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Welcome to The Age of the Web Hermit 264

Posted by timothy from the age-31-lives-in-mom's-basement-hey-waitaminute dept.
tyroneking writes "Phil Hartup on bit-tech.net has captured the Zeitgeist of the web-aware generation: The Age of the Web Hermit describes how some lucky souls can live their lives, earn money, buy necessities and even find love on the Internet. 'Is there anything that we really need good old fashioned Real Life for any more?'; not me!"
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Welcome to The Age of the Web Hermit More

Welcome to The Age of the Web Hermit

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  • What? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:04PM (#15733249)
    Is there anything that we really need good old fashioned Real Life for any more?
    Pussy comes to mind.

    • Re:What? (Score:5, Funny)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:17PM (#15733354) Homepage Journal
      In many places in this wide world, you can get pussy delivered.

    • Re:What? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Digital Vomit ( 891734 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:25PM (#15733409) Homepage Journal
      Problem solved! [petfinder.com]
    • My wife gives me all the pussy I need. And she delivers beer now that she works with me at home! :D

      I sometimes don't leave my house for a week at a time.
    • What, never heard of russian brides? They've all gone to the internet now.

    • As Sandra Bullock demonstrated.... (Score:5, Funny)

      by arcite ( 661011 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @05:13PM (#15733782)
      in THE NET: Angela Bennett is a computer expert. This young and beautiful analyst is never far from a computer and modem. The only activity she has outside of computers is visiting her mother. A friend, whom she's only spoken to over the net and phone, Dale Hessman, sent her a program with a weird glitch for her to de-bug. That night, he left to meet her and was killed in a plane crash. Angela discovers secret information on the disk she has received only hours before she leaves for vacation. Her life then turns into a nightmare, her records are erased from existence and she is given a new identity, one with a police record. She struggles to find out why this has happened and who has it in for her.

      Moral of the story? If you are a modern day hermit, atleast take the time to introduce yourself to the pizza man incase your stalkers find you out and erase your IDENTITY.

      Alternatively, when being chased by phychopaths who want your data, remember to back it up on a trusty floppy disk. NOTHING can hurt those!

      Alternatively, always choose Macintosh, the only laptop that effieciently upload viruses to alien space crafts and save the planet.

      Alternatively, if you are as hot as Sandra Bullock and are also a modern day hermit, I would like you to have my ICQ#, I'm here to help ANY WAY I CAN.

    • Re:What? (Score:2, Funny)

      by Youx ( 988716 )
      Problem solved :
      http://www.fu-fme.com/ [fu-fme.com]

  • You mean besides SEX?! (Score:5, Funny)

    by twofidyKidd ( 615722 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:04PM (#15733252)
    The Internet cannot get you drunk. I should know, I've tried.
  • The internet: the only place where you can change your penis size.

  • Maybe I'm there... (Score:4, Funny)

    by ErikTheRed ( 162431 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:05PM (#15733256) Homepage
    I mean, if you consider "reading Slashdot" as "going out and socializing"....
    • Speaking as an abstainer in a country where socializing equates to "getting very, very drunk", I can safely say that reading Slashdot trumps socializing every single time.

      • Or perhaps you just need new friends. My friends and I go out plenty of times without resorting to getting plastered.

        Its called being comfortable with yourself so you don't have to get drunk and act like you're not yourself

        • Unfortunately, you can't just order new friends over the Internet to be delivered to your doorstep. Depending on where you live / who else lives nearby / where you work / how much free time you have and a number of other factors like that, you may or may not be able to find a suitable set of convenient friends. As for the inconvenient friends, well.... then you have the Internet.

        • Re:Maybe I'm there... (Score:3, Insightful)

          by G-funk ( 22712 )
          Psst! Here's a tip. It's not staying off the booze that makes regular people not want to go out with you guys, it's your attitude. Whenever my mates go out there's always a couple of people who don't drink, or *gasp* just have a couple. And nobody cares. I know Timmy the jock made fun of you for not being able to drink a whole six-pack (wow) when you were 16, but people grow up.

          • Re:Maybe I'm there... (Score:5, Insightful)

            by ElleyKitten ( 715519 ) <kittensunrise@@@gmail...com> on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:58PM (#15733655) Journal
            You've got that reversed. It's not that the drunk people don't want to hang out with sober people, it's that sober people don't want to hang out with drunk people. I'll have some wine or hard lemonade every now and then, but I'm over the stage where I enjoyed getting plastered, and now people just look like idiots to me when they're drunk, and not in an entertaining way.
            • "...but I'm over the stage where I enjoyed getting plastered..."

