Is There Any Point In Discussing Serious Subjects Over The Internet.

[Pseudonym]

To be fair, internet discussions ,like debates (though debates have it much worse), typically aren't worthwhile for the people actually involved in it but I can say I do occasionally learn something from seeing other people discuss things online even when neither side gets anywhere convincing the other side. And even if you don't end up agreeing you might learn a thing or two about the position on the other side.

And it isn't all bad, just most of it. I have on occasion slightly reconsidered some of my positions in internet discussions and one or two times I've been convinced of slightly bigger things. It's never as good as talking to another person you see eye to eye with for a good 5 hours on end but it isn't all worthless.

 

[balladbird]

Of course there is! righteous indignation is a hell of a high! probably the strongest natural high the human brain can produce. hang out on the net long enough and you'll eventually encounter someone whose entire way of thinking is the inverse of yours. Debating this person, or seeing someone of a like mind debate them, will give you a cathartic rush of dopamine.

I think it's also useful in a bonding sort of way, kind of like how two high school girls will bond by trash-talking a third girl behind her back. except, since the internet is anonymous, people are braver about trash talking the third party directly to their... er... screen.

but, like, intellectual value? Probably not. I've yet to meet anyone who has changed a strong world view because of an argument they had on a forum. The escapist has actually had some of the most civil conversations about heated topics I'd seen online, well, it did back before stuff happened, anyway, but even here it's mostly just a pointless exercise in talking over one another.

that said, I do admire the fortitude of people who participate in the ritual. My disposition is entirely too milquetoast for internet arguments. If I tried to get involved, by the second post every time I saw a little "quoted" envelope it'd just stress me out.

 

[happyninja42]

It seems to me as though there isn't. Its been my observation that after a while internet forums come to be dominated by posters who hold mostly similar views on serious topics of conversation. Something seems to happen to people when they log on to the internet so that while in real life the point of serious discussion (politics, religion, philosophy, history, etc) is to be exposed to and consider ideas you've never encountered before, online the point of discussion is to impose your "correct" views on other people.

Interesting, my anecdotal experience of real life conversations on those serious topics you mentioned, have almost always devolved into a "I'm right, you're wrong" type of argument. I mean have you never heard the phrase "Never discuss religion, politics or sex if you don't want an argument" ? That phrase has been around for decades, and it doesn't put a disclaimer of "on the internet". People LOVE to tell you that you're wrong, and they're right. This is as old as people talking.

Whereas in real life discussion is an exchange, on the internet discussion is a contest. The result of this is that while a forum may start out with posters who have a wide variety of ideas, after some time people with one set of ideas will drive away all the people who have ideas that contradict their own. After this point if someone posts an idea that goes against the views already held by the site's posters on a particular topic then the result will be furious universal rejection, whereas if someone posts an idea that supports the site's already established views there is universal support. All the forum is at this point is a bunch of people who hold the same views agreeing with one another, there is no introduction of new ideas into the community and so its member can make no intellectual progress.

Yeah...still sounds like tons of real life conversations I've either taken part in, or witnessed in one way or another.

Not only that but after a thread has been going for awhile and received several posts few people have the patience to read everything that has been posted so far and often just read either the opening post and/or the most recent posts in the thread (if those), and either end up repeating ideas that have already been discussed in the thread or the discussion goes off on a tangent and wanders far away from the original topic.

Almost like they came into the discussion half way in, and have no frame of reference for what has already been discussed. Again, something that happens all the time in real life conversation.

In addition to this problem there is also the fact that in ordinary face to face conversation we use a number of non verbal cues that can not be effectively replicated in pure text conversation. Thus people reading a post will often jump to incorrect conclusion about what ideas the poster is actually trying to communicate or the tone he is using. For example the reader might imagine that the poster is using a sarcastic and scornful tone and be angered whereas really the poster wasn't trying to be anything of the sort. This is why it seems to me that for the most part the internet is really only suitable for lighter topics such as What's Your Favorite Videogame?, or Post Pictures of Cute Animals, or the ever popular Which Cartoon Characters Do You Want To Have Sex With? ^^

I won't argue the point that online communication can be difficult without body language, and tonal cues to convey mood. It happens all the time. It's just a reality of how online communication works. It's distilled down to text and that's it. The amount of emotion you can readily convey with text is limited to emoji's (which can have different meaning in different areas), and slang. And yes, this does cause a lot of miscommunication. Which is why the discussions online tend to stick to just data points and facts that can be verified. Because that's all we have to work with. I can't easily convey to you that I am feeling particularly silly and goofy right now, without putting in specific effort to include statements that MIGHT accurately convey that emotion to you. So all I can really do is simply present my information on the subject in question, and let it speak for itself. Since I can't convey emotion, or intent, all I can do is endeavor to have my information be factually accurate, or at least non-contradictory if I'm just putting up an opinion piece like this here.


Yes I think the internet is an important place to have serious discussions. If we turn the internet into something that is just mindless fluff, we are doing ourselves a huge disservice. For the first time in our history, we have a global community. We can communicate with, and share ideas with practically the entire human population, in a matter of moments. This potential for cooperation and growth is unparalleled, and it would be foolish to just say "Nah, only discuss lolcats and Dancing With The Stars here." People's lives are changed all the time, by information that they find on the internet, and discussions they take part in, or read as they browse topics. For example, the Atheist community, and the LGBTQ community have both had major increase in public numbers (people openly declaring themselves this way), directly because they researched serious topics online, and found discussion groups of these subjects. They learned that they are not the only person like themselves in their area, and were thus able to come out as being without religion, or LGBTQ. And frequently they state that what made them decide to come out was "I read this debate online, and saw a lot of the discussions of the topics, and they helped me make sense of stuff in my own life."

So yes, serious topics are VERY important on the internet. The day they stop, and it becomes nothing but pop culture bullshit, is the day we die a little bit as a species.

 

[Nimcha]

Fun? Or am I way off here? Sometimes having a shouting match over the internet can be entertaining.

 

[visiblenoise]

Of course there is, you just have to have a sense of generosity and humor

 

[the_dramatica]

Both can serve no further purpose than being enlightening. The only real arguments occur in academic journals.

 

[Guffe]

I think the positive side of internet discussion is that one also has all the knowledge and sources easily at hand.
So let's say I say something, and it is wrong, like can be proven wrong. Someone sees that post, quotes me, and links me one or two links with the real info or answer on the subject. All I need to do is click the link, read a bit, notice I was wrong, and that's it. There won't be two people just saying "I heard this" or "that's wrong because I read something else somewere else". The info is there immediately to be shared.

Then again people usually tend to argue over wether chocolate or strawberyy ice cream is better, and there's no real answer to that.
Well the answer is chocolate, anyone saying differently my have their opinion, but just know it is wrong!

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Nope. It's just an easy way of killing time.