BS: Are you isolated?

Subject: Are you isolated?
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 11:53 PM

What do you think of the study coming out that says that people who spend more than 5 hours a week online tend to be isolated? I suspect that it isn't true for folkies but maybe for others. Two of my nephews are heavy gamers, playing shoot 'em up games with other people from all over the world. I asked them - one newly divorced, the other never married- what it does to their social lives? They both answered: WHAT social life? So tell me, do you isolate yourself?

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Crowhugger
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 11:55 PM

Not until I decide to be.

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Mbo
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:00 AM

Five hours a week? Try five hours a day!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Willie-O
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:00 AM

Yup. I suspect it _is_ true for folkies, in the same proportions as any other group.

But if you're going to be alone, this is the place for it!

W-O

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: MK
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:08 AM

Yes...and I prefer it.

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Amos
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:21 AM

Well, I always have had a sort of isolated part, despite having a daily life full of connections and interactions, but I personally and internally feel less isolated since I started spending too much time on the Cat than I ever did in the (expletive delted) years before I came and found y'all.

Depends, I'd think on what (a)the skientists mean by isolated and (b) what the individual does on line. I certaInly do not feel isolated on the Cat. But if what the skientists mean is "people sitting at a terminal doing stuff tend to talk less face-to-face with meatbodies near by...well d'oh, it's another fancy-pants scientific tautology, is what. I'd be isolated if I was playing Doom online. Or if I was lurking EBay all day, maybe...the conclusion doesn't hold water without some hard qualifying.

As it happens I have a happily compromised family life -- we really enjoy spending time together, and we really enjoy finding our own 'net communities and lists and pages to turn to when we're apart. I don't know, is that rare?

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 01:27 AM

Amos, Rare, and precious to those wired the same way.

Amen to all you said.

Plus Mudcat is different from other e-communities and e-activities. This is much more like calling people you know well because they are the ones who know you, even tho they are far away. In my late teens that was expensive long distance, so expensive I can still hear the panic in my mother's voice, over the issue. Now I feel guilty for the number of hours I use this unlimited ISP resource to get the same needs met that cost big bucks phone time just recently.

I suspect we all are here more sometiumes and less others, depending on what we have going on. I do know that to evaluate anything, I look to the fruit it produces. This bears good fruit, not only in me but through me to others around me, from what I see so far. But like all precious resources, you can have a surfeit and make yourself ill. All goes back to personal responsibility and intentionality.

Amos, what do you write?

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Callie
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 02:36 AM

For me the 'Cat is like getting away from it all - time for MYSELF. Otherwise, I am around people & bustle most of the day. Having said that, I think that if I wanted real solitude (eg write a novel!), I would have to have a break from Mudcat! -Callie

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Magpie
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 10:28 AM

I have to side with Callie. Spending time on the Mudcat is my way of relaxing. Between my son, my job as a teacher, my boyfriend and other friends, I don't have nearly as much time to myself as I need.

Magpie

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Magpie
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 10:30 AM

Also I play in a band, with practices every week, and gigs every other weekend, and with luck, a session every once in a while.

No, I don't isolate myself.

Magpie

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Troll
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 10:42 AM

I had to retire early due to medical reasons and all the people I know are still working so I'm alone a lot during the day. Mudcat gives me an opportunity to interact with other poeple who have interests similar to mine. There are even a few whose sense of humor(?)parallels mine. What more could I ask for?

Well, winning the lottery would be nice.

troll

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Fortunato
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 10:47 AM

I am only isolated when I hold myself apart from you. Fortunato

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 11:10 AM

And I thought I was just slow at typing!

Skipjack

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Alice
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 11:38 AM

As I heard the study as it was reported on the news, the isolation was regarding face-to-face and voice (phone) relationship with people, not isolated from general communication such as the internet provides. In spite of having more access to information on the internet, more access to people through email and forums, there seems to be a kind of isolation developing for those who talk on the phone less and send email more, spend time doing activities with family and friends less and spend time online more. I know I spend less time watching tv and less time reading books and... OH NO!!!

alice

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Amos
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 11:48 AM

Alice...? Alice? You okay? (See, we're not isolated).

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Alice
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:02 PM

...gasp ... thanks

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Froodo
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:03 PM

I consider the Mudcat a fine place of social interaction.

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:03 PM

We are only interacting here because there's a shortage of people like us and we're dispersed all over the place toi make the world better. We'd be in person if Troll won the lottery and flew us somewhere.

Amos was that you with the *schooner*? Are you coming for us soon?

At least we are not putting our lives on hold waiting for the mother ship to come out from behind the star to take us through Heaven's Gate.

Can I hear an Amen?

