MetaChat - Do any of your "real" friends understand your Internet subculture?

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17 April 2006

Do any of your "real" friends understand your Internet subculture? Someone here at work just brought in loads of leftover Easter candy (yes, she's 30-ish and her mom still makes her a basket.) I caught myself just before I said, "All your Twix are belong to me."

post by: shane at: 10:51 | 36 comments

I was at a party last friday (yes I'm a pagan) and it was very plain which of the attendees were active on MySpace and which weren't, like people who addressed others by their handles vs. the ones who called them by their real life names.

posted by Space Coyote 17 April | 10:59

My wife has had to learn it otherwise she'd have no idea who and what I talk about.

But most of my friends don't even have email addresses. Its kind of funny to try and explain a website to them.

posted by fenriq 17 April | 11:05

Isn't it funny that we have names other than our parent-given ones now? There are enough people who refer to me as me3dia in person that it doesn't faze me at all.

That said, it's interesting to see which friends know about what. I've got a small number of friends who aren't online much, and sometimes even one of them will bust out with a 'net meme.

posted by me3dia 17 April | 11:10

The only person I know who really understands the idea of knowing people from online, meet-ups, and posting to sites like Mecha and Mefi is my mom. She was doing all that long before I had any interest in it. Everyone else sort of looks at me with a combination of tolerance and confusion when I talk about any of it, and thinks I'm going to get killed by crazies at meet-ups.

me3dia, how do they/you pronounce your username?

posted by amro 17 April | 11:12

Haha, today I was explaining to a real-life friend about my planned Metachat meetups. Blank stare.

posted by mike9322 17 April | 11:12

Most of my friends, even my dad, have some interaction with the internet. Although maybe this is partially my fault for having let certain friends drift away over the years because they don't have email.

posted by matildaben 17 April | 11:15

I try to avoid people who don't know anything about the internet. If you want to come in the front door of my house, you have to know what "http" stands for.

posted by agropyron 17 April | 11:24

Okay, I broke down and signed up for MySpace. Alla kids're doin it. Whatever happened to Orkut? I haven't visited there in ages.

Where's that article about how MySpace gets half the hits Google gets yet is one of the worst designed sites evar? Heh, I need to link to that on MySpace.

EVAR!

See, no one in my "real" world unnerstands any of this.

posted by shane 17 April | 11:28

People with MySpace pages are still sometimes allowed through my door, but are regarded with suspicion.

posted by agropyron 17 April | 11:30

I card people with MySpace pages. Until last week, I'd never been and was told that whoever's page I was on was in my network. Strange how that works.

me3dia, I pronounce your name as MeThreeDia, am I close?

posted by fenriq 17 April | 11:34

"Real" friends? Y'all are my real friends.

posted by deborah 17 April | 11:38

I just call 'im "meedia."

I dunno. MySpace is definitely not "Technorati material" (and neither is anybody who refers to him/herself as a part of the Technorati), but everyone I know seems to network on it. WTF, why not? We'll see.

On preview: what deborah said ("Real" friends? Y'all are my real friends.) I guess I meant friends with whom I am actually in physical proximity on a regular basis.

posted by shane 17 April | 11:41

My Dad is on MySpace- he's a bigger MySpace whore than I am.

I guess I meant friends with whom I am actually in physical proximity on a regular basis. - more and more, internet friends are becoming my "real friends". As for people I met through jobs and what not, they understand that I hang out with a lot of "internet nerds".

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 17 April | 11:44

Fenriq's got it right: "me-three-deeya."

I've got a MySpace page -- which directs people to my personal site. I figure if someone wanted to find me and didn't just google my name (I'm the first result, and most of the rest of the top 20), they might check MySpace. It's like a directory.

posted by me3dia 17 April | 11:52

Shane, I think I still have an account at Orkut, but every time I log in to kill it, the server groans and drops dead. Must be the millions of Brazilians.

posted by me3dia 17 April | 11:54

My sibs and some of my friends are very into the Internet, but my extended family and most of my college friends aren't, so I have to remember who to tell All Your Base jokes to, and who not.

I remember when I used to MUD as Darcy and then I started a job where a girl was actually named Darcy. I kept turning my head when people said her name!

posted by halonine 17 April | 12:08

My friends don't understand my internet thing at all.
I'll go off on a long and convoluted story about metachat, and they'll all roll their eyes.

posted by seanyboy 17 April | 12:39

Most people I know are to some degree into internet, and a number of people even call me "taz". But the majority of people we know are in the film/video or music industries and therefore really accustomed to forums, etc., where they get a lot of information. The ones most likely to be aware of the same memes, games, etc., I am are usually the younger guys.

Nobody I know in real life really participates at the same places I do, though. I don't really talk to my husband a lot about metafilter/metachat, etc. He knows the basics, and some people by name, but I figure it's sort of like talking to people about your dreams; it doesn't make a lot of sense in the telling, and is never quite as interesting to the tellee.

posted by taz 17 April | 12:57

Amongst my friends, or at least the ones whom I see on a regular basis, it's pretty common for us to use l33t ironically in spoken conversation. For example, someone makes a bad pun. Pi responds by rolling eyes and saying "LOL." Or pi calls friend:
Pi: do you want to go out for sushi tonight?
friend: Sorry, I got pwned, I have to stay late at teh office
pi: Shit, that's teh suck!

