General Chat

lol Joy

I don't think you're the only one without an FB account Piers, there are also loads of people who have an account there but never use it :-)

nobody curtain twitches in the Boro
we stand out on the front in full view
if anything happens round here

Am I the only one in the country without an account with 'Facebook' lol. For the life of me I can't understand why some people post such 'personal' information about themselves on social networking sites. Goodness knows who is 'lurking' out there lol :-0 :-|

oh i only every tell close friends n fmaily the close personal details of my life, and i wldnt dream of putting some things on here ;-)

it on a strictly need to no basis my private life haha,

oh i not long got my penpal "folder" of mam, i wrote to australia n gremany, altho they used to write there letters in german, n it would take me a week to desipher what they were saying haha, x

Yes I had foreign ones too Rose and in those days we didn't travel abroad so it was a great tool for learning about their customs. The correspondence magazines were in the UK. I still write to one of the ex members who I firstw rote to in a corr mag in 1962. I did write to a second one but sadly she died last year. I do actually still belong to two correspondence magazines which were started in the 80s.

I loved having penpals Ann, I used to write to several in the US and one in East Germany, it was interesting to hear from them as their lives were very different to my own.

if ya dnt want other peoples opinions, wether good or bad, dnt post ya life online i say, :)

if ya put it out there its going to be questioned if it fels wrong :-D

I think that some people 'say' things online that they wpuld never say to somebody's face. Ann is right, it provokes immediate responses. How easy is it to type out a hurtful comment, or retaliation to one, and press 'enter'. Before this was possible, you would have to phone, see the person face to face, or compose a letter. During which time, the heat might have evaporated!

Regards privacy, I am amazed at the level of detail some people go into (and this is just on a couple of sites, NOT including FB which I don't use).

I think the internet is a wonderful tool but, because of its all-encompassing nature, will attract weirdos, sociopaths, braggarts, bigheads, bores and whingers, and will bring out the very best and the very worst in its users :-D

YES LOL XX

When I was young (in my twenties) there was a very populat hobby of writing to penfriends via correspondence magazines. About 12 -20 people all writing to a central point and the letters being assembled into a folder then circulated, replied to in the same fashion. These letters were used to bonce off ideas and to share problems, family etc. They were a safety valve for those of us stuck at home all day with young children/babies.

In the same way the internet is used, or at least it was, by people bored with their own company and wanting reassurance, help etc. However, the difference is that the letters were more or less private they did not go world wide. And they were not used for spite or bullying.

Because of its anonimity the internet has become a tool for speaking ones mind, not really bothering any more about hurting people and careless to the fact that the remarks can be seen by anybody. with a letter there is time to reconsider and think that maybe it should not be sent but destroyed. With the internet, once the send button has been pressed it is too late and even if subsequently deleted, somebody will have seen it. We have become very outspoken in our opinions, sometimes hurtful.

I think I preferred the old ways but have learned to live with the new.

the "curtain twitching neighbour" of the century?

When I was younger the very personal details of ones life were told only to closest friends ( if at all ) and perhaps most people only knew of the marital ups and downs, health issues, day to day events etc, of their own family, friends or through the gossip from the aforesaid 'curtain twitching neighbour' :-D

Now a lot of people seem to lay their whole life bare for everyone to see on FB, twitter, sites like this..... with seemingly no concern or sense of privacy. Do you think that there may come a 'backlash' where the next generation will go the other way ? Does it worry you that with a bit of surfing a stranger can 'see' you? ....or are you very privacy conscious and keep your curtains closed lol

;-)