Depends on What You Want

• Just curious... 8-) by A Christian Therapist, 10/9/98
  
  

My introduction to online communication was an AOL interfaith chat room called The Front Porch. Everything having to do with online participation has to do with what you want. If you come to proselytize, to preach a message many of us are not looking for conversion. What I most look for, but very often don't find, is a sharing of information and backgrounds based on curiosity and interest. Real sharing is simply a matter of letting the other person make you more knowledgeable and vice versa. When questions are asked, they're meant to clarify, not to attack, be negative or aggressive. My experiences online have been very different than what I've described here. People often seem to be very certain about their ideas, and just seem to want to defend them or learn to defend them better in the course of conversation. That's always disappointing to me.

• Gift of friendship by CT, 10/10/98