Too meta to actually post ... oops
I dislike complaining about personal things. I'll freely complain about my rommate(s), minor work issues, and my issues with certain books/tv shows. What I don't like to complain about would be issues which would frequently fall under the categories of "romance", "insecurity", "angst" and other categories sometimes grouped together under the "emo" label. At least I may mention them, but only generally and I drop the subject quickly.
As most people know, there's a certain cathartic release which comes from complaining. Whether privately in a journal, or to your friends, to yelled out in public, or published online, complaining can make you feel better about whatever it is you're complaining about. From my own experience, this relief increases with severity of tone and size of audience. Thus, complaining in a (private, paper) journal in moderate terms would produce less relief than shouting it out in vitriolic terms on national television. But since there's also a strong aversion to standing out, let's change that last to radio to increase the anonymity factor. Which brings us to the internet. Never before has it been possible to so many to yell out simultaneously and theoretically reach millions of others while maintaining effective anonymity.
This (among other things) results in the internet being filled with really extreme language. At least, I hope this is the reason. If everyone really feels exactly as they sound, something is seriously wrong with the world. But perhaps my own preferences are influencing my interpretation. I have little external data to help me calibrate my expressions to feelings conversion. For me, to post such things would indicate a strength of emotion far greater than what I normally feel, yet my conversion from what I gather from live contact indicates rough parity of emotional strength. But perhaps the error is on my end. Perhaps the knowledge of what I don't do or say influences what I think I express. Perhaps my in-person expression is correspondingly light or shallow relative to others and thus widens that gap to near that of online expression. I wish I could see myself as another. I think it would be very informative.
As most people know, there's a certain cathartic release which comes from complaining. Whether privately in a journal, or to your friends, to yelled out in public, or published online, complaining can make you feel better about whatever it is you're complaining about. From my own experience, this relief increases with severity of tone and size of audience. Thus, complaining in a (private, paper) journal in moderate terms would produce less relief than shouting it out in vitriolic terms on national television. But since there's also a strong aversion to standing out, let's change that last to radio to increase the anonymity factor. Which brings us to the internet. Never before has it been possible to so many to yell out simultaneously and theoretically reach millions of others while maintaining effective anonymity.
This (among other things) results in the internet being filled with really extreme language. At least, I hope this is the reason. If everyone really feels exactly as they sound, something is seriously wrong with the world. But perhaps my own preferences are influencing my interpretation. I have little external data to help me calibrate my expressions to feelings conversion. For me, to post such things would indicate a strength of emotion far greater than what I normally feel, yet my conversion from what I gather from live contact indicates rough parity of emotional strength. But perhaps the error is on my end. Perhaps the knowledge of what I don't do or say influences what I think I express. Perhaps my in-person expression is correspondingly light or shallow relative to others and thus widens that gap to near that of online expression. I wish I could see myself as another. I think it would be very informative.