Internet Life vs Real Life

[Snowflake]

I was here thinking... do your friends, parents, etc know about your websites? Are they ok with it? I would like to read about your stories.

For me, most of my friends know that I have websites... but since pratically all of them don't have sites or even blogs, they don't care much about that. but they are ok with it. my parents know too, however they don't understand much about the internet, and are not so ok with it. The site I have hosted here I don't want any of my friends or family to know about it, just so I have a place that's just mine.

What about you?

 

[Yozora]

Good thread idea @"tangledmemories" !
Well, I make websites for a living, so my family and friends know the necessity of having a portfolio. Most of them don't have websites themselves. I remember when my grandmother asked me what a website was, when I told her what I do, and it was surprisingly hard to answer well ("It's like a brochure, but interactive, and you access it through a computer.").

 

[Snowflake]

Uhh, now that you mentioned that about your grandmother... It's really hard when I have to explain to old people what I do on the computer most the time I am using it. And it sucks because to them web design/web development, anything web related, isn't good enough because it's something foreign, and since they don't get it, then it's stupid and useless. (I am kind of getting on a personal ranting right now, sorry...) Anyway, I can never give a good explanation, it's really hard to explain...

 

[Genesis]

Think people I know know I have websites but aren't particularly into it. Not there thing.

 

[aya]

my mom doesn't like my website she thinks my art is sent by satan lol

 

[helpremember]

Great discussion idea @"tangledmemories" . The first thing I did before writing this was to google my name. It had been a while. There was my photo at the top of the page, right between the disgusting pedophile that I have the misfortune to share a name with and the vegan body bodybuilder whose photo I took once.

So not possessing the time or full knowledge of how to really have an anonymous internet presence, I have two categories: 1) things I promote and do to help promote other people online and 2) things I do that I just don't make a very big deal about. Lots of people I know are aware that I help people maintain their websites and I do nothing to hide the fact.

But also, for example, I have a blog I've been putting a lot of effort into the last 2 months that I have promoted on tumblr, twitter, pinterest and among other bloggers, but have not mentioned one single time on Facebook. I just don't want to open it up to all the things I don't like about Facebook - mostly just inane b.s.

No matter what I do online, even without having my name attached to it per se, I will never expect or presume that it can't be attached to me in any number of ways - though sometimes someone hiding in plain site can take quite a while to be discovered.

 

[Yozora]

@"tangledmemories" Really? That's a shame. In general a lot of the older people I meet are at least a little impressed by it. They have a hard time understanding computers, so they're kind of amazed that there's a way to type code, and it turns into websites. Once they understand what some basic tech terms are, that is. Sometimes the best thing to do is show them, on a computer or phone. You might need to bump up the text size, so they can read it though.


@"helpremember" 0_0 Is there any way you could tweak how you're called professionally so images of the pedophile don't show up? Like using a middle initial, or a nickname or something?

 

[jaran]

Uhh, now that you mentioned that about your grandmother... It's really hard when I have to explain to old people what I do on the computer most the time I am using it. And it sucks because to them web design/web development, anything web related, isn't good enough because it's something foreign, and since they don't get it, then it's stupid and useless. (I am kind of getting on a personal ranting right now, sorry...) Anyway, I can never give a good explanation, it's really hard to explain...

Im on the same situation with you. Some people asking me what my job right now. When I said I do job on internet, they looks not believe me. When I explain the details about this job and so they told if I should getting real job than do idiot work like this. Its funny though.

 

[bryan19]

Uhh, now that you mentioned that about your grandmother... It's really hard when I have to explain to old people what I do on the computer most the time I am using it. And it sucks because to them web design/web development, anything web related, isn't good enough because it's something foreign, and since they don't get it, then it's stupid and useless. (I am kind of getting on a personal ranting right now, sorry...) Anyway, I can never give a good explanation, it's really hard to explain...

Im on the same situation with you. Some people asking me what my job right now. When I said I do job on internet, they looks not believe me. When I explain the details about this job and so they told if I should getting real job than do idiot work like this. Its funny though.

I think web developer now a days earn quite well and beside you can do it while you are at home no need to go anywhere as long you got a computer and internet connection. BTW you should also have clients to earn :yahoo: So I think being a web developer is not stupid and useless if you are doing it right

 

[Dogmatix]

I don't share much of my Websites with my family. I don't think they would be interested. Some of my friends are interested in what I'm doing on the Web, I also like their support.

