A serious discussion about the degradation of social interaction in this community, and the world as a whole.

[λngelღмander]

I've been around for seventeen years. I have not lived through times without the internet, without a constant connection to other people. But from what I've seen, in pop culture and through simple thought, it's startlingly apparent to me that this society has become introverted and unwilling to communicate in healthy ways.

 

Just in this community, you can see there are subsets of people. some more sociable than others. A great example of insociable (assholes) are the people who are unwilling to accept random adds to trade, and instead would like to conduct all trades through trade offers. How sick is that? There are people too fucking lazy to communicate, so they try their very best to avoid interaction. They may say it saves time, and others that it's easier, but I think we can all agree that it stems from a simple unwillingness to speak to and communicate with others. 

The people taking part in this heinous act are losing money left and right, from people like me, who would rather add a person and talk than send a trade offer. Not only is a trade offer more imposing and less fun, but it's time consuming and does not have an immediate gratification. The people taking part in this do not care, though, about their customers, only about themselves.

 

In society as a whole, I feel that the internet itself has produced a very unhealthy rise in this insociability. Even texting, a simple, more easy way to communicate small things rather than place a call which is more in depth and personal, has become a main form of communication for people today. 

This begs the question, is internet and other technology the sole cause of this? No. However I feel that phones and the internet do play the greatest part, so that's what I'll focus on.

 

It not only affects our ability to communicate, but apparently our love lives as well. A study showed that while previously, in years prior to 1970, americans not married by the age of 25 were at a low of 10%. In 2012, the rate was above 25%.

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/09/24/record-share-of-americans-have-never-married/

 

I understand that the internet is not the sole cause of this, but look at the dramatic increase in this rate as technology and the internet becomes more popular. It goes exponential just at the end of the graph. Now in 2014, that rate is up to 50%

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/09/22/happy-unmarried-and-single-americans-week-to-the-105-million-single-people-in-america/

 

Of course, these figures are blown out of proportion and made to seem worse than they are, but the simple fact is that this is a problem. And by being asocial while trading, we only set ourselves up for insociability later in life. This is not how it should be.

 

 

As a trading community and as a society, we should make efforts to become more sociable and communicating more in person and through voice, and taking every effort to being people friendly.

[Дебра]

In other words we have no social lives.

[Sasuke200]

Just in this community, you can see there are subsets of people. some more sociable than others. A great example of insociable (assholes) are the people who are unwilling to accept random adds to trade, and instead would like to conduct all trades through trade offers. 

 

Oh, let me decline my pending 72 friend requests which alot them will be people wasting my time by offering low, not paying pure, offering me 3rd gens for 1st gens, not reading trades, adding me for free items, adding me for the sake of it, adding me to try and scam me, adding me to play with me, adding me to "become friends", adding me to phish me.

 

The thing is that people need to know if you don't want to read my trade which takes 5 seconds, I'm not going to spend 5 seconds accepting you and messaging you why you added me.

[M.G.B.]

u arnt going to get me to go outside ill cut u

[❤ΣκαπανέαςGr❤]

I've been around for seventeen years. I have not lived through times without the internet, without a constant connection to other people. But from what I've seen, in pop culture and through simple thought, it's startlingly apparent to me that this society has become introverted and unwilling to communicate in healthy ways.

 

Just in this community, you can see there are subsets of people. some more sociable than others. A great example of insociable (assholes) are the people who are unwilling to accept random adds to trade, and instead would like to conduct all trades through trade offers. How sick is that? There are people too fucking lazy to communicate, so they try their very best to avoid interaction. They may say it saves time, and others that it's easier, but I think we can all agree that it stems from a simple unwillingness to speak to and communicate with others. 

The people taking part in this heinous act are losing money left and right, from people like me, who would rather add a person and talk than send a trade offer. Not only is a trade offer more imposing and less fun, but it's time consuming and does not have an immediate gratification. The people taking part in this do not care, though, about their customers, only about themselves.

 

In society as a whole, I feel that the internet itself has produced a very unhealthy rise in this insociability. Even texting, a simple, more easy way to communicate small things rather than place a call which is more in depth and personal, has become a main form of communication for people today. 

