Perspective and preconceptions

Originally posted by Crowley
Continuing (kinda) from CFT's thread:Thread 89247

Has interacting in forums etc. on the Internet changed your preconceptions about people of other nationalities?

I know some of mine has.

I don't think that interacting on forums, skype-chatting, e-mailing people or other internet related communication has changed my attitude towards anything at all (except maybe playing chess).

What has changed my attitude towards some people, and even the countries that they come from or represent, is what they said, and not the medium they used.

I have lived (more than 6 months) in 12 countries, 5 as a child (Germany, Hong Kong, England, Malta and Gibralta) and 8 as an adult (England, Wales, Poland, Estonia, Hungary, China, USA, Japan). I've also travelled to about 30 more, either on business or holiday. I have friends and acquaintances from more countries than I care to remember.

What has changed my preconceptions is actually meeting people and talking to them, and finding out about the people and the countries from the people themselves. For example, French people do actually have a shower or bath sometimes; Polish people aren't all thieves when they're not drunk; not all Americans (especially the men, who don't actually all wear chequered trousers) SHOUT LOUDLY ALL THE TIME...

The internet has made the world relatively smaller, in that we can actually communicate with someone on the other side of the world right now if we want to. But it'd still take a long time to walk/swim/ride/sail from where you are, to Timbuktu and back via Sydney and London. And you'd definitely learn a lot more just walking across your nearest border for a few days than spending every evening for a year chatting or posting opinions and comments in (whatever) forums or skyping your "friends".

Originally posted by Crowley
Continuing (kinda) from CFT's thread:Thread 89247

Has interacting in forums etc. on the Internet changed your preconceptions about people of other nationalities?

I know some of mine has.

Shouldn't it destroy those preconceptions, instead of changing them?

For the pedantics: I know that destruction is a change, but they're not the same.

Edit: Can you give examples of such nationalities?

Originally posted by Crowley
Continuing (kinda) from CFT's thread:Thread 89247

Has interacting in forums etc. on the Internet changed your preconceptions about people of other nationalities?

I know some of mine has.

I think it has for me. I've interacted with a lot of good people on this site. I'm not sure what preconceptions I had before, but I feel like I now have a greater respect for all people, having chatted with so many people from so many different countries. I've also discovered that I have far more in common with people from other cultures than I might have thought.