Hatrack River Forum: It's so different in person!

This is topic It's so different in person! in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :

I heard someone use the term "liberal" (as a noun, not an adjective) as an epithet. I'd seen it a lot on various websites, and heard it on radio and TV ads, but never before had someone used it in person when talking to me. I felt myself wince and recoil, though I was too astonished to actually say anything about it. Its use just seemed sorta pathetic to me, to be honest (though I'll grant I usually find it pretty pathetic online or on TV, too). Am I just living a sheltered life, and people actually use the term all the time? I mean, for real life interaction, I probably spend as much or more time talking to various members of my church as anyone outside it (the secluded life of a SAHD), and you'd think a bunch of Bible thumpers would revel in such a word, wouldn't you? *wink*

So I was wondering -- anyone else had experiences that were shocking when they happened in person, even though they weren't shocking via another medium? Just curious.

--Pop

Posted by Xaposert (Member # 1612) on :

I hear people say stuff about liberals all the time, but I don't usually hear it in any sort of negative way.

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

A girl at Edgewood actually said "LOL" the other day, pronounced "loll." That scarred me.

Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :

Kissing in person is much better than posting " [Kiss]

Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :

I'm tempted to say "IMO" sometimes. Kind of like curling your fingers to indicate quotation marks. An annoying habit that's surprisingly easy to develop.

I'm still trying to decide what "liberal" means, so it would be pointless to use it on someone as an insult. People who do use it that way tend to be on the narrow-minded side.

Posted by dh (Member # 6929) on :

dkw : That depends on what the person has had for lunch.

[ October 21, 2004, 06:52 PM: Message edited by: dh ]

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

I definitely agree, dkw.

Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :

I've caught myself wanting to say "LOL" only not as a word, but saying each individual letter.

I've never done it though. It's very scary that I was tempted to.

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

I admit, I say w00t all the time.

Today I was checking over homework, and one boy's had "WTF?!" written on it next to one of the more challenging problems. I looked at it and said to him, "Don't write 'WTF' on your homework!" He said, "huh?" and, when I pointed it out, blushed quite satisfactorily. He was so used to the acronym that he had posted--er, written it without thinking about it, realizing, or thinking about what it actually meant.

Posted by Bob the Lawyer (Member # 3278) on :

That's bad, Tom, but there are mathies at this university who mime "alt-tab" and "ctrl-alt-delete" when the conversation starts to drift.

Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :

quote:
I definitely agree, dkw.

Me too!

Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :

Icarus, that's hilarious!! I'm going to do that on my final project this term. "WTF?" [Big Grin]

It's funny, but when I read those three letters, I think the full words (terrible!!) which means I'm probably not used to the acronym enough for it to just become letters and nothing more.