I have a lot of friends both online and IRL ("the guys"). Be I a dork or not, I have a decend solial life. The thing is, a lot of my RL and friends and a lot of my family members, in some form or fasion, don't "get" my online exploits, particularly Matazone. I showed Matazone to my friend Alan, who has done the chatroom thing on a few occasions. He said to me, "I really can't understand how you can sit here and do this for hours on end." He doesn't see Matazone as a worthy social outlet. My brother and most of the other guys just see it as a thing I do and don't put too much thought into it. My older sister's worse. SHe doesn't understand any bit of online socializing and thinks it's a worthless exploit. My parents have a similar view as my brother, however my dad is (strangely) a lot more understanding. They don't exactly "get it," but not in a condemning way, if that makes sense.My older sister was mad sketchy when I started dating Spiffy, even when I already had visited her. "What if she's some 40-year-old woman who takes advantage of college boys?" "Rach, I visited her. She's seventeen (though she does take advantage of college boys, I thought). The only fourty-year-old woman there is her mom and she's married." She and others don't seem to get that meeting people online can spawn real friendships, even if you don't meet IRL and that you can legitimately love someone even if all you've done is talk on the phone and chat online.

How about you guys? Do your friends and family have a problem with Matazone or the Internet in general?

My mum and sister seem to think that MSN is the source of all evil. They go on and on about how antisocial I'm being but surely they're wrong because I'm socialising when I'm on the internet... *sigh*

My parents seem to think that the instant I click on 'Dial' I will be bombarded by pr0n, spam, credit card fraudsters, Nigerian Royalty and yet more pr0n. *sigh.* Stupid gits.

A friend or two aren't allowed to have internet access as they think that it'll turn paedophile's attentions towards their family. My friends are pretty understanding and only the odd joke or two about having no life but it usually comes from my RP friends or those who would turn down a party if the next chapter in their book gets interesting so its all in good fun.

My boyfriend simply doesn't understand how I can just post and read this all day and he makes fun of me. He also thinks anime is all porn and this site has animations so it must be porn. Not to mention he thinks I'm just a geek. *sigh* He's silly. If it was about sports he'd understand though. He spends all his time reading The Red Issue Forum, but he's an Arsenal fan and doesn't even post! It frustrates me to no end...

"Wow. You're, like..obsessed with these forums. Are the guys on it hot or something?"

*delicate pause*

"Well, you see, they're all quite nice. Girls too. And they all have interesting opinions."

*suspicious pause*

".....are you part of an internet drug ring?"

My friends usually roll their eyes and say "huh"? Except for the ones who I've introduced to you lot *looks pointedly at Smiler* I once went to a party with some mates and showed them all the first two mittens animations. Me and my friends ultra posh bloke took on the spoken parts. I "volunteered" for snowdrop!!! Oh MY God it was so funny!!!

No-one knows that I inhabit the net at all... as far as my friends and family are concerned I am just a playfull, slightly overfriendly kitten... little do they realise the horrible truth.

Actually my brother knows, and funnily enough shares most of my opinions and views... so whenever I post in the Issues Forum it's for at least two people.
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Oddly I'm not taken with the idea of online relationships. I'm happy for those who are, I just don't trust it to find a suitable mate for me.

Oh I did that once, it wasn't at a party though, I was just showing someone new the Mittens and Snowdrop animations and me and my friend acted it out for the first two. He he, I was Mittens. Oh that brings me back. That was 2-3 years ago. /spam

I pretty much grew up online. Lolo is the first person I ever chatted with, and Cand is another friend from VP. A lot of my friends are "online" friends who have turned into IRL friends as well. Most people who chatted in VP truly were addicts - hours on end would be spent in chat rooms, and that even includes me - and there were most definitely cliques throughout the rooms.

My family never understood it. My dad used to ground me from the computer because he thought I spent too much time online (and I did). Once I was older, he still didn't understand it but he didn't fight over it anymore. Now, he gets online here and there to e-mail other family members, and my mom gets online for the same reason but she'll also surf around a bit. My sister still doesn't understand and wants nothing to do with the 'net. Oddly enough, my grandma is probably online more than I am at this point.