              Hmm...exactly how does THAT happen? That is quite sad....hope it never happens to me.

              Everything goes better with booze....

              :-)

              • Hmm...exactly how does THAT happen? That is quite sad....hope it never happens to me.
                Everything goes better with booze....

                Personally, I cut back around 25 or 26 years old. I'm not dry, but most weeks I won't drink anything. 2 or 3 drinks when I do (over 2 or 3 hours).

                This is from someone that used to drink every day, and bartenders knew me when I walked in the door. I'd drink anyone under the table, and was damn proud of it.

                I'm not the same person I was at 21 - I've had good times and bad, and I'

            • Looks like everyone is reversed. This from a woman who's first blog entry ends with

              "Josey is my sexy husband. He's going to open a gamer cafe this summer and it's going to be sooo cool. But now he has to talk to me because he's so cute. "

              Try not to generalize when talking about all the other idiots in the world, okay?

            • people just look like idiots to me when they're drunk, and not in an entertaining way.
              Don't blame them for that, they're semi-conscious. As the conscious one, you're in charge of making things entertaining. Just don't forget to take your camera with you when you go out with your drunken friends. After a few "priceless" pictures, they should reconsider their ways :)
          • Well, it does depend on the person. One of my boys from college will literally start whining like a puppy if he goes out with a group, and then don't all take the shots he buys. Which gets to be a problem, since he tends to drink a lot...

        • Friends? (Score:2, Funny)

          by zaphod_es ( 613312 )
          I have an imaginary friend, doesn't even matter if my internet it down :)
      • OK, everyone! Listen up: the line to immigrate to his country forms right behind me. B-)

  • Unless you also use your laptop as a commode... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ScentCone ( 795499 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:09PM (#15733296)
    ... then you're probably pretty much connected to the Real World. Running water, power, fancy new video boards... someone in the real world is providing those items.

    I don't think this is any more isolation than a serious resident of the library used to be 50 years ago. And when people in NY figured out (decades ago) that they could, say, write books for a living and have Chinese delivered at 3:00AM... it's scarecely different. In fact, I'd argue that a lot people who used to be hermits (or would have been if they were born 20 years earlier) are probalby more connected to the real world because the internet exists.

    Unless, as I suspect, I'm currently typing this text into a big, scalable, and very flawed Turing test machine. If a response is posted to this, its non-sequitor-ness will prove my suspicions. Go!

  • Shut-ins (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bullfish ( 858648 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:10PM (#15733301)
    There have always been shut-ins. The net just gives them more to do behind their drawn curtains and locked doors. Some people may see this as cool, but in the long run we look as such people as kooky. We all need to interact with others, that is just our nature. We are social creatures whether we like it or not. Some more so than others to be sure, but still.

    Can you live locked in a basement having evrything shipped to you and slid under the door? Sure, but to me that sounds very much like prison.

    No thanks.

    • Re:Shut-ins (Score:2, Interesting)

      by DarkDragonVKQ ( 881472 ) *
      True, humans as a species require social interaction. I cannot deny that with all the classes and information I've studied in both psychology and sociology. Though isn't is possible to somewhat replace physical interaction with someone with interaction online? We are interacting right now? Granted its hard for me to read your body language, facial expression, etc. I feel that as we continue to progress in technology, as video/audio chat gets better and better. Then the next jump to whatever (VR?) that wha

      • Re:Shut-ins (Score:2, Funny)

        by bunhed ( 208100 )
        Oh man, I don't even want to think about the /. forums with all those faces and voices in a tiny little window.

    • Re:Shut-ins (Score:5, Interesting)

      by truthsearch ( 249536 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:38PM (#15733510) Homepage Journal
      For those who would be shut-ins anyway this bundle of tubes provides a way to socialize. People need to interact, but they're always finding new ways to do it online: /. threads, forums, blogs and blog comments, chat rooms, Second Life, etc. There's a problem when a person who would otherwise be out socializing becomes a shut-in. But for those who are more comfortable as shut-ins there are new ways to socialize.

