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TypoC, the Internet, and Opening Yourself Up

SecondBest

Permabanned
Joined
Aug 12, 2010
Messages
844
MBTI Type
eNxp
Enneagram
5/7
Care_Bears.jpg

Pic unrelated... sort of.


It seems pretty clear to me that the internet has provided a way in which people can share themselves openly to others with varying degrees of security and comfort. The mask of relative anonymity is certainly one big factor, but this question is intriguing to me:

What is it about TypoC in particular that engenders such emotional and personal exposes?


For me, what has, at the very least, kept me here for as long as I have been (internet-wise - three weeks + is a long time for me), are the values upon which this community is based. If you're interested in Typology in the slightest bit, it says to me that, at the very least, you are someone who is interested in understanding yourself, if not other people as well. The strength of a community is going to be primarily, if not solely, dependent on the values around which it gathers.

Emotional healing or catharsis also, in my opinion, has no better ally than compassion and understanding. There is a reason why when somebody kicks you in the shin, your instinctual reaction is to want to kick the person back or possibly worse. You want the person to feel at least EXACTLY what you are feeling. This equal-or-more exchange in pain is what allows a person to feel understood, and by feeling understood, are able to recover from their experience. It's not dissimilar to the desire to exchange money that is equal in value to the goods or services you are looking to acquire. And if the person that has done you harm is unavailable, you'll take it out on someone else. The point is that such emotional decisions, anywhere from a personal expose to a vengeful attack, is a plea for this kind of understanding that can lead to true healing.

As far as privacy is concerned, my personal approach to vulnerability and exposing myself to anyone anywhere, not just the internet, is based on this rule:

If I tell anyone other than myself, then I can pretty much assume that everyone knows. That is to say, the best kept secret is the one you keep only to yourself. So if I am telling a story that I would not feel comfortable having everyone in the world know about, then I keep my mouth shut.

What do you think it is about TypoC that makes it a place for such personal yet public exchanges?
What are your own rules with regard to personal privacy? And finally...

Why are you here? And why do you stay?


Feel free to post any thoughts at all.


**NOTE**
Not sure how to linkback or whatever, so i'll post the related thread here. Forum and Online Dynamics
 

Lark

Active member
Joined
Jun 21, 2009
Messages
29,569
What do you think it is about TypoC that makes it a place for such personal yet public exchanges?
What are your own rules with regard to personal privacy? And finally...

Why are you here? And why do you stay?

I dont believe that I'm that public, I dont say anything I'd not say in person and I'm cautious about some of the content, I do think that people volunteer stuff online sometimes which they'd be annoyed about a census collector or police officer quizing them about. It could be a big social engineering experiment I guess.

I'm here because its a psychology website and I love psychology, I stay because there's good company and members make things interesting.
 

Fidelia

Iron Maiden
Staff member
Joined
May 31, 2009
Messages
14,497
MBTI Type
INFJ
I don't share anything here that I would be devastated if someone I knew read. I'd maybe prefer that they didn't, but there's nothing I'd tell people that I wouldn't in normal real life conversation as well.
 

Moonstone3

New member
Joined
Jun 10, 2010
Messages
182
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
9, 5
I'm not this open in public social interaction. I like that I can share what I wish and keep silent when I want. Yet, I still feel I'm connecting with people. I love to hear a different perspective and share one when I think it is useful/logical to do so.
I am here because there is a wide spectrum of people to apply to my personal manual to life, and I can relate them to others in my immediate environment. It helps me to co-exist in the world around me. Sort of an experiment, as all things are...
I stay because there is always something new, someone familiar, someone with greater knowledge, someone with less, and the site is moderated and set up well.
 

Kasper

Diabolical
Joined
May 30, 2008
Messages
11,590
MBTI Type
ENTP
Enneagram
9w8
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
What do you think it is about TypoC that makes it a place for such personal yet public exchanges?

Talking about things is healthy. There are people here with wisdom. There's usually at least one person wanting to listen.

What are your own rules with regard to personal privacy?

No matter how revealing something I post publically sounds, it's not for me, I do not reveal anything I haven't come to terms with and would willingly tell anyone if it came up in conversation. I'm not inclined to tell people a lot of things about myself irl for no reasons other than I don't consider it relevant and I don't want to bore them by talking about myself. Here it doesn't matter, you find your space and those who want to, listen, or not.