My friends are all online here. Rather than get in the car and drive to someone's house, we send messages or e-mails and get in touch that way. We still hang out, go do things, be somewhat normal people, but.. it's just quicker to hop online and see if the person in question is logged in. As far as Matazone goes, very few of my friends post on forums and so while they may be big fans of LGG or Mittens or etc, they don't hang around on here.

Had multiple fights with RL friends last year, especially after Dayan died, because I was very upset about everything and they couldn't/wouldn't understand why I was so distraught over a person I'd never "met". Parents still think I'm nuts.

Recently I've been blessed with a significant other than doesn't truly "get it", but he's open-minded enough to realize that this place is another family to me, and he wants to get to know them just like they are my family.

It's nice to know that some of the normal people on the outside aren't completely incapable of understanding.

My family honestly thought I had gone mad...

"what are you doing?"
"oh, on the computer."
"I know that. What are you doing on the computer?"
"chating with people in england, mom, happy?"

She didn't belive me...

Yeh. My parents are paranoid, and they think everyone online is either

1) me
2) 40-year-old pedophile rapists
3) Nigerian royalty

My sister, she understands... but I don't let her on the compy because I'm always using it.

my brother is CheeseMoose.

my parents don't like the net.

my boyfriend semi-lives on it.

it's all good.

I was once talking to my brother regarding Matazone and why I'm addicted to this place like a crackhead to rock. "The thing about the Internet," I said, "is that it allows people with similar interests, views and opinions to gather and socialize rather easily. He got it, but he still thinks I need to get out more and I would if I had a car or he wasn't attatched at the hip to his girlfriend.

He does give credit where credit's due regarding how I met my girlfriend. At least I got that into his head.

My mother doesn't -- but there are varying degrees of my family members who do not do the 'online thing.'

However, the majority of my friends have met their significant others online. It's a chance to get to know a person (given that they're telling the truth) and their personality first without the whole first impression of appearances to get in the way.

My family understands it more than they used to, that's for sure. I think they're afraid I'll do the whole running across the country to be with someone I met online thing again, though. I've no intention of doing that. One cross-country move was quite enough for me. I'm pretty sure they suspect my trip to the UK is for that very purpose, actually.

Just yesterday I was telling my mom about the wonder that is Skype (voice conferencing program, for those of you who don't know), and about how I'm going to meet up with quite a few forumites while I'm in the UK. Even though I've met quite a few people from online, she felt the need to tell me that I should be careful because you all could end up to be 45 year old serial rapists. My thought on that is...so could anyone I met on the street in real life. I think I'm sensible enough to be safe and cautious and stuff. But...it's my mom's job to worry about me, I guess. And the last person I met online I ended up moving in with when I was 18, so I can understand her concerns...

At home I am banned from coming here, so college is the only time I have.

I used to be banned from my comp, but not anymore. That said, more than half an hour tying up the dial-up and I'm kicked off by them anyway, so I can't be excessive about it. My mum and dad occasionally enquire what I've been doing online for the last hour, and I always tell them I'm talking to people in whatever place, or I'm debating stuff, or I'm just looking around. All of which is true.
My friends don't really get it, and my boyfriend jokingly calls me a 'computer geek', but none of them have a problem, so that's all cool.
I think it's great if you can meet people you can love or befriend online. Look at Snoo and Daedalus, or Righteous and Spiffy. Great examples. And of course, Syuu and Dayan. And I don't know anyone that wouldn't understand if I was sad at the death of someone I knew only online, so I count meself lucky.

My own family are fine about this. They've known that I've played on computers for many years, and I think getting my webart site reviewed in The Guardian about four years ago made them realise that I could really do something interesting here.

Sues' family vary, her sister and mother understand that this is both fun and a job for me, but her father thinks it's all a bit weird (although tries to avoid saying this because he sees that eventually I might make lots of money). Then again, my own family thinks I'm a bit weird, but in a nicer way!

My favorite statement from the guys is, "Go out and do something," to which I respond, "Yeah, like what? Sit around, watch movies and play drums?" We often have conversations similar to this:

Me- What do you want to do?
Rick- I dunno. What do you want to do?
Me- I dunno. What do you want to do?
Rick- Yo Matt. What do you want to do?
Matt- I dunno. What do y'all want to do?