      • Re:Shut-ins (Score:2, Interesting)

        by ksheff ( 2406 )
        it's still not the same as real socializing. get a bunch of people that visit message boards to actually meet each other and you will find that the shut-in types are still uncomfortable and will position themselves near the edge of the group. If anyone is talking to them, it's because the other person initiated it. Get too high of a concentration of the shut-ins and the party bombs. Been there, done that. Even if I only get to talk to 1 or 2 people, it's still much, much better than the message board.
    • But if you face the walls the right direction, it makes for the very best kind of prison.
    • Prison is just a question of choice. Some would call it sanctuary.

    • Re:Shut-ins (Score:2, Interesting)

      by kfg ( 145172 ) *
      Thoreau is popularly, but erroneously, regarded as a hermit.

      In fact he not only traveled and socialized widely, even during his years at Walden pond, but even wrote in Walden, his journal of his experiment in minimalist living, that social interaction is one of the minimum requirements of human life.

      And he didn't mean some form correspondence by that. The Internet only provides social interaction by correspondence.

      Melville has been put forward as an example of the true writing solitary, but he had to live i
    • There have always been shut-ins. The net just . . . lets us them interact with us!

      Wait a minute . . .

    • Re:Shut-ins (Score:5, Interesting)

      by misanthrope101 ( 253915 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @05:57PM (#15734098)
      Not everyone is sociable, or wants to be. It isn't a matter of being "cool," but just one of needing solitude, or perhaps of finding it preferable to the alternative. I doubt that one can really understand people by assuming they're all alike. My point is that, to you, reclusivity may seem like prison, but to me, gregariousness seems shallow. How much inane chitchat do you really need in your life? Are you incapable of sitting quietly with your own thoughts? Many people are, it seems. But instead of realizing that they lack the inner resources of solitary people, they leap to the conclusion that everyone who isn't exactly like them is maladjusted and unhealthy. How comforting it must be to pity everyone who isn't like you. There is nothing wrong with solitude, but there is something wrong with being unable to be alone. If you couldn't fathom going a week without speaking to anyone, that just means you're shallow. Given a choice between an evening if vapid small-talk and an evening at home reading William Blake, I'll take the book. One of these actually makes me feel and think, while the other is just a penalty I have to occasionally pay so people like you won't start spreading the rumor that I'm mentally deranged so similar crap.

      Yes, there are mentally unwell people who happen to be loners. That doesn't mean they typify the class.

      • People with no social interaction, who do nothing but listen to their own thoughts, usually end up mad or depressed, often both.
    • Can you live locked in a basement having evrything shipped to you and slid under the door? Sure, but to me that sounds very much like prison.
      I'd say "prison" is all about who has the keys. For 3 months after a severe injury I spent almost all my time in one room, people delivering my food, mostly just watching TV or reading. I was even "confined", in the sense that I wasn't able to go anywhere without being wheeled there on a gurney. Still, it wasn't prison.

  • My rights online? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by el americano ( 799629 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:12PM (#15733310) Homepage
    Apparently I have the right to be a web hermit. Otherwise this wouldn't be YRO, right?

  • whatever (Score:3, Funny)

    by kaoshin ( 110328 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:16PM (#15733340)
    I don't use the internet. What a bunch of suckers.

  • Just because you can... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by JorDan Clock ( 664877 ) <jordanclock@gmail.com> on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:18PM (#15733357)
    Just because you can do those things on the internet doesn't necessarily mean it's better to do them there. Humans, by nature, are social animals. There is only so much interaction a web page or an IM can provide.

    I mean, when was the last time someone gave you a hug through your monitor?

    • Re:Just because you can... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Kesch ( 943326 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:27PM (#15733423)
      /hug

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • reminds me off (Score:5, Informative)

    by scenestar ( 828656 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:19PM (#15733366) Homepage Journal
    The japanese hikkomori syndrome. ( http://www.jref.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-909. html [jref.com] )

    When people start substituting real life with a digitall one it usually doesn't end to well.

    Humans are by nature social beings, if the "old" ways fail one starts to look for an alternative.

    Besides, real life interaction (think of sex ) will allways beat the "cyber" equivalent.

     

  • Social Hermits? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:19PM (#15733368)
    My cronjob web-based order to pizza hut should kick in within the hour. Automatic bill-pay for my bills, telecommute and direct deposit for work...but no, I'm not a friggin hermit. I'm running GAIM and posting to slashdot. I play games online once in a while...that's considered human interaction, right?

    If you want a web hermit, go stick a picture of Stallman with the relevance of ESR and you've got yourself your posterboy.

    Now if you can give me a dynamic World of Warcraft type immersive game where everyone else is AI, then maybe I'll be a hermit.