 

This begs the question, is internet and other technology the sole cause of this? No. However I feel that phones and the internet do play the greatest part, so that's what I'll focus on.

 

It not only affects our ability to communicate, but apparently our love lives as well. A study showed that while previously, in years prior to 1970, americans not married by the age of 25 were at a low of 10%. In 2012, the rate was above 25%.

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/09/24/record-share-of-americans-have-never-married/

 

I understand that the internet is not the sole cause of this, but look at the dramatic increase in this rate as technology and the internet becomes more popular. It goes exponential just at the end of the graph. Now in 2014, that rate is up to 50%

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/09/22/happy-unmarried-and-single-americans-week-to-the-105-million-single-people-in-america/

 

Of course, these figures are blown out of proportion and made to seem worse than they are, but the simple fact is that this is a problem. And by being asocial while trading, we only set ourselves up for insociability later in life. This is not how it should be.

 

 

As a trading community and as a society, we should make efforts to become more sociable and communicating more in person and through voice, and taking every effort to being people friendly.

blah blah

ppl hate chats over the internet with unknown individuals.

no shit.

I thank valve for trade offers add on

it saved me hours of -hi and +rep me chats

 

Now if I see an offer that is low I counter it and done laters no buts no why no but bp,tf price is more.

or reject it on the spot if its so terrible.

chats can only result to lower prices and that's never good.

 

with all honestly the only ppl that are bitching for that are sharkers.

[Khaos]

Meh, I don't blame em, they dont have time to sit on their ass waiting for adds, so they just take trade offers. 

 

Those stats aren't exactly right, since back in the 1970 our population was at like 4 bill, and by now we have doubled. 

[Seminal Inhalation]

What I think is, they're able to communicate with even more people through technology, and because of this, people are bound to meet more "Arseholes" and more ignorant people.

[λngelღмander]

Oh, let me decline my pending 72 friend requests which alot them will be people wasting my time by offering low, not paying pure, offering me 3rd gens for 1st gens, not reading trades, adding me for free items, adding me for the sake of it, adding me to try and scam me, adding me to play with me, adding me to "become friends", adding me to phish me.

You're exaggerating, many private adds have led to actual sales for me. I did all of my trading through invites and not trade offers. You're just a socially inept bastard. Also, instead of being sarcastic and making snarky remarks, how about we have a genuine discussion about this?

[Sasuke200]

You're exaggerating, many private adds have led to actual sales for me. I did all of my trading through invites and not trade offers. You're just a socially inept bastard. Also, instead of being sarcastic and making snarky remarks, how about we have a genuine discussion about this?

 

Oh no I am not, I do have 72 pending requests and most of them are for most of these reasons. These kinds of adds don't apply to everyone, but some people.

[λngelღмander]

Oh no I am not, I do have 72 pending requests and most of them are for most of these reasons. These kinds of adds don't apply to everyone, but some people.

Start by answering the first one. There is nothing more invigorating than accepting a bunch of friend invites at once and juggling a ton of people without any of them ever finding out you were talking to someone else at the same time.

[anime dipshit]

Just in this community, you can see there are subsets of people. some more sociable than others. A great example of insociable (assholes) are the people who are unwilling to accept random adds to trade, and instead would like to conduct all trades through trade offers. How sick is that?

 

It's sick as hell.

 

 

Personally I hate accepting random adds when most of the time the person is bumbling with google translate just to lowball me, a literal child who gets angry when I don't accept his crap, "how much for your unusuals?", or some other undesirable conversation waiting to happen.

 

On the other side though, I do accept some requests, I'm not a total hermit. I'll deal with people when I know they're not going to waste my time, or at least much of it. I don't mind when people give me an offer, I reject it and they leave it at that, no whining or "pls" involved.

 

As for unsocial behavior in general, who cares? It doesn't hurt you. People not getting married doesn't hurt you. People wanting to keep to themselves doesn't hurt anyone. Just because you can't understand how someone could be happy living differently than you doesn't make them wrong. If you understood it, chances are you'd be like them.

 

Start by answering the first one. There is nothing more invigorating than accepting a bunch of friend invites at once and juggling a ton of people without any of them ever finding out you were talking to someone else at the same time.

 

Again you're assuming other people are just like you. I can think of plenty of things more invigorating than that.