When I go cruising with Alan and Bane, it's always, "Man, we need some chicks. Do you know any chicks?" "None that live around here." "Bane, do you know any chicks?" "Nah, man. I was hoping y'all would." Replace "chicks" with "parties" and you have a whole new conversation we often have.

The point of all that, boys and girls, is to show why I'm online all the damn time. It seems simple enough, but my friends don't get it. I mean, come on. Driving around looking for chicks and parties or spending hours in the den doesnt allot you the opportunity to talk to cats across the nation and from other countries.

Awwww man, my dad has just given me a lecture about how everyone on the internet is a paedophile (sp?)

When I was living at home my parents gave me such a hard time about how the internet is a waste of time, money, that people can get all of my personal information, that the people online are all lying all of the time, you can't trust anyone, I spend too much time online, they didn't want me talking to people I didn't know IRL online, and the like.

So basically when I moved out and got my own computer, although I spent alot of time on it, and especially on the internet, I never mentioned what I did to them or the friends I made here. I say very little to my rl friends about my online life and next to nothing to my family. Eveyone is happier that way. Before this, when I did talk about my online friends, if I ever even mentioned that there was a problem with one of the people I knew or a fight, my family and rl friends would tell me to stop talking to them, to stop worrying about people I didn't even know. I've also been told to quit the boards and that chat programs are populated with stalkers and rapists.

My mom (yes, with an "O", I'm feeling american) just came over and in a very sing-song voice asked what I was doing. I replied with the requisite "Nothing" and she asked in a voice of steel, death & pain the same question. I told her, and she said "I--don't--want you---in--chat--rooms."

There was a pause.

I then said "It's not a chat room."

She stared.

"But you're talking to people on the internet. They can get the I.T. address and hack into our PayPal account."

Another pause.

"No, they can't, Mom."

Her face worked a moment.

"I was talking to your Aunt Kathy and she told me how--" she looked around "hackers can get into accounts. She had her" she looked around again. I began to suspect she thought the hackers could hear her through the speakers. To ease her fears, I turned off my music. "her mail hacked into. They sent her, erm, pornographic materials."

"Mom," I said, trying to be patient. "They're not hackers. They're also not pediphiles."

"HOW DO YOU KNOW? Did they tell you?"

I explained about the meets, and how that proves you lot aren't pediphiles and she said that oviously pediphiles wouldn't attend such a thing.

Oi! Any of you hackers/pediphiles on the forums, my mom doesn't like you. Don't steal our IT address or attempt to kidnap me. She'll come kill you with her computer skills.

[spam]

I'd like to think that we here have a policy where we kidnap, rape or molest only upon request.

[/spam]

<spam>Hehe...IT address...</spam>

Made me laugh as well. My mom knows how to access her mail on MSN and get her horoscope--not much else. She also (to quote David Sedaris) watches the fear section of the news every day, but often remembers only the scary parts.

I'm really shy so I don't have that many friends offline- I find it much easier to socialise online, and everyone deserves to have a social life, right?
I think my mum would be a bit surprised if she knew just how much time I spend online though.

Feyliya and I met online, actually. I have met a couple lovers on here, and have never found anyone out to use me or take advantage of me. Most of my friends are on the 'net. I spend most of my hours that I'm not working/sleeping on the 'net.

And Fey would tell you, I'm just as Laramon in person as I am online.

My vati still doesn't understand the concept of a forum, so if he would rather I not be on one he doesn't realise it. My mum doesn't like the idea but she tolerates it (mainly because I printed out the grammar nazi thread for her, which appealed to the English teacher in her enough to pacify her temporarily). Mike and I talk about the forums in RL and people just look at us queerly and stay out of the conversation. I think they know Mike would eat them if they dared insult matazone. ^^;;

Pretty much...

Hey, was that a fat joke? *eats you*

My parents don't yet know that my computer is online (I'm stealing their wireless), so I don't know what they would think of it, although I know that they are convinced that the internet is almost all porn. I don't have enough friends to know how they would react, the few I have belong to forums, either this one or the other one I belong to.

Yes, well your girlfriend doesn't think much of it, dave. Espescially when you go to it rather than her when you were supposed to be "changing."

I got an earful for that.

Ouchie!! That stings man!