  • Digital life is pure luxury (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dekortage ( 697532 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:19PM (#15733371) Homepage

    From the article: "...we have to ask ourselves -- is there anything that we really need good old fashioned Real Life for any more? Is a life of doing things and meeting people as our primitive ancestors in the late 20th Century knew it becoming redundant?"

    Let's assume that a billion people on Earth have the money and time to be online regularly. (this is probably more than the real number) That leaves more than five billion without such a thing. There are significant percentages of people in rural parts of the world (from Africa to America and everywhere in between) who don't even have electricity, telephones, or real plumbing. And let's not even talk about food and medicine.

    The upshot? If you have the capacity for living most of your life online, and you can take all that real-life survival stuff for granted, you are enjoying a life of luxury. And the best part is that, online, you will almost never encounter those poor starving folks, so you can safely ignore their existence (just like you do on your way to Starbucks). Enjoy!

    Quick check: in terms of income, how do you rank globally [globalrichlist.com]?

    (Go ahead, mod me as a troll... I've got karma to burn.)

    • (just like you do on your way to Starbucks) I may be confused, but if I am on my way to Starbucks and ignoring people, how I am totally living my life online??

      I just think the statement is a little contradictory to the topic at hand. Shouldn't I be paying someone to go pick up my Starbucks for me since I am living a life of luxury and never want to go outside? I mean, if *I* have to go get my own Starbucks, obviously I'm not a hermit nor am I living a life of extreme luxury.

      • If you can afford Starbucks (especially regularly), then on a global scale, you are living in extreme luxury.

        The "on your way to Starbucks" comment is drawn from the article, where the author refers to going to Starbucks to use the Internet access there.

    • The average non shut-in American will probably never encounter a poor starving person either. Before the internet, most Americans were probably already finding out about poor starving people via mainstream media. An internet shut-in might have an extra layer of insulation against the poor starving masses, but most Amercians insulation was already complete.

      I'll counter that it's far easier to find out about and read about poor starving people than it was before the internet. It's also easier to research and
  • Does this mean that the typical /. basement crawler is now an endangered species as web hermits take over the world? Inquiring minds want to know...

  • Semi-hermit (Score:5, Funny)

    by kayakun ( 986097 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:26PM (#15733418)
    I confess, I'm a hermit. I'm probably one of the very few people who goes to college and spends all his time in his room. I'm not a full-hermit, though, since I do go out to buy groceries and things like that, but my social life is basically non-existent. I don't even have friends in college, and I have maybe a total of 5 people I talk to through IM. Being a hermit isn't that bad, but most importantly, it's my choice. Some people may prefer to hermit themselves due to social anxieties or phobias. At least the Internet makes hermitting more entertaining. The biggest draw-back is probably the lack of physical contact. I haven't received a hug in years. I don't miss talking out-loud much though. As a matter of fact, since I haven't talked in so long, when I talk out-loud my throat gets sore. Ouch.

    • Re:Semi-hermit (Score:2, Interesting)

      by SgtPepperKSU ( 905229 )
      I'm having a hard time deciding whether to laugh at or cry for your post.
    • Are you a hermit because your "digital lifestyle" makes it easy and comfortable? I guess what I'm asking is would you still be a hermit if the internet didn't exist?

      If you would choose to be a hermit no matter what, then the internet is simply providing more forms of socializing. But if you're only a hermit because of the comfort of the internet then it might be a problem.

      • Re:Question (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Turn-X Alphonse ( 789240 )
        How is the internet any different to books and games? I'm like the guy above and before I got the internet I played my SNES on my own, before that I always played with toys on my own. That's just how some people are.

        If anyone a "digital lifestyle" will save lives because it stops people from killing themselvs when they get depressed and lonely.

        • Re:Question (Score:3, Interesting)

          by truthsearch ( 249536 )
          a "digital lifestyle" will save lives because it stops people from killing themselvs when they get depressed and lonely.

          That sounds logical but in my experience it's not true. A person who is depressed and lonely is still depressed and lonely while playing a video game. He's just temporarily entertained which keeps his mind of off it. But the underlying problem still persists.

          Online socializing, however, does seem to help at least a little. As long as there is interaction with other human beings in some
    • I'm a bit of a hermit too, I'm at uni aswell and don't really have any friends from my course. I really felt like a weird/wierd hermit the other day when I thought about the firends I had - I was struggling to name more than one who I didn't speak to exclusively online. Still, I suppose I live with my girlfriend so I kinda expect the whole contact with other people to drop away anyway...

