It has been almost five years since I had a sit-down office job. I work as an IT consultant that either has me on the road or working in my home office. With the right personality this type of work is blessing. It works out ok with me since I’m pretty much an introvert.
Now, I’m writing this article that will touch on several different topics. The ‘reason’ behind me writing this is some social behavior I’ve been encountering quite frequently online. However, before I go into that issue I need to reveal to the world the true life of being ‘social’ when you’re an IT consultant.
I don’t speak for all consultants in my field but I will attest for a majority of them. There have been numerous books, articles, news reports over the lives of consultants. In a summarized version we might be at a job site any where in the world for any duration of time. Making friends isn’t out of the question but spending any type of real ‘socialization’ doesn’t happen. You can have lunch with the co-workers and clients, go to a game, something. Yet, you know that sooner or later in a predetermined time frame you’ll be gone. This is classified as “socialization” but it’s not the type I’m referring too.
To fill in this true lack of societal socialization the IT consultant for years have turned to electronic means. Text messages, IMing, email, phone calls, and pdas have been molded by us to ‘create’ our own social net. For example: I’m at job site X for six weeks. I make a few friends that I stay in touch with. I email and text message, however I’ll never personally see them again.
The typical IT consultant will spend time on message boards and chat rooms talking about or researching issues and bugs.
A lot of people do not understand this. I think it has created a lot of turmoil and misunderstanding in the home life of individuals but that’s another story all together.
So, hopefully this kind of explains a little bit about us IT folks.
Now in the past years I’ve seen a lot of electronic social nets grow. MySpace, Face book, Twitter are some of the major players. In the gaming world its World of War craft and Xbox live that dominate. As of present I spend a lot of my time on Xbox live.
In the past my experiences with Face book, MySpace, and other forms of electronic socializing has been what I call ‘civil’ in most aspects. I’ve been flamed on bulletin boards and hit on by pervs on yahoo chat. However, over all communications with folks have been decent and acceptable by most standards.
That experience is tame compared to what I encounter day to day on Xbox live. At any giving moment you can go to YouTube and look up ‘rants’ for Xbox live and view one of the 1000 videos. Racial slurs, kids being total assholes, threats, everything you can think of.
I’m sure this behavior existed on other forms for years. I just never personally encountered it. Honestly, that isn’t what caused me to write this article either. I’ve come immune to the whole trash talking crap that happens on Xbox live.
My issue is a little hard to explain but I will try to put it into words. When I get online to play with my friends or by myself I do ‘my thing’. I don’t bag or insult other folks for playing their game. If they suck… then they suck. I don’t tell them what to do or how they should play.
Yet, other players feel it’s their sworn duty to control game play, tell you what you should do, how to play, insult you, and even to the point of team killing you if they can.
When did an individual get the right to do this? Why does he/she do this?
For example:
I’d playing my favorite game COD4 on a specific map. I use a stealth build and just sit at a choke point and wait for the enemy to come through. I was 8-2 and my team mate killed me. At first I thought it was a mistake and went on playing. I move to a different spot and continued my strategy of holding choke points. I was 16-5 when I was killed again by the same teammate.
I asked him, what’s up? He told me that he doesn’t like campers and will kill anyone on his team who camps.
So, what gives a person the right to fuck up my game? I wasn’t hurting anyone? I was actually leading the team. Yet, this asshole took him upon himself to control the why I’m playing.
It’s not limited to games either. In the past I was on a local message board. Someone asked me a question about why I let my yorkies breed. I thought it was innocent enough and answered. Little did I know the fanatical assholes that exist in this world. They descended on me like I was Satan. All I did was answer a simple question. Yet, it didn’t matter what I said or replied… they ‘deemed’ themselves right and I was wrong.
I’m amazed at the self-centered people who ‘electronically’ are brave. Nothing gives them the right to be assholes and treat other folks online disrespectfully. Is this how these individuals are in real life?
Do little kids from Xbox live talk shit and curse like this on the play ground?
In team sports like football or softball does the team killer kick a player off the team or hit them with the ball if they do something he doesn’t like?
Do the assholes from critter corner in real life have the nerve to talk shit about my wife or kids to my face?
The answer is no. So why treat people like this online if you won’t do it to them in real life?
The fundamental truth is that online socialization has created a world of faceless bullies. They can sit in the comfort of their own home and talk shit, insult, and cause all kinds of turmoil with out any repercussions.
Not much can be done about it.
However, I will say… if you demonstrate this fucked up behavior online then you’re an asshole.
File: MW2.gadget