Oh, and regarding that earlier post...

[conuly]

My lack of real-world friends is because I mostly live online. Youse guys know this. It doesn't disturb me much, but somehow the fact that I have more friends now than I did before (but they're all online) disturbs everybody else in the family VERY much. Messed up.

Comments

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

Ahem.

To put in a few words of defense for my mom and myself, I would like to point out a bit of context that Connie is not giving here...

It does not disturb me that Connie has online friends. (Seriously, so do I.) What concerns me is when she doesn't know her professors names (at the end of the term) and will not go speak to them about fixing fill-in-the-blank-problem here. When in order to schedule a counseling appointment, she has my mom call (she's 21 and has been seeing this guy every other week for, what, a year now?). It goes without saying that she will never, EVER call and order takeout. Plus, I think the not having "real life" friends keeps her from having to clean her room. Only kinda joking here - Xiggy can back me up on this. What bothers me more is that although Connie is much better at controlling her temper than she was a few years ago, I've been seeing some regression lately. It especially bothers me given how balanced and thoughtful she can be online that those same qualities don't seem to manifest themselves in her physical interactions with people. I mean, getting into a knock-down-drag-out fight with two toddlers feet away from you? Not cool. Especially when it started due to Connie emptying the container of bubble-liquid over Lizzie's head because Lizzie "insulted her again". For those who don't know, Connie can be a bit sensitive sometimes, and none of the rest of else felt that what Lizzie said deserved that level of response. Not that Lizzie was a saint either. Or when COnnie lost her temper with my mom and I came upstairs to break it up and Connie threw a bowl of food on the floor. This is in *my* house, mind, and I had nothing to do with this fight.

To sum up, I get a bit worried only because I feel that having such a full life online encourages Connie to retreat there to the point of not working on how to deal with "real life" people. That is, those of us who actually see her in person, and those whom she will need to interact with on some level to get through school, find a job and ever get healthcare.

[conuly]

Um, gee, thanks?

I rarely, if ever, know *anybody's* names. That's not, I think, because I am antisocial but because I'm just really bad at remembering names.

And our dear mother won't call for anything either. In fact, I call and order takeout more than she does! I just don't like using the phone. People don't understand me over the phone. It gets embarassing.

[deceptica]

Well, I don't know about the other stuff but I can relate 100% to not knowing my professors' names. I read them when I first sign up for a course online but that's pretty much it. In class they don't really tend to come up, except maybe when said professor mentions their email. And since I'm not exactly very talkative when it comes to my fellow students, I hardly ever say stuff like, "What did you think of so-and-so's lesson today?" Usually not remembering their names isn't even a problem, it only was that one time when a professor had ordered books for us in bulk at a store, and the shop assistant asked me what the professor's name was so she could look up the order - and I had no clue. :-P

I also have troubles remembering the names of my boyfriend's extended family. We've been together for two and a half years, but I only get to see him every couple of months because of the distance, and I have to re-learn all his cousins' names every time.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't remember anyone's names excpet for family and teachers and that's because their names are everywhere in the classroom.

I can't remember my friends' names, my classmates names', you name it, I forget it.

Shoot, I occasionally forget that you're Ulyyf!

A also have the uncanny ability to be mis-understood on the phone. It takes me apx.20 minutes longer for me to order the pizza than it does someone else. Pah on phones! long live the internet!