Forum Conversations: From the Security of a Computer

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

From the Security of a Computer

If you've ever taken the time to stop by the Daily Lobo's website and read some of the comments posted there, you'll have noticed that people can be rather vicious in their remarks. When it comes to the Opinion pieces especially I have seen some truly ignorant things thrown back and forth between people. It made me think some more about the continued effects of the internet on modern communication. It seems to me that not having to look another person in the eye when you're speaking to them has strongly reduced the tactfulness of society. Can you imagine two people throwing around the kinds of insults you see on internet forums if they were having a conversation in person? Maybe it's a good thing that people aren't mincing words online the way they do in person, but to me that seems hypocritical. If you're not willing to say something to a person's face, I don't think you should be saying it to their forum avatar.

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Welcome to the Virtual Honors Forum: a place where students, faculty, and staff of the University Honors Program come together for conversation. Just like in our real forum full of cozy couches, study tables and chairs, this is a place to share with others what you are studying, what has you mesmerized, mildly intrigued, or downright flabbergasted. "To share" is really the key phrase, for as many of us have discovered, real learning (and research) does not take place in a small room where we sit alone with a book. Learning is dialogue and research is collaboration.

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