For those that have followed this column over the last year, you know that I have tried to blend my observations about the Internet and human nature into these "editorials and passionate contemplations." I have been applauded as well as criticized. I value both extremes and everything in between. I sincerely want to thank everyone who has taken the time to share their thoughts with me. I believe your feedback has helped me learn much along the way and I hope that I am able to continue to make this column worth your time and energy as well.
Lately I have been indulging my need to understand life in the area of multiple meanings of reality and seem to have an abundance of examples from which to pick. This subject, although a long time interest of mine, has been most recently triggered by two books I was reading called The Dance Of Anger and The Dance of Intimacy by Harriet Goldhor Lehner, Ph.D. I highly recommend both books -- ESPECIALLY if you like "dancing". <GRIN>
I remember back in my early undergraduate years reading about a study of a group teachers from Mexico and a comparable group of teachers from the US. In both situations, they were to look into a machine that had a picture of a bullfighter show in one of the eye pieces and a picture of a baseball player shown in the other eye piece. Both groups were given the exact same double sets of pictures. The amazing finding of the study was that almost all of the teachers from Mexico reported only seeing the bullfighter when asked. The teachers from the US primarily reported only seeing the baseball player. How could this be?
This was quite a departure for me from the classic story about the blind people that all described an elephant, based only on the small part they themselves could experience about the elephant. One blind person described the elephant as a snake-like creature because he had only been able to feel the tail, while another described it to be like a tree because she had only felt a thick leg. That story is a great metaphor about not assuming anything about the whole when we only experience a small piece of the whole at times. However, in a sense (no pun intended but NOT removed <GRIN>), they were all given different pieces of information. In the study with the teachers, they each got the same exact piece of information and they still perceived things totally differently. From that point on, my perceptions of reality have never quite been the same.
No matter how much I have understood intellectually and emotionally the concept that each person sees life through his or her own unique filters, at times it still catches me by surprise. One of those times lately seem to be when politics are being discussed on an IRC channel. I have to honestly say that some people I have known for quite some time and would have believed to be at least somewhat similar to me in some of my beliefs, turn out to staunchly stand FOR many things I am deeply against as well as the reverse. Even given the same information like the presidential debate, we come across with totally different experiences.
The value we place on things is also individualized. I have often been struck by the fact that it seems no matter how obscure or unusual one person's nickname was, there was at least one other person on one net or another that used that very same nick. More often than not, those nickmates tend to be on some of the most outrageous sex channels on IRC that one can imagine (sometimes even multi-channeling at that). There almost seems to be a correlation between how mild mannered and unassuming one nick is, with how outlandish the nickmate behaves. I find it fascinating that people with such opposing interests and needs are able to come up with the same seemingly unique nickname.
I sometimes forget that IRC experiences can be totally different depending on the server one is using, what IRC client is being used (e.g. MIRC, PIRCH, HOMER, PROCOMM, WSIRC) and even what Internet provider one uses. One crazy night in undernet, I happened to be so time lagged on one server that I logged in again with another server at the same time. I was able to be on the same exact channel, using the same exact nickname, and have there be a whole entirely different group of people on each side of the odd time warp. Neither group knew about the other group until another person who had done the same thing and myself started relaying messages back and forth between the "channels". It was very fun, although also a bit disconcerting to see two of me in channel when the net started stabilizing again.
Web browsers and various computer systems offer a plethora of multiple experiences of reality on the net. At the same time we were revamping /MSGs, I happened to be at a dear friend's house in Vancouver, BC. Anxious to show her the new format, I pulled it up on her machine. I was completely amazed that I barely recognized the page at all. The positioning of the page was completely different, and in fact was not at all centered, colors were not at all the same, and even banner sizes seemed changed. Up until now, her feedback for improvements had always been taken very seriously, but quite frankly, not thoroughly understood. I had quite an "ah HA!" experience that night about different realities.
Another example of this hit home recently when we were adding sound to /MSGs. My sound card apparently has seen its better days (although it is only 2 years old), only it was not at all apparent. Some songs sounded just fine, but others sounded almost like a dark, minor bass, with eerie harpsichord type sounds. It took a call to ChrisTuna with the phone held up to his speakers as well as my letting him hear what it sounded like on my end, to sort out that the music from the two systems barely resembled each other.
I believe that the net brings its own complexities regarding
perceptions. Not only do we carry our own bullfighters/baseball
players/(fill in the blank) with us as we try to decipher the small pieces
of this whole we are given, we are all often doing it on different
servers, using different equipment with different pains, joys and
distractions. All of this done at a fast modem's speed for some and a 2400
for others. I also can't help wondering if our individual VERSIONS of
reality have to be upgraded as often as some of the versions of our
software! Well, hopefully not that often <grin>, but I have to
admit I tend to be a sucker for a BETA version. =)