Earlier when we were discussing how nice it is here to be able to discuss things and getting to know everybody on here...I got to thinking about some of the people I've talked to online who were...far less open minded to say the least.

When I was a teenager, I went into a chat room one night and started chatting it up with a 15 year old girl in New Zealand. And I didn't go into them like a lot of people to say 'f-ck this' and 'f-ck that' and make all those obscene symbols and stuff, I went in, I wanted to find out what the other people were like, what did they like, what they liked to read, I always discussed the books I'd read..and it didn't take long to find out this girl had little ambition for anything...when asked what she liked to do, her answer was watch TV, that was the ONLY thing she liked to do. So, I make a simple little suggestion that when she's in school, she check out their library for a book, and before I could even say what the name of it was (Fahrenheit 451), she's biting my head off and starts going off on 'people my age DON'T read, my grandmother's cooler than you and she's in her 60s'.

Let's see, that was about 3 or 4 years ago I reckon...I'd sure like to know what her 'I only watch TV, nobody reads' attitude is doing to benefit her now when she must be in the real world or at least closer to it than she was at 15.

Anyway, if anybody else here would've ever had the displeasure of chatting with somebody like that, what would your impression of them be?

My impression is that she is 15 going on 10, very immature and needs to grow up and realize there is more in this world than just watching TV. I would have ended that conversation pretty fast.

She's a teenager! They don't typically read non-essential reading and they tend to like TV. Can't really judge somebody because they were an immature teenager.

Gotta tell you though, of all the ones I've talked her, her kind don't grow on trees...in fact I'd wager to say I NEVER talked to another teenager who had her attitude. Though in comparison I know another teenaged girl who absolutely HATES watching TV, she finds it so boring.

I have been reading books since I was 8 years old. TV had its time but I liked reading.

Supernova wrote:

Gotta tell you though, of all the ones I've talked her, her kind don't grow on trees...in fact I'd wager to say I NEVER talked to another teenager who had her attitude. Though in comparison I know another teenaged girl who absolutely HATES watching TV, she finds it so boring.

Yeah, some could be bad and could use a good smack.

Tony Marino wrote:

I have been reading books since I was 8 years old. TV had its time but I liked reading.

Got to agree...as a kid, I liked TV, I had all my favorite shows I tried to catch every day, but if the weather was just right for playing baseball, you'd never catch me in front of the TV, and when I got older and the weather was good, I'd go up to my clubhouse with my music and my Fright Time books and read about bug people and computers that tried to kill their owners, and the dead returning to terrorize drive in theaters and ski resorts, whole lot of good stuff...that was how I spent some of my better summer days when I was 11 and 12.

The thing of it is, even if she wasn't an avid reader, she did not respond maturely. And by 15 people have had ample opportunity to learn to respond to things articulately and nicely.

Your experience doesn't surprise me though. I have seen more times than I could count, people who just react like jerks to anything. So, she probably felt embarrassed that she did not have anything to add to the conversation than about television, so instead of learning from you, she wanted to make you feel stupid.

Sad, but it happens all the time.

RedBedroom wrote:

The thing of it is, even if she wasn't an avid reader, she did not respond maturely. And by 15 people have had ample opportunity to learn to respond to things articulately and nicely.

Your experience doesn't surprise me though. I have seen more times than I could count, people who just react like jerks to anything. So, she probably felt embarrassed that she did not have anything to add to the conversation than about television, so instead of learning from you, she wanted to make you feel stupid.

Sad, but it happens all the time.

I'll say, I've been called a lot of things in my time, especially online: white trash, whore, nigger (which makes no sense since I'm white), damaged goods, fat, antisocial, and then there's my personal favorite, an autistic bitch, but I have NEVER before or since that girl, been compared to somebody's grandmother, or even their great grandmother, as she later added.

I wouldn't think less of her because she doesn't read but I would think less of her because she thinks less of me because I do.