 

[Briar Spirit]

Oh dear me, I am such a sad git, I don't have friends outside of internet friends, I sooooooo don't have a life, the folk I know on the net know I do net stuff of course, the Mrs couldn't care less about anything I get up to, my daughters like some of the digital artwork I do and they like seeing my hand made pipes on websites.

 

[Genesis]

You're definitely not alone Briar. Hand made pipes sound like an interesting business to have. Has to be a market for those.

 

[Briar Spirit]

Oh I only make them for the sake of having a Hobby in truth Genesis, it would cost more money than I could muster to turn it into a business of any sort. I mostly give them away as gifts to friends online, of course selling the odd one here and there to cover more materials to make more to gift to friends, it keeps me occupied.

 

[Yozora]

@"Briar Spirit" That's pretty neat! Always nice to see someone making things by hand nowadays. I don't think most of the people I know make things by hand. It's more convenient to make things digitally in some ways, but handmade things always have a certain charm to them.

 

[Briar Spirit]

@"Briar Spirit" That's pretty neat! Always nice to see someone making things by hand nowadays. I don't think most of the people I know make things by hand. It's more convenient to make things digitally in some ways, but handmade things always have a certain charm to them.

I'll get around to posting a few of them in due course if that is of interest to anyone, keep in mind I'm fairly new at it so am no pro' pipe maker, just a hobbyist.

 

[Michael611]

This kind of thread fascinates me a lot and I can really relate as my folks are really not into this Internet life! Well, it is just we have to focus for the new generation to be into Internet Life even the people in the remote area. Teaching people for an outreach program ways is just a great advocate to do for some people who are in good influence. I am just thinking about this to do in the future! Helping out people to reach the new generation's Internet Life and Real Life!

 

[T.Kawabata]

Family, friends completely do not know my internet life. Complete different life is also fan.

 

[smalpierre]

My websites are all commercial websites developed for clients, so of course everybody knows about them - but there is pretty much zero interest level.

The grandmother thing is particularly funny - when I worked for a bank, my grandmother understood exactly what I did ... I go to an office, do some work, then go home. Now that my house is my office she doesn't understand at all ...

"How come you are always playing on the computer?" as if I'm playing video games all day. I don't even play video games haha! It's my job grandma! I'm building a website for an electrical distributor ...

"Oh, well you should be able to click a few buttons and be done in a few minutes, what do you do the rest of the day?" This is going to take about 3 months grandma, I don't have a magic wand!

 

[_Hoh_]

My parents always think that I'm playing or wasting my time when I'm in front of the computer for more than 1 hour.

They prefer to see me cleaning the motherboard and the RAM memory because it looks more like a real work for them.

:wacko:ardon:

 

[smalpierre]

My parents always think that I'm playing or wasting my time when I'm in front of the computer for more than 1 hour.

They prefer to see me cleaning the motherboard and the RAM memory because it looks more like a real work for them.

:wacko:ardon:

My girlfriend works for an insurance company from home, and people seem to understand that for some reason. It's strange that people understand that she processes insurance filings but don't understand that I build software ... we're both sitting at a computer for hours on end.

Somehow when I'm getting paid to sit in front of a computer I'm ... playing?

---

1 hour? Heck I'd never get anything done. Sometimes I'm reading documentation for hours. Whenever someone else is around, they seem to think that because I'm not typing - I'm not doing anything. And they always want to engage me in conversation while I'm trying to figure out how to implement a complex algorithm.

For a long time I was a day sleeper because of this. I'd stay up all night working til 4-5am - sometimes til the sun came up ... because that's the time I could actually get stuff done. it's impossible to get stuff done when every 20 minutes you're being interrupted by someone that thinks you're basically sitting around surfing adult sites.

Every time I'm interrupted I have to regroup, and that cost time. Sometimes it seemed like I was spending more time regrouping than actually getting anything done.

But then - Oh, I'm sleeping all day when I "should" be working? Kind of hard to work when you're always going back and having to figure out where you were and what exactly you were doing because people can't seem to understand that my office door is CLOSED FOR A REASON.

Then try to mention that, and all of a sudden you're being a jerk ...