The Herb Garden :: Internet Chat Rooms Communication Essays

The Herb Garden The Internet until recently has not been something I am overly familiar with. It has only been in the last year that I have really been using a computer for much beyond word processing, and email. The Internet and its online communities, are a completely new experience for me, and quite a foreign one at that. During this past semester, I have found myself needing to look up all sorts of different information, and the Internet has been a primary source for that information. Since I have AOL, I attempted to get used to my computer and how the Internet works, by spending time in the AOL chat areas. The chat rooms that I have encountered with AOL, have pretty much been social environments. The people in these rooms are primarily trying to meet other people, on a personal level. The majority of chat rooms do not really contain people talking about anything different then they would in a bar. These chat rooms did however give me a quick lesson on how chat rooms worked, and I quickly figured out how to keep up with the conversations taking place. There is however and exception to the bar atmosphere. When my dog was ill I went into the dog chat room on AOL. All of the people in this room were true dog lovers, and extremely helpful. They seemed really concerned not only about my problem but there was also a person whose dog had been stolen. Every person in the room offered her sympathy and advice. One of the people I met even emailed me several days later to check up on my dog. So you can find help in some of the AOL chat rooms. I had much the same experience when I went to check out the Buffy The Vampire Slayer web page. I am a big Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan, and have gone to that web site many times. There is a posting board and a chat room attached to the site, which I was very excited about. I thought that since I was a Buffy fan, I would fit right in and have a lot to talk about. Unfortunately the people on the posting board and in the chat rooms seem to have formed special bonds. They were not overly friendly, nor did they really want to talk to me. After several frustrating attempts to join in, a member Angle3 finally told me that you have to post everyday, numerous times a day, before the other people will let you into their group.