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I Love Chatting Online

I DON'T.

Sorry, everyone. Maybe I am on the wrong post for this, but I can't understand why people who have nothing better to do with their time or have a free hour go trolling the Social Media online system, pick someone at random, and use that overworked word "chat".

Have we all become so mentally bankrupt that we pick someone we don't even know? I love people. Don't misunderstand me. If we have something in common, or you ask me a question, I'll gladly respond to you. But don't just pop up in my "followers" list and expect me to welcome you with open arms. I have been on SW for only a few months, and my "followers" list has grown, it seems almost everyday, with persons who say no more than "Hi".

If you'd like to talk to me, respond back with a reply of some type or tell me what we have in common. TALK to me. And no popups, please. These are annoying - especially if I am online. These interfere in what I am doing and interrupt my continuity of thought.

There are people, I understand, who are lonely and/or bored, or who have nothing better to do, and they go looking for people who they add to a list of "friends" just to be able to brag they know "X" number of people online. I am not one of these people. I am not tied to the PC all day long. I live alone and anything that goes on here or has to be done is MY responsibility - not anyone else's. If I am paying my rent online, or submitting my monthly grocery list to Peapod, I am BUSY. Both times involved in this activity, I have gotten popups from other strangers who "just want to chat". I don't want to "just chat".

I have a number of close PC friends already, who know me well and realize there are times when I can't interact online with them. I can't possibly talk to everyone who finds me online and wants to be added to my list. This morning there were two more. Day before last, three others.

Social Media is provided for people who have tastes or things in common to "chat" and interact. If I type a response to a comment you place online and you respond, that's one thing. But if you object to what I say on a subject (like this one) and put me down for posting it, that's quite another. You are not obligated to read anything - like that one woman a few months ago who interfered in a conversation I was having with someone else. She got it into her head that I was a 10-year-old playing with Mommy's computer and I was supposed to give it "back to Mommy and tell her you've been very naughty".

I saw red. I tried to be polite as I told her my mother was dead thirty-some years and had NEVER been online and I was a grown woman, several decades older than 10 - but it was VERY HARD,

This is why I don't like to "just chat".
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MaryJanine · 61-69, F
Thanks for the offhanded compliment. I like to think I am interesting and quite social (pat my own back) but at the same time, I can't talk to them and do laundry, or cook, or tend to my cockatiel (that's a bird to anyone reading this reply) and spend two or three hours online. There's just no way.
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MaryJanine · 61-69, F
There is a difference between just picking someone out, regardless of the subject/train of thought expounded, or else choosing someone to add to a list of other people just to show how many people you can include in a given list. I am not constantly online (there are days when I don't go into Social Media) but I try to avoid not going on for long stretches. Otherwise, I can skip maybe two days and come back with 45-50 inmails. I delete the sales ads or things not relating to me or interesting me. THEN I can get to the people I know who have a question or news to share. Even doing that takes time and thought.

I don't expect to appeal to every single person who knows how to communicate online. I probably have "enemies" out there. But I just don't reply, is all.
Thatsright · 61-69, M
Hope hard didn't pop up and ruin your train of thought.
MaryJanine · 61-69, F
If you mean "slighted" in the "ignored" sense, then no. You and I about the same age, so we grew up not knowing what an Internet was. I was in my early thirties before I began to find a computer a requirement in my job. I took night college classes to learn it (thank you, Wright College, for moving down the street from me) and am content with what I know. I am wiling to be friendly and make friends unless you give me a reason to mistrust your motives. No snubbing allowed, if you know what I mean.
Thatsright · 61-69, M
I'm just tweaking your nose.
MaryJanine · 61-69, F
I know - I realize that. I would rather making no enemies on SM, but everyone doesn't like everyone else - and I have had people ask me something(s)like "Who the hell are you?" or "Who do you think you are?" or get cursed at - and the cursers are often 13-15 years old. I just tell them I know all the words and I don't use them online to people I will never see in person.

I saw a post from a 13-year-old who wanted her parents to buy her her own home when she was 16 - and was joined by another teenager who wanted to do the same. I reminded them they had to be workers with a job, to pay utilities and property taxes and bills. Both of them replied that their father would take care of these things. Isn't that sad? I don't think Daddy would do that for either girl - at least I know my parents wouldn't've.
Thatsright · 61-69, M
Actually you said "very hard".
Thatsright · 61-69, M
You said "hard".

 
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