I've made no effort to hide my identity, that lack of privacy means I'm not complacent about talking of things I should be telling people irl first.

Why are you here? And why do you stay?

I came for the cookies, I stay because I owe a blood debt.
 

You

New member
Joined
Jun 8, 2010
Messages
2,124
MBTI Type
entp
Enneagram
7w8
I say what I'd say to anyone else.
 
P

Phantonym

Guest
What do you think it is about TypoC that makes it a place for such personal yet public exchanges?

Others are doing it too. You can choose not to share, but you can if you want and it's not considered all that strange. Usually you don't stick out as a sore thumb because there's always somebody here who can relate, who is willing to listen, who has some insight to offer. If you have a problem or you're troubled by some thoughts, there's help to be found, so this place is a somewhat safe environment for sharing and possibly healing.

What are your own rules with regard to personal privacy?

I don't follow any definite list of rules, I go with my moods, my feelings at any particular moment. Sometimes I'm fine with sharing, sometimes I'm not. There really isn't anything I've shared here that I wouldn't share anywhere else if I wanted to. However, I do the push and pull thing quite often, by sharing things way too much and then closing off in a heartbeat again. I can't undo the things I've done, so I'll just have to live with it.

Why are you here? And why do you stay?

Where else would I be? Habit.
 

Wild horses

New member
Joined
Oct 25, 2008
Messages
1,916
MBTI Type
ENFP
I believe that it is the security of a group of tribe... typec would offer a certain level of acceptance that may not be availbale in the world and definitely a level of understanding... suddenley I can explain my reaction to a certain event and know that 1/16 (VERY ROUGHLY) of the population here will get it and the other will be able to understand where I'm coming from.... There is also a certain level of forgiveness too... That's because she is an ENFP, she can't do it any other way.... On top of all this essentially we are talking about personality here (Well some of you are I usually just mess around :blush:)and so we have to talk about personal things....
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
Opening Up in the Encounter Group on the Internet

As we moved from a literate society to an electronic society, the National Training Laboratory (NTL) in the United States knew we would have to learn new ways of relating to one another. And so the Encounter Group was born.

I was fortunate to be part of the first Encounter Group in Australia in the Psychology Department of the University of New South Wales. And it was a life changing experience.

But now the Encounter Group is ubiquitous and even the traditional Catholic Church has been running Encounter Groups for decades.

And so do we. What we are running here, quite successfully, is an Encounter Group. But instead of sitting face to face in a small room, we encounter one another electronically across the world.
 
Joined
Jul 3, 2008
Messages
1,858
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
54
Instinctual Variant
so/sp
SecondBest, your latest posts/threads are leading me to wonder if you are so/sp rather than the reverse, especially with the distanced, in-depth preoccupation for answers regarding forum-wide social hierarchy, clockwork dynamics, etc. What do you think?
 

wolfy

awsm
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
12,251
What do you think it is about TypoC that makes it a place for such personal yet public exchanges?
What are your own rules with regard to personal privacy? And finally...

Why are you here? And why do you stay?

I don't post anything here I wouldn't be willing to talk with others about. I post stuff here that others wouldn't be interested in. And I post in a style that is fun to use.

Rules, I don't post any comments about people close to me. I don't discuss and ask questions on personal matters about people close to me. I deal with the person and don't see any discussion with others as being of any benefit.

Solid Introvert Style. :solidarity:

I stay because it provides an outlet for some aspect of me. I can express myself in a unique way. Also, everybody uses English.

It amused me when I first started posting here that I felt I was being really emo and personal. That is how it felt to me, then the feedback from others was not even close to me coming across like that.

Funny world.
 

SecondBest

Permabanned
Joined
Aug 12, 2010
Messages
844
MBTI Type
eNxp
Enneagram
5/7
SecondBest, your latest posts/threads are leading me to wonder if you are so/sp rather than the reverse, especially with the distanced, in-depth preoccupation for answers regarding forum-wide social hierarchy, clockwork dynamics, etc. What do you think?

