Are you more argumentative & caustic on Y!A than you would be in a face to face conversation?

Question

I am. How about you?

Answer 1

Probably. The anonmity afforded allows us to be a little more...well, aggressive? It's a bad habit and I'm trying to be better.

Answer 2

Probably less...when I write, I have time to think about what I want to say...face to face, I tend to say the first thing I'm thinking.

Not that I can't be argumentative and caustic on Y!A...I'm sure some people think I have been (though I try to control those "knee jerk" tendencies *smile*). For me at least, it is easier to control my instinctive responses when I have to take the time to compose and type a halfway decent sentence!

Having said that, I teach online classes at a university, and I know (and have even published a paper on the subject) that some people (perhaps many...haven't finished that research yet) tend to say things online (email, discussions, etc...) that they would never say to a person's face. A few of us at work have even started compiling a file of some of the shocking things that students have "said" to us in an email or discussion message. If you think it is argumentative and caustic on Y!A, you should see what we have in that file *smile*.

Answer 3

Nope. What I am here is pretty much what I am in the real world. There's just more provocation to be argumentative and caustic here.

Answer 4

Yes... because I'm better at communicating online. I can formulate whatever I want to say at the pace that's comfortable for me. I'm not forced to force out of my mouth a coherent, even elegant argument on the spot. I can sit here, type slowly, delete what I don't like, rewrite, etc... and in the end, what I post sounds MUCH better than what I ever SAY.

Answer 5

I always try to be the same as in person, but people cannot listen to my tone of voice or observe my demeanor through Y!A, so some assume that I am condescending towards them.
In truth, I am pretty stubborn during religious discussions, but the people I usually discuss with, face to face, can see my expressions and percieve that I don't intend to offend them personally, but to undermine religion itself.

Answer 6

Here it's all about 'let's get down to business'. In real life there are distractions; body language, etiquette, etc. To me that can be boring.

So no. Though I can be just as confrontational, I usually see that it isn't the time and place for it.

Answer 7

Nope. And I have pissed off alot of people because of it.
Although I usually apply the "Live and Let Live" principle... there's the occasional person who gets my tongue-lashings....

You can ask this one woman who tried to convert me at the bus stop once at 7:30AM mid winter.... She couldn't take "thanks but I'm not interested" as an answer. She kept trying until, I laced into her so bad and gave her one hell of a history lesson that she practically ran.

It probably doesn't help that that nifty little filter between my brain and my mouth is always broken.

Answer 8

Of course. People in real life are generally far more restrained and considerate than the anonymous a**holes we see here online. And I respond accordingly.

Answer 9

I think we likely all are. I would never come up to you on the street and quote scripture to you. On here I do it all the time. On the street coming up to you and doing it would be an intrusion unless you evidenced a desire. On here by entering this forum you have made yourself fair game.

Answer 10

Nope, I'm pretty much the same. I only get really nasty when someone keeps pushing the same button over and over.