Good People Does Not Always Equal Arrogant

Revisions:

1-16-10: Initial release.

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A few days ago when I came home from work, I logged onto my Trillian program and I get a friend request on Yahoo network. What else is new, as I have over 130+ people from all over the world in my “Underground Contact” list.

Anyway, this guy messages me and the first thing he says was something along the lines of:

“now you are online bastard”

Jesus Christ, how am I supposed to respond back to this statement? So I thought long and hard (few seconds) and responded like any smart individual would do. I said,  “Well, hello to you to also.”

Then he goes off and say sorry, because he has never seen me online in the last four months and I just had to laugh because I am online every single day and decided there must have been a glitch in the Yahoo system.

Long story short, we sat there chatting for half an hour or so on a lot of random stuff.  PS2 tutorials, computer help, where did I obtain all my knowledge and all that good stuff.

Somewhere in the conversation he says thanks for helping him out and not for acting as a douche bag. I thought about what he said and asked for more clarification.  He said I did not appear to the image he thought I would adhere to, and after talking a bit more he told me about his experiences with trying to obtain information from those who are smarter, cleverer, knowledgeable, or however you want to describe these people and they were just ignorant.

Funny how things I experience suddenly turn to an article? >_>  Anyway, this is a good topic to talk about. Have you ever been in a situation where you asked for help from someone and in the end they give you the cold shoulder, maybe give you a snappy or inappropriate response?  Ever get the feeling that the guy who knows more than you wants to keep it to himself so he can succeed, or watch you fall and fail?

A good example is school. Let’s say you have no idea how to solve this calculus problem, and you know it will be on the test. You ask the brightest kid in your class for help, and he gives you no help or says “refer to the homework or textbook”.  Or even worse, you ask him to review your sample problem, and he says yes that is the correct method, when in reality you did it totally wrong!

Isn’t that horrible? With the Internet, there is no reason for anyone to be nice or evil, arrogant or docile.  You are what you want to be come.  This is an alter-ego or persona as they call it. Online, you can feel free and be different than what you are in real life.  For me, I am simply doing what I do in real life in terms of volunteering and activism and brining it online.

My online self is no different than my real self. I think many people recognize this. Now there are bullies in real life who on the Internet still carry this bully trait. Ever seen those guys?  They come in all different shapes and sizes. Some like to swear a lot. Maybe act racist or say immature things or sexist jokes.  Whatever the case maybe, the Internet is full of them whether that is chat room, forum, game, or even a comment on a website.

In conjunction with this, it can be tough finding a lot of good and honest information on the Internet these days, myself included. Granted, I know a lot already and I have some good resources that I can rely on for solid information. I can’t say the same for the rest of you guys. I was playing L4D 2 last night in Tunngle, and one of the guys asked if he can use his headphones as a microphone.  I said no. He then tried to tell me that someone told him it was possible, and I just said sorry, you just got fooled.

The most interesting part of this all is that this is not the first time someone on IM network told me thanks for not being a dick, or a douche bag, or whatever you want to call it.  Ok, there have been times I supposed when I may have given people the wrong impression whether that is a tongue in cheek away message, or I said something snappy when I shouldn’t have.

However, most of the time I am in a good and supportive spirit.  If you chat to me online, then you would know.  It is how things should be anyway. There is no fun in staying online if most of the people on your buddy list are a bunch of jerks and eggheads.

How about you? Ever had a bad experience that totally caused you to hate someone?  Well, I ask that you just forgive and let go as its not doing you any good to bottle all that emotion inside anyway.

Let us know, this is interesting stuff!