I Hate Disillusionment.
I always forget that we are all Hollow Men to each other online; we are not people, but just shadows, digital webbing trapped between a mind's eyelashes, perceived only as reflections of oneself. I do it too--I don't consider the words lashing back and forth across my screen to be "people." They're just playthings to me. But I think/hope that that only goes for the digital shadows that I haven't met "irl" [oof internetonyms how I hate thee but it fits with what I'm saying]; I forget, though, that for some people all words are mere shadow, and for those people, the hand-washing is as easy as can be, and online Lady MacBeths can soil themselves to their hearts' content. This means you, hollow man.
Ohh, also there's the complete opposite! My friend Michael apparently got into an online spat with another friend of mine, and now Michael seems to despise me, though during that spat I even called him to apologize for my bastardly friend. (Michael, whatever he said to you it's nothing to what he's said to me before, I'm sure.) But Michael apparently expects me to have complete control over what my friends do, and because I did not prevent my friend from insulting him on gay.com (the primeval spawning ground of insults!), I am less than shit. That is someone to whom online people actually have *more* substance than "real" people, far far more it seems than even people who have been in his life for years. Go figure.
Ohh, also there's the complete opposite! My friend Michael apparently got into an online spat with another friend of mine, and now Michael seems to despise me, though during that spat I even called him to apologize for my bastardly friend. (Michael, whatever he said to you it's nothing to what he's said to me before, I'm sure.) But Michael apparently expects me to have complete control over what my friends do, and because I did not prevent my friend from insulting him on gay.com (the primeval spawning ground of insults!), I am less than shit. That is someone to whom online people actually have *more* substance than "real" people, far far more it seems than even people who have been in his life for years. Go figure.