  • You go do that (Score:3, Funny)

    by l0ungeb0y ( 442022 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:27PM (#15733422) Homepage Journal
    Yeah, get it on with your bad web hermit self.
    I'm sure there's a lot of people out there who aspire to be a balding fattie eating delivery pizza every day and jacking it to internet pr0n. I hear guys like that drive the women wild.
    I consider it natural selection -- self removal from the gene-pool.
    Go Darwin go!

     
  • "Is there anything that we really need good old fashioned Real Life for any more?"

    Nope, nothing at all. Certainly not a job. Instead of real work, create a web site, post a witty article there, split it into 5 pages, each with about 40% ad content, some of that being flashy annoying banners.
  • depression is more likely for people who don't get out much: [berkeley.edu]

    and heart disease [nih.gov] but other than that, no, you should be just fine without a real life, er, I mean without real life.

  • Getting there (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I used to go out all the time and I had a good amount of close friends. However over the past year I've been retreating more and more into my home. I leave my apt for necessary things like food and work but I never go out socially. I've lost touch with all my friends, I don't even know why I have a cell phone anymore. I don't know what happened to me. I know I have problems with depression and I take medication, but I guess the shit isn't working. Also my anxiety in social situations has increased alot and

  • Luv, twu luv. (Score:5, Funny)

    by nick_davison ( 217681 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:39PM (#15733516)
    "Some lucky souls can live their lives, earn money, buy necessities and even find love on the Internet."

    Why, those lucky souls truly have everything in the palm of their hand.

  • You might be a web hermit if... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Bushido Hacks ( 788211 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:42PM (#15733543) Homepage Journal
    You might be a web hermit if...
    • You lock your self in your room to look at source code.
    • When your mom opens the door you yell "Mom, close the door! Your letting the demons out!"
    • Your hygene habits resemble that of a svelte Theodore Kaczynski.
    • When the power goes out, you immediately stop breathing.
    • Goths have stopped by your house and ask if they can hang around your room because it is dark and creapy.
    • You secretly write love letters to fictional anime characters.
    • You friends (if you have any) have started a chapter of the Secret Snake Club [cartoonnetwork.com]

  • Actually i am one of those (Score:3, Funny)

    by unity100 ( 970058 ) * on Monday July 17, 2006 @04:58PM (#15733657) Homepage Journal
    I do everything except the very frequent things (bread buying etc) from the net.

    'Net' is our country, we are its citizens. We are the 'Net'.

    As an added bonus, i can opt to go out and 'socialize' in the old fashioned way, in the manner and time i choose.

    Isnt it fantastic ?

  • Count me in! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Turn-X Alphonse ( 789240 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @05:42PM (#15734001) Journal
    I'm a hermit, haven't been out the house in over a year except to the field across the road from me and to the hospital in an ambulance.

    I don't really like people very much, they're noisey and too active for my tastes. I like things quiet and peaceful, if I must talk I'd rather talk with my fingers in a text basis than with vocal words.

    I don't really feel I'm missing out on anything, as a kid I was very social, but then I don't have to deal with the huge bunch of idiots screaming and shouting.

    We live in an era where everyone seems to want to be equal, we forget some people are just quirky and have no intrest in social activites. Some of us don't want to be a pop star, a footballer or whatelse is popular these days. We're happy to sit in the corner, do our own thing and just wish to be left alone unless we approach you.

    I don't think I have a problem, I don't need you going "OH LOL YOU FREAK! YOU NEVER GO OUT!". All I need is for people to understand that they arn't the centre of the world and that people have different feelings and levels of social activity.

  • Is it really all that bad? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hellfire ( 86129 ) <deviladv.gmail@com> on Monday July 17, 2006 @05:45PM (#15734020) Homepage
    Okay, the title "web hermit" brought forth images of a guy 80 lbs over (or under!) weight, hairy beard, and beer cans around his desk top computer doing nothing but surfing.

    Pure FUD. Oohhhhh, feel fear/pity/shame for the weirdo who spends all day at the computer! It's a stigma, as the article says, and it's become more and more acceptable, as the article says. That's because using the web makes sense. Hell if you work from home all day, why not have your groceries delivered? Accepting a delivery takes 10 seconds while going to the store could take an hour. That's one more hour to make money working, or kill farm mephisto in Diablo 2 five more times and hope he drops that's unique you've been looking for, thus achieving a little more happiness than the fool next door who barely understands a computer.

