With Arms Outstretched

"I'm from Kerry, close to Dingle, can I put my SIM card in your phone?"

Random evening, on many accounts, but tonight I received my first international text message. It’s from my friend/lover Paul and I wanted to text back, but I had no idea if my phone could do such a thing and, if so, whether it would charge me some random change amount or fifteen dollars. So, as I do with most things, I googled it when I got home.

I really didn’t find out how much, though it seems to be about a quarter each, but that’s not that point. I was completely turned off almost immediately because I came across a message board, one of those “ask a question” yahoo boards that are so not helpful because of the people who use them. But it got me thinking; who actually takes the time to respond to these messages?

I was put off by two responses that were particularly dick-ish, as I find is often the case, so I first thought that some twat that both believes that he/she (though, sorry, probably he) knows everything AND has absolutely no fucking life would be the kind of person that would engage in these boards on a regular enough basis. But there’s more to be thought.

So let’s just keep with my text example. Is there someone out there, or multiple someones as it seems, that considers themselves to be a texting expert, so much so that they peruse the message boards in their spare time so that in the event of a texting crisis they may impart their knowledge to the masses? Seriously, I may happen upon such boards when I’m searching for something, but I’ve never felt the need to add my own response, probably precisely because I’m looking for a answer anyway, therefore I am obviously not privy to the matter at hand.

But it’s not like I look around film message boards and think, “Here I am, ready to save you from your film knowledge quandaries.” Nor do I do this with any other topic for which I may have some sort of knowledge. And it’s not like I don’t have free time, I spend more than my fair share on Jezebel every day, so what makes a message board expert different from me, your average person?

And to go even further, what kind of person actually uses message boards at all, even to say something like, “I know exactly what you mean. My pee smells funny, too, and I haven’t been eating asparagus, WTF?” It seems that there are people out there that use the internet far more than me, which on some levels is just shocking, but I just don’t know who these people are and what they are like. I feel bad making such a snap judgment, but I can’t help it, I think that these people are totally lame, I’m just saying.

posted by Alison @ 11:57 PM