Topic: Is chatting on IRC actually more social than being out IRL on a party?

Anonymous b6ad08ce7ec1e1bfaf32253c2e159b17 started this discussion 2 months (2008-10-11 20:28:46 UTC) ago:

Usually, there are more people watching/participating in an active IRC channel compared to a party, no? It just happens to be through text rather than voice.

Anonymous 182433febeafbb60b2b9a3fa70679d9f replied with this 2 months (2008-10-11 20:45:05 UTC) ago, 16 minutes later (#68,626):

Well I guess if you can reduce the human experience to text yes.

Anonymous 412e577886feb3ea48fdaaf560ff2e27 replied with this 2 months (2008-10-11 21:46:44 UTC) ago, 1 hour later (#68,643):

Haha. IRC is the best way of socializing with other people, at least in my situation. I don't really like to talk with people IRL, because I often have to think about a reply way too long. I also have problems with expressing something in short sentences when I don't have time to think.

Anonymous 13490544ee165fccb61d1e251e548ad6 replied with this 2 months (2008-10-11 22:06:03 UTC) ago, 19 minutes later (#68,648):

No it's not. It takes away all the aspects that are appealing about it and replaces them with trolling, spam, and fserve/XDCC queues (sepending on what channels you frequent). And there are actually surprisingly few people there if you only count active users. Most users are either inactive or bots.

Anonymous e52df93e8bbed70d998b52f92a5e44ed replied with this 2 months (2008-10-12 00:00:42 UTC) ago, 2 hours later (#68,676):

IRC doesn't count as socialising at all

Ventrilo nearly counts as socialising, especially if you've met them before IRL

Something IRL will almost invariably be more social than something on the net. Just because more people are chatting in IRC, it doesn't make it more social; watching a movie with hundreds of other people (in a cinema) is less social than watching a movie with 5 friends, for example.

Anonymous 3a11656adffc29061f5f8af85e353802 replied with this 2 months (2008-10-12 07:47:01 UTC) ago, 8 hours later (#68,839):

Problem with people nowadays, is that they sit around on a PC talking online, or texting etc, they are being accustomed to not much interaction and when they have to go out and actually do something they are totally screwed. It's kind of funny seeing these people when you're out.

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Topic: Is chatting on IRC actually more social than being out IRL on a party?