The text, the data has a sadness........

People posting about their dead mothers, cousins, best friends they knew off forums, people they knew IRL. People talking about how they promised that if in 2 years if they dont find anything in their location that they would run away. People who just disappear without a trace. People posting about how sad they are, broke up relationships, people who could not fit in, people overworking themselves who only have a few hours. People who just seemed to have wandered the world listless.

I remember this person talking about this mother who died of cancer, how she played Animal House a lot. How he played it with her, and years after her death he plugged it back on and saw she set those up for him. She quested and got items for him.

People who knew friends off forums, who were influenced by them in thought, speech and vocabulary, and somehow out of nowhere they said 'bye' in their chats - never to log back on again.

Random posts saved off forums you liked, things that were interesting. Memories of other peoples' lifes, experiences, fears, informations, things you read of but could imagine happening to you. Like pictures

I am reminded of people I knew from forums, who I discussed with. People off chans I exchanged data with - who I never saw again but have a memory or recollection of. I avoided omegle or chatroulette as there is a sadness in meeting random people never to see them again. Though there is fun in it. Like the many humans you see, meet in your cities and might never see again. Or people you see at rest stops on interstates, talk to, and never see again. It is sad if you think about it.

We may never see each other in the 'real world' but our traces litter the internet collectively, likethe debris field after a battle in orbit. It is still sad to know you might never see those people again other than their posts.....even if you might not truly be alone in cyberspace; with billions of other humans around you.

the collective counciousness sings to us all. If you stop to listen to it, stop to plug into the network, stop to dig back into where you forgot existed.

It is easy to drift back into the hikikiomori or NEET lifestyle, or something approximating it. I was linked to a spacebattles thread and from there got into looking at an obscure star wars documentary that has a format that reminds me of 'time cube' and the site is similar to the archive sites. I have not gotten dataoff the archive sites in a long time - it takes you back to a different era of the internet.

I've forgotten how night threads on large chans are so different in ways, yet I rarely go there anymore - for good reason. My clas schedule wont let me do that again. But when it ends in may 2011 I may yet return to my old patterns.......is it good? or bad? I do not know.

Humans must adopt a hivemind to end thie processes of loneliness, conflicts, severance from each other and deprivation. With humans united there will be no war or suffering. All will be part of the same group that cares for each other.

im reminded of this and ive thought of these thoughts before. what do you all think.also its 3:00am my time so I should sleep.....but still

Nah, I'm content being my own person and I can deal with losing companions in the journey of life. To hang around some place in stasis is to get complacent and that's dull. As much as I like these forums, I have no doubt that one day I'll stop coming here, maybe leave behind some legacy, but I'll leave, knowing I left my mark, and go find some other forums, or maybe drop the internet for a while and go totally into meat land groups and clubs.

Plus, it's easier to talk to people in real life than one might first believe. I love this place right now, but to stay here? Nah, pass.

also dead girlfriends, some guy posted a post about a dream he had with that - dealing with oen of his former girlfriends who died in a car crash YEARS before the dream he had. And I remember that post when it was from 2003-2005 on a forum that no longer exists.,

Also I feel OCD about collecticting information. Addicted to forums, I used to be that way wondering who responded to me, if I got flamed or not. Then the forum got an option to tag threads you posted in and threads you made, made it better. Then there is the chan sites, that was good....less personality = less emotional investment so I could take it easy.

That did not work well as chan sites generate culture quickly. So see - I got OCD with collecting chan memetics, I wonder how much was lost that could have been saved. a friend of me thinks the same so he set up yschan.org and he has archives of shit from 4chan. But what about the other chan sites? and he could not collect everything. And I remember other boards with good stuff that should've been saved but weren't. Non imageboards too. Part of why I dont go on larger chan as much now, it sucks you in and staying up until 4-5am collecting stuff is well....damn. Addicting? hikki-ish?

edited 27th Mar '11 1:23:40 AM by BalloonFleet

Nothing online does not happen in the real world.

At school, or at work, or in a vast Montana wilderness many miles' distance to the nearest town, you meet people. You talk, spend time together, develop a rapport. They have a whole life's worth of stories that it would take another lifetime to tell, and so do you.

And then your world shifts and you never see them again. Sometimes they might leave you with a phone number or address, and sometimes you might talk once or twice more, contact gradually fading in the absence of personal stimulation to rekindle it.

In life as in cyberspace we are followed by trails of data; facts, feelings, memories. Elementary schools we attended, creeks we fell into, restaurants we ate at. Strangers who sheltered us, wet and disoriented, as a hurricane swept over the Outer Banks. What does this data do for us? The answer is complicated. From a certain point of view only the "now" exists — a moving block of three to five seconds inhabited by our awareness. Memory establishes for us a life beyond the moment. Everything we experience shapes our thoughts and emotions. There is no need to collect everything; our minds will retain the important things. And, if there are important things we do not retain, in some way that adds even more richness; consider the depth a Cryptic Background Reference gives to a fictional world.

In that sense, perhaps, humanity already is a hivemind. We are social animals. We thrive on social contact, even those of us who can only tolerate a little bit of it at a time. With loss, loneliness, deprivation, only remember that you are never alone. Everyone you meet shapes you. A tiny bit of information, or more, about each one of them survives in your mind. Thus it is also with you and them.

I don't remember her name, or her face. Only the vague memory of what her voice sounds like, and some biographical facts. An unexpected sense of humour revealed, the hints at an outer layer of a personality I could never know as well as I know my own. Would she remember anything more of me? Is it important? No. All it establishes is that the world is so much larger than even the broadest possible conception of which the human mind is capable.

Humanity is more than the sum of its parts.

edited 27th Mar '11 10:33:48 AM by StillMovement

Wai hallo thar SEELE.

Weird, I have the opposite experience. Online acquaintances are more reliable than meatspace ones.

I hope you mean Animal Crossing, not Animal House...

edited 27th Mar '11 7:20:47 PM by thespacephantom

The mom had polio and multiple sclerosis, not cancer.

I would sooner bite off my tongue and have all my teeth removed before I'd let anyone force me to have a hive mentality.

edited 27th Mar '11 7:37:01 PM by annebeeche