[knavesmith]

I've been around for seventeen years. I have not lived through times without the internet, without a constant connection to other people. But from what I've seen, in pop culture and through simple thought, it's startlingly apparent to me that this society has become introverted and unwilling to communicate in healthy ways.

 

Just in this community, you can see there are subsets of people. some more sociable than others. A great example of insociable (assholes) are the people who are unwilling to accept random adds to trade, and instead would like to conduct all trades through trade offers. How sick is that? There are people too fucking lazy to communicate, so they try their very best to avoid interaction. They may say it saves time, and others that it's easier, but I think we can all agree that it stems from a simple unwillingness to speak to and communicate with others.

 

I stopped reading after this.

 

If you think people don't accept adds because they want to be anti-social, then you must have been living under a rock during your 17 years.

Oh, let me decline my pending 72 friend requests which alot them will be people wasting my time by offering low, not paying pure, offering me 3rd gens for 1st gens, not reading trades, adding me for free items, adding me for the sake of it, adding me to try and scam me, adding me to play with me, adding me to "become friends", adding me to phish me.

 

The thing is that people need to know if you don't want to read my trade which takes 5 seconds, I'm not going to spend 5 seconds accepting you and messaging you why you added me.

^This. This is not an exaggeration at all. You are/used to be a trader. You should know how adds are. Sure, I agree that some private adds CAN lead to sales, but the amount of useless adds completely outweigh these lucky adds.

 

 

Also, instead of being sarcastic and making snarky remarks, how about we have a genuine discussion about this?

You're just a socially inept bastard.

A great example of insociable (assholes) are the people...

Oh the irony.

[BlaqkAudio]

Sorry to poke on the issue but I do recall you saying that you would rather fail a class assignment that has to do with public speaking than just doing it.

 

This thread is very hypocritical.

[λngelღмander]

Sorry to poke on the issue but I do recall you saying that you would rather fail a class assignment that has to do with public speaking than just doing it.

 

This thread is very hypocritical.

Actually, it's not. I'm fine with social interaction, not when I have to speak to no one in particular in front of a group of people. It's easy to personally attack me for hypocrisy, but this is false. 

Ad hominem tu quoque

[Usurper_King?]

well you know,not everyone sits around looking for people to communicate online. Some people have a life, or they want to avoid phishsers, or retards in general who lowball you

[Cedarium]

The only advantage to trade offers is the ability to do buissness via mobile. If I could do normal trades by mobile, I'd never ask people to send me trade offers only (which I only do while on vacation / a trip)

 

I personally love what adds let you do. I've built many friendships off of what was just a friend request to make a trade.

[ChungusJabronie]

It is interesting that you brought up a very good topic for inconclusive reasons.

 

I have a strong belief that, in the steam trading community, social isolation is a double-edged weapon.

 

For example. To not sustain constant interaction with fellow traders, you risk loosing a shared view on the market. We all know what happens when we make deals without having enough information. You also loose the chance to learn from another person, his/her culture, his/her opinions, his/her wisdom. Or even perhaps a person that helps you through  hard times, or just makes you have a nice time.

 

I have met interesting people from all around the world. I have met cool people, i have met people that act like they are gods just for being top of the score, veterans, having lots of money or holding donator status. Or worst. I have seen admins and moderators treat any and all costumers in their servers/pages like crap. I have seen people that insult you when they loose control of the deal, i have met rude children that think they get away with multiple "I don't care" when asked to behave.

 

I say don't blame the internet, or cellphones, desktop pc`s, tablets or laptops. Blame people. Blame stupid parenting. Blame school educational negligence. A hammer wont hurt you by its own. Money does not corrupt on his own. A gun does not shoot itself. People are to blame.

 

Yet some people rather avoid chat contact because they are scared of scammers phishers and other vermin. Not only they live in fear of loosing their bp on a poorly timed click or some kind of new devised forced entry to their account.

 

But they also avoid chat contact because they are tired of watching themselves in the mirror. 

 

Now if you speak about the internet culture, and the behavior of the users. I might say that the most primal social rules are latent in the web, and sometimes they are stronger.