    The whole point of the web is more freedom, independence and opportunity. People are taking advantage of this. No one said everyone online is creating a bomb shelter with a fiber link or that once you surf the web for 4 hours you become Agoraphobic. The article doesn't even have any good facts or figures. Who says you aren't going out to meet people? Who says you aren't socializing with neighbors? Who says you aren't exercising 3 three times a week? The only fact the article states is that more and more people are using the web to get the things they need, and it suddenly jumps to the conclusion that everyone who does this is a "web hermit."

    And most importantly, no one said you aren't bangin' your girlfriend every 4 hours because you work from home and have plenty of time for impromtu sex! Who cares if you found your gf in a bar or two states away playing the same online game as you. If you like her, and she likes you, and you have a healthy sexual compatibility (provided she moves in with you - this is important), then fuck the world. You are most definitely still in the gene pool.

  • parenthood, work, suburbia (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bcrowell ( 177657 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @05:58PM (#15734108) Homepage

    College and grad school were great for socializing in person. There were people all around me who were interested in intellectual things, and it was even pretty easy to find people who were interested in the same intellectual things I was interested in. We were at the same stage in our lives, and although it seemed like we were working our butts off in school, the truth was that we had a lot of free time, because we didn't have kids, or pets, or lawns to mow.

    The real world is a whole different deal. Nothing against my neighbors, they're nice people and I enjoy shooting the breeze with them now and then, but we just have nothing in common. Parenthood, work, and living in suburbia just aren't very conducive to making contact with people who care about books, or jazz, or free information.

    Internet relationships tend to be shallow and temporary, but if I didn't have e-mail, usenet, and (I admit) slashdot, my opportunities to have any kind of an intellectual life outside my own head would be extremely limited.

    My family and I just spent three weeks in Greece and England, and it was an amazing contrast with the kind of alienating suburban environment I live in here in the U.S. In Athens, extended families go out together for dinner in sidewalk cafes at 10 in the evening. In little farming villages in Greece, the older men hang out in coffee shops and talk. In England, people hang out and talk in pubs. The U.S. is just pathetic, especially where I live (Orange County, CA), in terms of giving people spaces where they can interact with the rest of society. Everybody just drives places in their air-conditioned SUV's. Maybe shopping malls are the closest equivalent we have, but I just don't enjoy them as places to hang out, people-watch, or run into friends.

    • I, too, live in the OC with a career, wife, kids,and a suburban tract home.

      My advice: move to Irvine, and either join a church [*] or club.

      Why, just last night, my wife and I were finishing walking our dog when one of our neighbors was having tea on his front porch with another of our neighbors. So we dropped my. (the fresh blueberries were delicious). I filled in my neighbors on the details of fourth neighbor whose mother had just died of a heart attack, so we took up a collection to send flowers

    • The U.S. is just pathetic, especially where I live (Orange County, CA), in terms of giving people spaces where they can interact with the rest of society. Everybody just drives places in their air-conditioned SUV's. Maybe shopping malls are the closest equivalent we have, but I just don't enjoy them as places to hang out, people-watch, or run into friends.

      The spaces are still there, but most suburbanites have conditioned themselves not to notice them. I'm not sure how it happened, but it's true. I lived i

  • Those that cannot communicate (verbally) will never go very far in the real world. Only so many jobs exist that you dont need to effectively talk to people. If you are in college and living like this, stop ASAP. Go to bars, go to parties (yes there are many parties that are not just a drunkfest). Get involved in something otherwise you might as well get used to the lifestyle including the budget size of a college student.

    The number one problem with people in IT, they cannot talk to non IT people. Ever

  • Stupid People = Extroverts (Score:5, Funny)

    by kin_korn_karn ( 466864 ) on Monday July 17, 2006 @06:52PM (#15734389) Homepage
    You know, I just came to the realization that I've never met a stupid introvert. Every stupid person that I've ever met was extroverted, and usually extremely so.

  • I remember a 1960's era play about a family working from home, on terminals, and never having to go anywhere, and how it affected life. I believe it was on NET (National Educational Television), a predecessor of PBS. Anybody else remember this? Perhaps a reference?

  • Since June 1 I've been collectinfg the signatures necessary to Get on the Ballot [google.com] as a candidate for the United States Senate, challengeing the clueless incumbent Herb Kohl in the Democratic Primary.

    As of today, it's official, my 2198 signatures are sufficient.

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