What's more disconcerting is, like halonine, I occasionally forget when someone isn't "in" on the joke. For example, occasionally a goatse reference goes over someone's head, and I'm all "don't ask, cause you don't want to know" etc.

otoh, my mom knows what's up when I say things like OMG. (yes, I prounounce it Oh Em Gee).

posted by pieisexactlythree 17 April | 13:11

give it a sec to load:

lolmyspace.ytmnd.com

posted by Wedge 17 April | 13:12

how DO you pronounce "pwned"? "poned"?

posted by shane 17 April | 13:30

My husband used to gently mock me until he realized how much cool music I got from my "internet friends." But I'm probably the biggest Web dork I know. In fact, I recently found myself explaining what a "blog" was to a group of friends. I was amazed that it was still a foreign word to anyone.

posted by jrossi4r 17 April | 13:37

Most of my RL friends are so hip and savvy to memes, blogs and 'net-culture that it's not funny. I doubt there's a reference that someone I know would not get.

I've even got subsets of geek-culture represented on my LJ friends-list that overlap: anime, comics, comics fanfic, TV show fanfic, RPS fanfic, LotR fans, cosplay fans, IT professionals, WoW players, videogame geeks, webcomics creators...

I'd say that with the possible exception of yourselves, the people I call my LJ "friends" are among the most intelligent, funny, witty and creative people I know.

posted by TrishaLynn 17 April | 13:54

how DO you pronounce "pwned"? "poned"?
posted by shane 17 April | 13:30

Generally, with no vowells at all, or as close as I can get to it, i.e., pwund with very little emphasis on the "uh" sound - it can also sound kind of like "pnnd"

Also, TryshaLynn, I'm really curious about finding ordinary people who are interested in anime/manga. My impression as a noob anime geek is that it is mostly a case of "I don't want to join any club that would have me as a member" - I have this feeling mostly b/c of the creepy looking types I usually see lurking around the manga racks at the public library. Please reasure me that there are peple who have jobs, homes and personal hygene who like this shit, not just reclusive pervy dudes!

posted by pieisexactlythree 17 April | 14:07

Ah, I remember when I had to explain to most of a birthday party what Goatse was. And dolphinsex.

Boy, that was awkward.

posted by me3dia 17 April | 14:10

I'm really curious about finding ordinary people who are interested in anime/manga.

roffle

posted by Wedge 17 April | 14:11

Tubgirl defies explanation. And wedge, have you tried the roffle waffles? They're delicious!

posted by pieisexactlythree 17 April | 14:29

I don't talk about it much. I don't think people understand. If I need to reference one of you, I might say "This guy in Raleigh that I correspond with" or some such vague reference. It comes out sounding all very shady, and people probably imagine my online life to be far seedier than it is.

posted by Miko 17 April | 14:29

All of my friends are either swim nerds or web nerds. So if one group starts to mock the other, I can just generally be like, "Whatever. The other people think *you're* lame."

My boyfriends know what MeFi and MeCha are, so I can send them links & tell them stories & stuff. I think they're just glad I have friends at all. But of course it's easier in NYC because at this point half the people here I see in real life, too, and not just at meetups.

posted by dame 17 April | 14:32

i'm surrounded by people who fear the unknown and the internet, but people love my metachat stories.
The doody hole one was the last one that had breath catching laughter.

posted by ethylene 17 April | 14:40

TrishaLynn, i'm jealous. i've only known one RL person who knew what RPS fanfic was, and she wrote it about the Hanson Brothers. that's right, the Hanson boyband getting it on with each other (th eldest and the youngest.) latex gloves and lubricant. urrrghgurgleblech.

not that i'm into slash. but i wish i had hip RL friends.

but you used to be a Tart, right? didn't most of the Tarts hang out with warren ellis and all that, back during his delphi forum days?

posted by shane 17 April | 14:55

Walk around with this and see who grins in recognition (or recoils in horror).

posted by pieisexactlythree 17 April | 15:30

No one in my life would ever guess I go by auntbunny in any form or fashion although I would *love* it if my brother's children called me that. They just call me by my stupid first name.

Btw, I'm kind of Raleigh-ish... who else?

posted by auntbunny 17 April | 17:07

auntbunny, welcome to MeCha!

*whuffles*

posted by pieisexactlythree 17 April | 17:35

heh. I once tried to explain the dhoyt debacle to a real-world friend. All that happened was that it confirmed that I was crazy.

posted by dhruva 17 April | 21:49

Of the very, very small handful of people in the real word who I call friends, only one of them owns a PC and/or uses the Internet at all. The only things he uses it for are trolling for second-hand parts for his race boat and chatting on the F1 boat chat sites. To try and explain my version of the Intarweb to these people would be like me trying to teach Chinese to a deaf, blind rhinoseros- there is simply no common ground whatsoever.

One of the things that I like about what I consider to be my "real" friends (sorry, but it's you guys), is that they understand what is going on in both of my worlds, which is a very comfortable feeling and means that I am far more open on the Intarweb than in real life.

posted by dg 17 April | 22:16

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