I am less familiar with enneagrams so I couldn't give any more information other than the fact that, though introverted I may be, I am interested in seeing how specifics fit within the larger scheme of things, related to society and humanity in general. I wouldn't say social hierarchy in this forum is my concern though... perhaps you mean social value structure and the manifestation of such elements in dynamics, themes, topic trends, etc? In which case, yes, I'd agree - I'm very interested in things of that nature. :)

Also, thanks to everyone who's posted so far! This is very helpful. :yes:
 

coconut

New member
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Messages
136
MBTI Type
INTJ
There are things I would post here that I wouldn't bring up in real life. For one thing, it would be weird to start talking about myself in general company during the normal idle chit-chat. But here, because we're all trying to unravel how MBTI works and what makes the different types tick, it's what we all do.

And, even more so, there's the safety net of anonymity. ;)
 

KDude

New member
Joined
Jan 26, 2010
Messages
8,243
I hate revealing too many personal things here, to be honest. I've tried, but I delete the posts afterwards. :) Not that anything I say is provocative. I'm just out of my element, I guess.
 

Lady_X

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 27, 2008
Messages
18,235
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
784
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
i hate sharing too...it's not that i'd mind a bit if the person were here in front of me but just because i don't mind being totally honest with you about it doesn't mean i want the words forever frozen in internetland.


whatever that means....
 

Lark

Active member
Joined
Jun 21, 2009
Messages
29,569
I've sometimes hated to find old diaries, I've destroyed a few, although to be honest they are more personal and its obvious that an immaturity is at work, some of my more recent journals bother me because of the things which preoccupied me dont now, I've got perspective that comes with the passage of time and perhaps that bothers me.

Although I've never experienced so obvious a paradigm shift as to hate my earlier ideas or posts online, most of the time I can still see how I've not changed that much and what change has taken place has been beneficial while still preserving that which was originally good in the earlier perspective.

I can only think of one instance in which a troll kept upcasting to me things I'd said previously, particularly when they'd caused me to lose my temper with them, essentially that was what it was about and I decided not to play their game.

It was interesting though because, as I put it to them, people could be talking about "Larkisms" or "pulling a Lark" or "sounding like Lark" in the sense that they had coined a phrase for being bad tempered but it was the sort of profile and memorability which said troll had tried very deliberately and very hard for some time to accomplish surrounding themselves. In a sense, within that group dynamic, I'd been immortalised and would be recalled long after they where forgotten despite their best efforts.

Its not something I relish, I've met other people from forums in person and they've been surprised that I'm not this angry character that they've imagined but its a different matter from the sort of desperation which explodes forth from some people as trollish behaviour.
 

nolla

Senor Membrane
Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
3,166
MBTI Type
INFP
What is it about TypoC in particular that engenders such emotional and personal exposes?

I don't know... the people probably come in search of insight about personality, and they want to help anyone else on the same quest, so it seems useful to share some thing...

What are your own rules with regard to personal privacy?

I don't really have rules. I don't like the idea that someone I know in real life comes here and stalks every post I've written, but I guess it depends who it is and what he does with it and so on... But, on the other hand I don't remember revealing anything too huge, not even sure if there are any things like that...

Why are you here? And why do you stay?

I came here for some MBTI info, but became more disinterested in the concept. I stayed because I like this place.

I also think that when looking for an answer for almost anything concerning psychology, this is very good place to ask. There is often a wide range of perspectives, a lot more than I have access to in real life, and it's not unusual for there to be a consensus that gives you the wise thing to do. In fact I think that this setting somehow makes it easier for wisdom in a life philosophy kinda way to somehow come through a lot more than usually. Probably has to do with the people's interest in these things.
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
Openness and Neuroticism

Openness is a sign of low neuroticism. Emotional openness, intellectual openness and social openness are signs of psychological health.

The strong silent type is now passé. And the labile type is now desirable.

It's interesting that we can reduce neuroticism in children simply by talking to them on the telephone. And the internet is the telephone connected to the computer. So just as the telephone is therapeutic, so is the internet.

Little did we know that by talking to one another we are being therapeutic. Look, look - I'm doing therapy right now. And should you be interested enough, intelligent enough or even kind enough to reply to this post, you will be doing therapy too. We will be doing therapy together.

We live in the therapeutic society. Individualism is now dead along with God and the author. And we have formed an electronic tribe in the global village and called it Typology Central.
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
Yes, because wife-beating is becoming less and less popular each day.

It wasn't so long ago we were saying, "The more you beat them, the better they be". And today it is only Islam that teaches us how to beat our wives - for their own good of course.
 
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