Not too long ago, I was looking through some of my old posts here on the Toucharcade forum and I realized that in a lot of my posts(several hundred of them) among the bad grammar and the overuse of periods, I came off as somewhat of, well, a stupid kid. Anyways, It got me thinking. In other forums I have posted in, I have seen many posts written by 12-13 years olds came off the same way. I am not saying that all of them, or even the majority of them were like this. But if you watch any videos of people playing Call of Duty with preteens online, well you know. So my question is, do you think the onset of puberty coupled with the anonymousity (I probably just made that word up..) of the internet can cause kids to act differently on the internet then they do in real life? P.S sorry for being a stupid kid..
Maybe I'm boring or stuck up, but I've always tried to act somewhat grown up when posting online... although when I do come across old posts I've made it amazes me how different I sound. I think a lot of kids would regret the way they acted though, it's just a shame there's no way of teaching them until they're ready to see it for themselves.
I know exactly what you mean, so now I tend to lean on the side of not posting much at all. In fact, that's probably the biggest difference between a "mature" internet user and a kid, just knowing when you actually have something worthwhile to say. I try to not be too hard on somebody acting stupid, because the truth is most of them grow up ok in the end.
I agree with you I always try to act more grown up on the internet. I do it mostly to try to gain respect. I don't know about you but to me respect is extremely important to me when I'm on the internet
Agreed all the way through. Just the other day, I looked back at the first few threads I started here on TA back in 2009. Pretty embarrassing stuff.
I joined this site to support developers. But I do get into it with some rather odd people, I must admit. I don't post on any other forums but here.
I'm the same way, but it's pretty reasonable considering I was about 15 when I first started posting here.
The new facebook timeline made me realize how annoyingly stupid I was back in the days of 2008. *shutters*
Not trying to be a smart ass here - the word you were looking for is / was "anonymity" which is a more boring version of "anonymously". Being an old guy, I can tell you that it is more the anonymity than the age. I know lots of "older" adults, both male and female, that write things on the net, they would never own up to in real life. As with many things, it is a 2 edged sword - people are sometimes much more honest than they would be, but they also say things just because they can, having no regard for anyone other than themselves... Teens tend to be much more impulsive than adults in most things - so they probably are "worse" than adults in their posting. It is people like you that give the old farts of the world (like me) hope that people can, and do grow up, and try and be a bit introspective, respectful, and responsible. This is much more personality driven than age driven though... Thanks for the nice post! Have a happy new years...
I tend to post/tweet things that generally show that I know what I am talking about in the subject (I.E. Limited trolling) for two reasons: respect of the forum community, and for my own informational purposes. However, and those who have seen my posts/tweets know, that I am also a very crass individual. I don't typically write things that children should be reading in other words. I know when to use proper grammar, or when to keep on subjects at hand, but generally my mind gets bored and has to cause some kind of ruckus for the general population. That being said, I too think that I have "matured" (or something along those lines) from posts made even 2 years ago.
I like this thread! I agree with prior posts though, respect is definitely something I strive for, though I can be goofy time to time. Just imagine if this forum had a rating system for each member...
I think most of us can safely say our posts have reflected us growing up over time - certainly obvious from the responses to this thread. What I'm curious about though, for those who have read my posts here on TA, how old do you think I am? (I'm just asking out of curiosity - to see if I've really changed that much over time)
Well, I started posting when I was 13, and I don't know if I acted weird on this forum, but I can tell you now, when I started going on bungie (halo) 2 years ago, I was pretty ashamed of what was happening around then... I was flaming everyone with my terrible grammar.