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Peter T.
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:07 PM

I think that being alone (on the Internet, or elsewhere) plays different roles in different people's lives. Some people get away from lots of other people just to regroup; some people are basically isolated all the time; some people like small groups of other people, because there is too much overload from too large groups; some people are naturally gregarious, and it overflows onto the Internet; some people are most gregarious when they have some control over their environment, and that can mean being physically alone, but in select Internet company. I think the Mudcat has all these kinds of people.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Chet W.
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:10 PM

Yeah, but you know our hardwiring came millions of years before our ancestors got the idea for civilization. So much of what we do is a substitute for some primal need, for food, sex, tribal affiliation, territory, etc. And often I think we do suffer for those substitutions. This community we have here at mudcat is a wonderful thing, but I think there is a danger if we let it sub for face-to-face relationships. The dinosaurs had this planet for 200 million years. Homo sapiens has had it, so to speak, for a few hundred thousand, give or take a few. We're not that far removed from the trees.

Chet

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:12 PM

Does that mean Crowhugger is perched on my head?

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: GUEST,Paul G. (away from home again)
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:40 PM

My wife certainly thinks I'm more "isolated" vis-a-vis spending more time at the ol' computer...she brought me a cartoon which showed a woman at a fragrance counter asking the clerk: "Do you have a perfume that smells like a computer?" I find that if I'm not careful I can loose track of time while surfing the web, dallying at the 'cat, maintaining my web site, or e-mailing friends and business associates...one does need to be careful about isolation from more important aspects of life (family/friends)...all things in moderation...(except my music).

Paul

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 01:05 PM

Unless I have a very busy day, first I check my e-mail then I open the 'Cat. It is a wonderful connection. However, given the fertile minds of us all, can we be sure that we haven't conjured up this disparate group of characters on the 'Cat? Think about it- we have 'em all- characters for many a novel. Mudcat FEELS like a unifying body, not an isolater. But I suppose, since I haven't met any of you face to face, that it also feels somewhat unreal. Does anyone follow my convolutions? Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 01:33 PM

I am at home, medically retired, as, it turns out, others here are, and I do some writing, (which I use both the computer and the internet for) watch my little three and a half year old, and work on a number of music projects--

The small amount of time that I spend here give me a chance to break out of the isolation--in addition, Mudcat has helped me a lot to focus on my music projects--I tend to respond to certain types of questions (music theory and practice related) and the process of answering helps me to clarify my own ideas on things--in addition, I have taken a number of songs that have been discussed in groups, downloaded ABC or MIDI files, and done guitar arrangements--not to mention that lyrics that I have access to--

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Chet W.
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 04:12 PM

Praise, quick get him off of there!

I think it was Barbara Streisand who once said that "people who need people are the luckiest people in the world". Who could say it better than that?

Chet

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Peg
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 04:22 PM

Chet; wonderful analysis of our evolution...I have often thought about this, wondering why, if life is so great in this country (prosperous, easy, etc.) then why are people so stressed out and mean to each other? It's cuz all this shopping and tv watching and fortress-building frenzied attempts to "have fun" are not really fulfilling our basic needs...
you have hit it on the head...we lack sunshine, water, fungus, phtosynthesis...

peg, tree-worshipping harlot

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: JedMarum
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 04:27 PM

I think the people who tell us that this is what the study says are the same people who told us the world population would be dangerously decimated by aids by 1990. I say this not to understate the damage aids has done, but to underscore the fear and paranoia the popular press pushes on us, in daily large doses.

There are certainly changes in human social behavior, (some not so healthy) that are made possible by our application of PC and Internet technologies; but I don't believe for a minute they will massive, sweeping and unhealthy. Is change coming? Sure. Will humankind survive and thrive? Of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 06:46 PM

I tend to feel the same way as Callie & Magpie. The Mudcat offers me some down time away from the demands of my daily life.
Though I can appreciate how The Mudcat offers many Catters a source of community and friendship, I also see what Ebbie means about 'unreal'
There is a significant difference when comparing cyberspace to the real physical space between two individuals engaging in a conversation. From my postings you will only get a glimpse of who I am, though I try to express myself as openly and honestly as I can.
It is difficult enough to figure out the characters who play an important role in our everyday life, let alone having a galaxy of distance between two people who have never actually met.
Cyberspace is a safe place to communicate.
It can be terrifing to truly be ourselves in the physical presents of another person. But it is worth chiseling away at the walls of fear. For in the physical presents of another person, you have an opportunity to see the reflection of yourself and if you truly trust this person, you may have the rare oppportunity to occasionally get a glimpse of your soul.

Little Neo

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: GUEST,Little Joe Borg
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 08:56 PM

isolation is the result of a failed assimilation

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: sophocleese
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 09:00 PM

Or Joe Borg it is the result of a too successful assimilation, when everything is assimilated what is left to talk with?

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Mbo
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 09:35 PM

Resistance is futile! Little Joe, this is one of my favorite quotes by your people "We were once like you...WEAK!" BTW...what do you call a pipe band filling up their bags but playing no melody? A collective drone!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Troll
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 10:22 PM

Meebo. You need to adjust your medication.

What do you call a piper with no legs?

Easy target!

troll

Subject: RE: BS: Are you isolated?
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 10:47 PM

On the Mudcat? with a family? NO WAY!!