 

Whoever yells harder, whoever behaves the more reckless like those badass villains in movies, whoever achieves psychotic levels of disregard for another human being, in order to amuse people that are trying to cope with their own problems via attacking those that cannot/don't want / don't know how to defend themselves... Will be the emperor of the internet because he/she will have followers and imitators. And his conduct will spread like a virus.

 

He who learns to destroy everything has no need to build. It is certainly easier to be an anonymous/fictitious angry parasite. Than being a human being.  

 

Believe me I know. Sometimes, i feel that primal urge to be an idiot to people that are mean to me. Like some vendetta is in order. But afterwards, i realize that for those seconds of stupidity, i stop being 20 years old, and i become a 12 year old kid. Just like that other person. That`s when i say, that sometimes, we avoid people in the internet so we don't look each other in a mirror.

 

( I think this deserves to be in the serious discussion thread ) 

[nobody knows]

dis flame war doe

[λngelღмander]

=snip-

I died a little inside reading this, because of how happy it made me. thank you for joining the discussion.

[Budi]

I agree with you about the lack of social interaction part for society. This has been very apparent for the last 15 years or so. As a teacher, I see this more and more with every new group of students I get. Seeing the number of people in the US. who can't escape their house is disgusting. I will say as someone who has done extensive travel in Europe, I feel like this is a bigger issue here in the US. compared to other countries.  

 

The problem with your argument is using the idea that people declining adds and only using trade offers is a horrible example to help back your cause. 

 

For me personally, I only use trade offers to avoid the morons that can't read and waste my time, not have to deal with phishing scams and scammers in general, and because when I'm at work, Steam is blocked on our network, so I can only accept offers on my mobile phone. 

 

There are plenty of examples of people who need to use trade offers exclusively and it has nothing to do with a lack of sociability. 

 

So good topic in theory, but bad execution. 

[Julia]

I've thought the same. That's why I accept adds. If I don't feel like interacting with anyone at the moment I'll close most of my trades or leave them un-bumped. If someone wants to trade with me I feel that I should consider their interests, and not only mine. Some people legitimately have problems with trade offers, or want the item as soon as possible, or would prefer if they talked to someone. To me, being a good trader means making profit while having positive exchanges between people.  I've made several friends with people who have added me to buy my stuff from long ago that I still talk to. As annoying as some traders can be, there are good interactions to encounter.

 

As for myself, there are some times when I prefer sending a trade offer, and some times when I prefer to add someone. I wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to use only trade offers, though. The volume of items some people trade can be a bit overwhelming to the point where dealing with each individual becomes far too time-consuming. But... I still think it's a good idea to talk to people that you don't know. :3

[λngelღмander]

I agree with you about the lack of social interaction part for society. This has been very apparent for the last 15 years or so. As a teacher, I see this more and more with every new group of students I get. Seeing the number of people in the US. who can't escape their house is disgusting. I will say as someone who has done extensive travel in Europe, I feel like this is a bigger issue here in the US. compared to other countries.  

 

The problem with your argument is using the idea that people declining adds and only using trade offers is a horrible example to help back your cause. 

 

For me personally, I only use trade offers to avoid the morons that can't read and waste my time, not have to deal with phishing scams and scammers in general, and because when I'm at work, Steam is blocked on our network, so I can only accept offers on my mobile phone. 

 

There are plenty of examples of people who need to use trade offers exclusively and it has nothing to do with a lack of sociability. 

 

So good topic in theory, but bad execution. 

This topic was literally my excuse to hate on people using trade offers only. Its pretty much my main reason for creating it. 

[knavesmith]

This topic was literally my excuse to hate on people using trade offers only. Its pretty much my main reason for creating it.

 

You hate a lot of things, don't you?

[Дебра]

Am I the only one who hates using trade offers and finds them more annoying than actually talking to the person?

Talking = a chance to get a better deal + higher chance you will trade your items without a glitch + there have been countless trade offer bugs that could be exploited to scam.

[Cedarium]

Am I the only one who hates using trade offers and finds them more annoying than actually talking to the person?

Talking = a chance to get a better deal + higher chance you will trade your items without a glitch + there have been countless trade offer bugs that could be exploited to scam.

I only send trade offers without us being added if I'm buying something like robot parts, since counting is key there.