EDIT: WiseAlon - yes! Absolutely!
I agree with every aspect of your first paragraph, Dusk. I agree that maturity comes from normal developmental milestones through childhood/adolescence (what you call "aging" - I tend to use it a bit differently is all), and interacting with the world. I think that if that interaction comes from internet sources, then they'll make you mature too. The difference is that there's a limit on how closely that interaction that can resemble real life interactions, and thus actually have an effect on maturity.
I also agree that people act less mature on the internet than real life, creating the impression of a younger, less restricted community
xkcd 438 comes to mind too :o
Regards your second paragraph, I agree that the fact that it's the internet doesn't really change the maturity "curve." However I think you can have emotional and interpersonal experiences on the internet too. Yes, there are a million social nuances such as "uncomfortable silence" and "nervous giggle passed off as a real one" which are lost in the online interaction. That doesn't mean there is no effect on the person in shaping their opinions, mindsets, beliefs, emotions, attitudes. All those things don't equal maturity, but they do contribute to it.
Dusk, thank you for your thoughts I raised this issue earlier because I thought it would stir up strong opinions in other people - and my hunch was correct! Your third paragraph is a perfect example of how very preoccupied everyone is with language, especially that of other people (I detailed this in my first post in this thread). I say that completely forwardly and in all openness. It seems humans are hardwired to obsess over language.
I'm going to use an example, I hope you don't mind. Keep in mind I don't think you're wrong - I just wanted to show how completely normal this is.
Dusk said he "absolutely hate"s chat speak. That's a very strong expression. It reflects great, intractable annoyance that no one could prevent no matter what they said. Well, we wouldn't tell the most annoying person in the class that we "absolutely hated" them. We wouldn't even tell the meanest teacher that we "absolutely hated" them. Chat speak is worse than those, something that REALLY gets Dusk, and other people, pissed off.
People might think of the internet exaggeration argument that Dusk detailed. However, it sounds like the sort of thing people would be quite happy to say to a friend in real life as well as online, so it doesn't really apply here. My proposition is that we are, fundamentally, completely obsessed with language, and in this modern day, particularly written language. If someone makes a long online rant about not liking school, and they use abbreviations such as "chat speak," people will sooner comment on their chat speak than their situation (which probably affects their educational progress as well as emotional and social wellbeing more than their online abbreviations). It would take something much more drastic, like an intensely emotional recount of domestic violence, to make people focus on the topic rather than their spelling or grammar.
It's not callousness on the part of everyone, and especially not you, Dusk. I think it's simply us being hardwired to react to whatever language use we understand. And that leads me to an obvious/not-obvious conclusion: if everyone is hardwired to become aware of their and other people's language, it can't be a measure of maturity. It's not proof of maturity/immaturity either way. There might be a correlation, but it's just not an accurate measure.
Yeah, I'm a little obsessed with language too. :K. Thanks again for everyone's thoughts.
I agree with every aspect of your first paragraph, Dusk. I agree that maturity comes from normal developmental milestones through childhood/adolescence (what you call "aging" - I tend to use it a bit differently is all), and interacting with the world. I think that if that interaction comes from internet sources, then they'll make you mature too. The difference is that there's a limit on how closely that interaction that can resemble real life interactions, and thus actually have an effect on maturity.
I also agree that people act less mature on the internet than real life, creating the impression of a younger, less restricted community
xkcd 438 comes to mind too :o
Regards your second paragraph, I agree that the fact that it's the internet doesn't really change the maturity "curve." However I think you can have emotional and interpersonal experiences on the internet too. Yes, there are a million social nuances such as "uncomfortable silence" and "nervous giggle passed off as a real one" which are lost in the online interaction. That doesn't mean there is no effect on the person in shaping their opinions, mindsets, beliefs, emotions, attitudes. All those things don't equal maturity, but they do contribute to it.
Dusk, thank you for your thoughts
I raised this issue earlier because I thought it would stir up strong opinions in other people - and my hunch was correct! Your third paragraph is a perfect example of how very preoccupied everyone is with language, especially that of other people (I detailed this in my first post in this thread). I say that completely forwardly and in all openness. It seems humans are hardwired to obsess over language.I'm going to use an example, I hope you don't mind. Keep in mind I don't think you're wrong - I just wanted to show how completely normal this is.
Dusk said he "absolutely hate"s chat speak. That's a very strong expression. It reflects great, intractable annoyance that no one could prevent no matter what they said. Well, we wouldn't tell the most annoying person in the class that we "absolutely hated" them. We wouldn't even tell the meanest teacher that we "absolutely hated" them. Chat speak is worse than those, something that REALLY gets Dusk, and other people, pissed off.
People might think of the internet exaggeration argument that Dusk detailed. However, it sounds like the sort of thing people would be quite happy to say to a friend in real life as well as online, so it doesn't really apply here. My proposition is that we are, fundamentally, completely obsessed with language, and in this modern day, particularly written language. If someone makes a long online rant about not liking school, and they use abbreviations such as "chat speak," people will sooner comment on their chat speak than their situation (which probably affects their educational progress as well as emotional and social wellbeing more than their online abbreviations). It would take something much more drastic, like an intensely emotional recount of domestic violence, to make people focus on the topic rather than their spelling or grammar.
It's not callousness on the part of everyone, and especially not you, Dusk. I think it's simply us being hardwired to react to whatever language use we understand. And that leads me to an obvious/not-obvious conclusion: if everyone is hardwired to become aware of their and other people's language, it can't be a measure of maturity. It's not proof of maturity/immaturity either way. There might be a correlation, but it's just not an accurate measure.
Yeah, I'm a little obsessed with language too. :K. Thanks again for everyone's thoughts.