Internet Safety

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 1:36 pm

When I was a teenager, the Internet wasn't the big social thing that it is now, but there was a very vibrant BBS community in my city. I was pretty interested in the community and my parents were supportive but cautious of my participating in real-life meetups. My dad in particular participated in the meetups I went to, and things were good -- or at least, the meetups which involved mostly adults.

The only times I ran into trouble were the meetups with just teenagers. There was a lot of backstabbing, cliquishness, and some of the other kids in one particular group seemed to be set out to destroy my life for some reason (everyone thought I was a snob just because of the neighborhood I lived in, and of course it's pretty hard to convince people otherwise of that, and one of the kids apparently had a long-standing grudge against me because of some perceived slight that happened at school when I didn't even know he went to the same school as me to begin with).

I'm sure that given the chance, some of the other kids would have actually harmed me physically if they felt up to it. Actually, at one point the kid with the longstanding grudge against me did come close one day when we were both driving home after school, because of another perceived slight when I passed him and then the guy in front of me slammed on his brakes (yet another major WTF incident; he was pretty unbalanced).

Anyway, my point is just that I had more to fear from people my own age than from the 30- and 40-year-olds who I hung out with online.

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 1:40 pm

fluffy wrote:There was a lot of backstabbing, cliquishness, and some of the other kids in one particular group seemed to be set out to destroy my life for some reason

Yeah, I think that's just every single teenager in the world.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:21 pm

Well, yeah, and it's not like the BBSishness had anything to do with it, it's just that it put me in a social circle I normally wouldn't have been in.

Mostess · Post by **Mostess** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 3:02 pm

fluffy wrote:Well, yeah, and it's not like the BBSishness had anything to do with it, it's just that it put me in a social circle I normally wouldn't have been in.

I was in a BBS that a friend of mine ran. It was fun, though it tended to get a little racy. My friend kept it from spinning out of control. There was a meetup and I was so curious who I would see.

It was pimply 15 year-old boys and 40-something homemaker moms. Hilarious, really. But they all talked like old friends.

Internet has the power to level the social playing field, which is really probably why people fear it. I mean, what if you're becoming friends with people you would never associate with in "real" life? I mean, how can you know?

The perv factor is certainly real, but I'm pretty sure it's the uncertainty that drives the fear.

j$ · Post by j$ » Fri Apr 28, 2006 5:07 am

Mostess wrote:I was in a BBS that a friend of mine ran. It was pimply 15 year-old boys and 40-something homemaker moms. Hilarious, really. But they all talked like old friends.

Which were you?

Seriously, the mental image of that particular meeting creeps me out for some reason. Probably because it would be a roaring success

Mostess · Post by **Mostess** » Wed May 03, 2006 2:34 pm

j$ wrote:Which were you?

Seriously, the mental image of that particular meeting creeps me out for some reason. Probably because it would be a roaring success :)

I (like my friend the admin) was a fresh-out-of-college, unemployed bohemian. Though I still had that 15-year old pimply vibe going on, and my friend was on her way to housewifedom (I think she was engaged at the time).

It was creepy, and it was successful (though not really roaring). But it was mostly sweet, with lots of people who don't get out much having some excuse to go to the park and talk to people they have something in common with, but don't really know.

My favorite part was how people used their usernames out loud, like:

Pimply boy: Hi, I'm "dragonslayer".
Housewife: Oh, you're "dragonslayer"! Pleased to meet you. I'm "funnymuffin".

Which was also kind of funny at the SongFight Live in Minnesota. There was a whole round of "I'm Mostess, well Brent, really" and all that. I still can't remember Fried's real name, even though I've now been to his house for pizza and movies.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Wed May 03, 2006 3:22 pm

Bjam's idea for nametags was actually a good thing because people sometimes put both names on the tag... felt kinda silly wearing it, but it was a good thing anyway.
-bill

blue · Post by **blue** » Tue May 09, 2006 3:37 am

aw man.. BBS'es.. them were the days. we had a great one in Gainesville called "Dragon's Keep." it had the same general level of social atmosphere as songfight, in that we'd all get together once a year, and there were many smaller social circles, centered mostly around M:TG and bowling and whatnot.

i do miss the local feeling of BBSes, altho i guess Craigslist is doing a decent job of getting that back.