how to menyapa people

I'm so smart, right? ^w^

So naturally, I practice what I preach, and in an msn convo sometime later;

..thats why I said, life online is totally different from real life! >o<

Me, for example. The Kitsune you see online (which for many of you, is the only Kitsune you know of) is almost totally different from the me in real life! :O

Its been quite awhile since I've made friends online before meeting them in real life.. but I'm pretty sure I'll get responses from them like "..you're nothing like how you sound like online dude.. you're so mundane in real life ~_~" etc

Meh, its not like its a new experience or anything. Long long ago while your grandmother was still young, I used to be really active in forums and sounded more or less like I do now online minus the profanities and add more ^O^s, XDs, and nya nya nyas ^o^

..okay that is definitely not 'more or less alike' .o.

But I digress ^w^ what I wanted to say was most of my original online friends thought I sound like a (cute) girl ^o^ they were sorely disappointed when we met in real life and they realized that I was actually a pokemon o3o pikaa

So naturally I have come up with the impression that people, no matter how transparent and 'genuine' they are, have different personalities between their online selves and their 'real life' selves.

It has something to do with the impersonal nature of online interactions.. sure, you can argue that there are display pictures and nicknames and even fonts and colors that helps personalize your online persona to some degree.. but..

..yeah, like I said, personalize your online persona. Once you're communicating through the medium of the internet, the internet shreds your skin and meat and bones and reduces you to raw electrical impulses that originate from your brain to your fingers to the keypads you're pressing to the ones and zeroes that form the message on your screens!

Sounds as if your online personality is even more raw than your 'real life' personality, isn't it? Which is ironic considering the fact that being online is often associated with having a 'mask' of sorts.

Its as if you're behind a safety wall where you can voice out anything you want or feel like with almost no negative repercussions to your 'real self' thanks to the relative anonymity of the internet, right? That's why people are more critical and mean and horrible and horny and flirty and cute and sparklier online than they are in real life ^w^

I mean, I can easily say fuck you ^_^ to you right now to your face! Oh yeah I just did :3 But when we meet in real life, I'm as shy as a mouse ^o^ pii pii *hides behind a pillow*

What does this mean, though? I think it means that the common consensus that we wear masks online to hide our true 'real' selves has got it backwards. The masks we wear are actually our 'real' life personas and our real, true selves are what we exhibit online, where we don't have to hold back ;D

Doesn't it make sense? It sure makes sense to me when I think about the fact that in real life, I always have to watch what I say because I might offend someone (and more importantly punched in the face or kicked in the groin x_x) so I'm always filtering my words and actions, sometimes having to hold back what I think to avoid trouble.

Isn't that really fake, though? Its not what I really feel or want to do, right? I have to be considerate and prim and proper and decent :O

Compare it to online, where all hell breaks loose ^w^ I post whatever the shit I want on facebook all the time without a care in the world who reads it and what they think (and I have lecturers and family members who have my facebook so...) and the way I talk.. phew. I rarely talk like that to the same people I meet in real life, not unless they're really close to me and I'm particularly high at the moment (high as in not sober, I wasn't greeting you v_v)

And look! o_o <-- look at all these emoticons! @_@ Of course I'm not an emotionless pokerface in real life, (at least I hope not) but I almost never ever act cute or kawaii (yes I know they mean the same thing but they dont! @O@) in real life! Why? Because acting cute with my physical looks is downright disgusting! XD

So er what was I talking about? I thought I had some profound idea earlier but I think I drowned it with my randomness *_*

Ah yes, real life is actually the fakest thing ever, and the masquerading online personas we have are actually (maybe, I dunno, I suspect, I theorize) our 'real selves' *_* What we're really like, our true personalities, what's in our hearts~

..which means that deep down, I'm probably an obnoxious 13 year old lesbian girl ;w;

buuuut its not all about me, isn't it? Well it is for me XP but it sure isn't for you! So think about it, are you more 'real' in real life, or when you're online? ^_^

Don't worry if you're different (or the same) with 'the norm', after all, just look at superheroes~ they all have really, really mild-mannered (read: mundane) personalities for their 'real life' selves, but once they put on their disguises (online masks/personas) they become courageous and witty SUPERHEROES WOOO HOO~ *O* which, is actually their true selves :O

Interesting, no? ^_^

WAIT OH YES WAIT A MINUTE MR POSTMAN @O@/

where I talk about ancient childhood memories, postmen, the song Mr Postman, and great music from a simpler time ^_^

So I was reliving my childhood earlier;

Yup, my childhood ^w^ oh gawd I'm showing my age T_T

I grew up listening to the Beatles albums and consistently listened to their songs to sleep almost every night well into my teens..

Needless to say they bring back a lot of memories of my tragic childhood.. flashbacks of a past that I cannot really remember anymore.. *_*

But we're not here to talk about that, no. I really like songs by the Beatles, though :3 They're mostly super catchy and have really nice lyrics~ nice, simple lyrics but still managing to be meaningful in some way.. They remind me of times when things were simpler, less complicated.. :D

Finished listening to the song? ^_^ On one hand, its good that you've listened to the song~ but on the other, if you were reading while listening to the song, you didn't pay attention to it, did you? >:O

You did? Ehehe, sorry about that ^o^; ...eh wait, that means you didn't pay attention to what you were reading! >O< wasted all my effort only! I quit!

*disconnects*

Mm yeah ok so where was I?

So once upon a time, before most of you were born.. or rather, before the interenet was born, one of the main methods of communication were postal letters :D They're pretty much like e-mails.. just infinitely slower and they were done on paper and you needed a person under a company to send them around~

I know right? How laughably inefficient XD

Anyways, due to the long delay between letters sent and replies received, there were tons of love stories that included long waits for messages from loved ones who either died or got killed in action while trying to make the journey to deliver the message.. ..I'm talking about the reply letters v_v not the loved ones.. they were safe far far away sitting in their house waiting for their replies..

So naturally, tons of love songs and stories have been written about waiting for the postman (the ancient equivalent of your gmail, yahoo mail, or hotmail service) to arrive with the letter of your loved one, just like the video I embedded above~

When I was listening to the song and singing along happily full of emotion, it suddenly dawned on me that as soon as one generation from now, kids will listen to this song and have no clue whatsoever what the song could be about @o@;;

Who is this postman? A superhero from the past? Post-man? What is a letter? Letter A? Letter B? @_@ wtf? *googles*

Don't laugh, its not ridiculous.. just the other day I overheard a little kid in the bookshop getting so worked up and surprised that they sold folders in the bookstore; "Look, mommy! ^o^ They sell folders here too! Just like the ones in the computer~ I wonder what kind of files I can fit into it :O"

..of course I made that up, what is this? 2111? Not in a hundred years v_v

Oh well, thats why I wrote this blogpost anyway, so that it might show up one day in a search engine when a poor, misinformed person tries to seek an explanation on this archaic form of communication.. hope this helps ^o^!