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View Full Version : Keeping a grip on reality



Mike Parzych
12-03-2006, 2:57 PM
I recently read an article about a CEO who declared "No e-mail Fridays" at his company. and further recommended to his people that they curtail e-mailing fellow employees within the building whenever possible. His reason was that he recognized how electronic communication was beginning to adversely affect intra-company personal relationships. E-mails often failed to correctly convey the tone of messages and people often read into them thoughts that are no the intent of the sender. People were losing the art of simple face-to-face communication and the business was suffering internally.

When I read that, I thought of the recent flap over a thread concerning someone building a shop. I was, and still am, only peripherarilly aware of what transpired and really am not interested in the details. I had never viewed the thread in question because quite frankly, when I first saw the title I thought it sounded a bit "histrionic," and I really only check the forum out for technical knowledge or inspiration from other folks designs. And as I saw the thread growing like that old movie "The Blob," all I could think was that things were going freakishly awry somehow.

In it's wake there was a backlash of sorts that was laced with exaggerated emotions, shall we say, and various posts here and on another forum. And apparently some rather childish disruptions.

Let's get a grip here. This is the internet...just a bunch of electrons passing through space. Nothing more. People can become emotionally invested in internet forums. To me the internet and this forum is an information source. That's not to say there isn't a social aspect to it, but that must be kept in perspective. Personally I like flesh and blood friends and reserve my social interactions for them. When you find yourself arguing with font on a screen, something is wrong.

Now I'm NOT "preaching from on high" here. A few years back I found myself sliding toward that very thing in a completely different venue from a woodworking forum. But when I found myself stewing over something someone had said on the internet, it was clearly time to step back and get a perspective again.

I used to frequent the "other forum" and still do on occasion. But what first attracted me to SMC was the more professional and quite frankly, "adult" tone. And I support any admin. moves to keep it that way. Life delivers enough stress all on it's own - I don't have to go looking for more.

That's my rant for the day....