrooms and who avoid social contact because of this - it's called hikikomori in Japan and apparently, it's a big problem over there, have yet to hear of any similar cases in Ireland.

GuanYin

bug wrote:

I've often wondered if there is a whole generation of people now living their teenage years, (and possibly younger) on the internet. Ive also wondered if this hinders social and emotional development through these fairly formative years, in that its a way of interacting without neccessarily revealing anything personal in order to form a relationship. In an age where children are being babysat by pc's and teenagers are finding interaction on bulletin boards what effect is this having if any in your opinion? I came to the internet fairly late in life in comparison to alot of e.g. boards/irc users, and I often wonder for those who use it alot,does it take away some of the experience that a teen learns purely from an emotional perspective? Any opinions/thoughts on this?

Well I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter.
You have by now met an awful lot of people just as you described in person and are in a rather good position (as someone who came late to the scence) to comment on whether you see them generally as balanced or unbalanced in the ways you described.

bug

syke wrote:

Well I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter.
You have by now met an awful lot of people just as you described in person and are in a rather good position (as someone who came late to the scence) to comment on whether you see them generally as balanced or unbalanced in the ways you described.

well most of the type of individual Im speaking of dont socialise at beers or dont take the step to socialise at all. Im talking about people in their early teens now, who's escapism perhaps due to lonliness or other circumstances leads them to "live" on the net. More withdrawl from society into net society at an early age... is it a problem and could it lead to problems in later life..more of a general question and a discussion rather than a boards.ie specific one

GuanYin

I was an IRCop on the old IOL server and I know a few people from back then in person.

To be honest, in my experience, people are people, if they are a bit shy and awkward and use the net, its not cos of the net, its more likely due to family or environmental issues and the net is just an escape. Books, music, TV, video games, chat rooms, it doesn't matter really, its all about escapism.

I can say that the people I know in Ireland all are pretty well balanced socially. One or two are good friends. That said, I think your reply here is a cop out. The users of boards.ie in general attend boards beers and by definition would be indicative of the catagory of people you describe. So a straight answer on whether you think the boards people you have met are in that catagory would give us your perspective to some degree and is a pretty fair question to ask.

bug

syke wrote:

So a straight answer on whether you think the boards people you have met are in that catagory would give us your perspective to some degree and is a pretty fair question to ask.

well its not really a cop out Sy, because most of the people I know/talk to at beers are over 18 by the nature of the function.

ykt0di9url7bc3

simu wrote:

Many of my younger relatives spend time on these activities but they seem quite normal - having friends in the real world seems as important as it ever did. Of course, there are extreme cases of kids with tv and broadband in their bedrooms and who avoid social contact because of this - it's called hikikomori in Japan and apparently, it's a big problem over there, have yet to hear of any similar cases in Ireland.

considering the pain of some peoples teenage years, its safe to assume that if a person wants to be alone then they can achieve it, alterante hobbies and personal isolation are common, with the scrutiny of parents\society today over the interactive medium that is the internet (with respect to the anonomisty (sp?) and content it can offer) we can see that people with isolationist tendencies embrace this medium and thusly come under a watchful eye pertaining to their activities alone....

Comes down to the question that if there was no internet and it was TV and non-mainstream hobbies only would they be better off?

I think that a bulletin board generation can coax many an isolationist out when discovering like minded people, I believe that you can make friends this way and hopefully as a persons life forward college\job that it can only have a positive influence unless the person is too narrowminded and only sticks to Games or storm****....

Ivan

But isnt the point he is trying to make that people use the internet as an escape as we might have done with amstrads/ataris and t.v. when we were younger. But you can actually be pulled in by the internet, in so much as you believe you are actually creating friendships (which you may or may not be doing) and as such turn away from real life. I.e. coming home from school, where you had a miserable time with all the people who cant relate to you and then spend hours talking to "like minded individuals" who you never truly interact with in any social way. Its a never-ending spiral culminating in "power-dating" through MSN.

Shad0r

bug wrote:

I've often wondered if there is a whole generation of people now living their teenage years, (and possibly younger) on the internet.

Perhaps a cross section of a generation, but afaic we've along way to go before it hits an entire generation...

Ive also wondered if this hinders social and emotional development through these fairly formative years, in that its a way of interacting without neccessarily revealing anything personal in order to form a relationship.

I think it really only impacts on the people who's entire social group are people they've met or know from singularly the internet. Which to be honest is hardly very many people I would imagine. I mean everyone still has to go to school...

In an age where children are being babysat by pc's and teenagers are finding interaction on bulletin boards what effect is this having if any in your opinion?

Its probably giving younger people access to information and opinions that they may not have been exposed to otherwise. Whether that is a good thing or not is another issue/debate. Online forums became part of my life when I was 19/20 (back in the days of IGN and Cloud boards) and I dont think its affected my life in any sort of negative way in terms of my ability to socialise. Although I'm a pretty outgoing fella and as you can see by my post count, Boards.ie is not my primary social outlet.

Shad0r

syke wrote:

That said, I think your reply here is a cop out. The users of boards.ie in general attend boards beers and by definition would be indicative of the catagory of people you describe.

I dont think that its at all accurate to either say that 'the users' of boards attend boards beers. Some of the users but not all of them by any means. And I think you'll notice if you go to a number of these events that by and large a majority of the people that attend are the same people that always attend.

Also, and I gave my own experience cause its kinda borderline but...wasnt bug originally talking about people that fall into the 13 to 19 year old catagory? (i.e. teens)

You can hardly claim the people, who by definition of the fact are allowed into the pub for these beers, are an accurate cross section of the type of people bug was originally talking about...

mayordenis

its not as black and white as it was made out in the many posts - its going to differ from person to person thats given, i admit i spend alot of time on the internet but i still enjoy a a great social life, i have a actually met friends over the likes of msn granted i only talked to them as they were "real life" friends of friends but more than likely i would never of met or at least become good friends with said persons. rabble rabble rabble!