I found this elsewhere on the internet which made me think not only about your comment, but also the relationship between Sam and Emma that spawned this conversation.
"Writing that has a voice is writing that has something like a personality. But whose personality is it? As with all art, there is no straight road from the product back to the producer. There are writers loved for their humor who are not funny people, and writers admired for their eloquence who swallow their words, never look you in the eye, and can’t seem to finish a sentence. Wisdom on the page correlates with wisdom in the writer about as frequently as a high batting average correlates with a high I.Q.: they just seem to have very little to do with one another. Witty and charming people can produce prose of sneering sententiousness, and fretful neurotics can, to their readers, seem as though they must be delightful to live with. Personal drabness, through some obscure neural kink, can deliver verbal blooms. Readers who meet a writer whose voice they have fallen in love with usually need to make a small adjustment afterward in order to hang on to the infatuation."
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/06/28/040628crbo_books1?currentPage=2#ixzz0dhHUtdVF
On the Internet, no one knows that you are a dog.
I agree that sometimes when you meet an online persona in person it can be surprising. On the other hand, I've met a lot of people that I first knew online f2f and almost all of them have turned out to be more interesting and just more of themselves in person. I can only think of one person that sort of scared me when I met them face to face.
However, since one aspect of what I do professionally is known as "quantitative text analysis", I have to argue that in some cases one can actually determine aspects of personality and many other things directly from a text. It really depends on the specific situation and text but I agree that you need to be careful where and how you apply this sort of thing. FWIW I've previously used these techniques to detect persons using multiple accounts aka "sock puppets" as an example. Perhaps our lovely resident linguist will opine as well.
Here's another angle on the same subject which I've hinted at before. Non-professional observers can make accurate assessments about mental illness from very short interactions with unfamiliar individuals. On top of the possible disconnect between his text self and the real person face to face, if Sam was already having emotional trouble when he went to Farmville the girls may very well have noticed this almost immediately.
See http://people.virginia.edu/~ent3c/papers2/Articles for Online CV/(34) Oltmanns et al (2004).pdf
etc.
PS Tapu, I am perfectly harmless. I don't know what you are talking about.
On the Internet, no one knows that you are a dog.
I agree that sometimes when you meet an online persona in person it can be surprising. On the other hand, I've met a lot of people that I first knew online f2f and almost all of them have turned out to be more interesting and just more of themselves in person. I can only think of one person that sort of scared me when I met them face to face.
However, since one aspect of what I do professionally is known as "quantitative text analysis", I have to argue that in some cases one can actually determine aspects of personality and many other things directly from a text. It really depends on the specific situation and text but I agree that you need to be careful where and how you apply this sort of thing. FWIW I've previously used these techniques to detect persons using multiple accounts aka "sock puppets" as an example. Perhaps our lovely resident linguist will opine as well.
Here's another angle on the same subject which I've hinted at before. Non-professional observers can make accurate assessments about mental illness from very short interactions with unfamiliar individuals. On top of the possible disconnect between his text self and the real person face to face, if Sam was already having emotional trouble when he went to Farmville the girls may very well have noticed this almost immediately.
See http://people.virginia.edu/~ent3c/papers2/Articles for Online CV/(34) Oltmanns et al (2004).pdf
etc.
PS Tapu, I am perfectly harmless. I don't know what you are talking about.
I once had a case where we were hot on the trail of a notorious enemy agent who our forensics team was able to identify as an Australian shepherd/border collie mix due to some spelling peculiarities in his writing. Apparently among other things he would drop the combination "ou" when he wrote, which is common among Australian shepherds from what I understand.
I don't recall how they figured the border collie part, but it was something to do with his mathematical skills. Those dogs are amazing mathematicians.
We had a bloodhound who was an expert hacker on the case, but after we lost him to a poisoned batch of dog treats, the trail went cold. We'll catch him though eventually and soon I hope. He is a demolitions expert and needless to say he travels well armed and is extremely dangerous.
Here's a piece of on-topic news: I have reason to believe that Sam would have received the Dexter books at the correctional facility today.
I could totally be making this up, but I feel like I recall that some kind of text analysis such as that of which you speak was done on the Unabomber's writing (Manifesto). I'm not sure, though, if it differed from any analysis of a written clue/evidence, such as a kidnapping note, et al....
I once had a case where we were hot on the trail of a notorious enemy agent who our forensics team was able to identify as an Australian shepherd/border collie mix due to some spelling peculiarities in his writing. Apparently among other things he would drop the combination "ou" when he wrote, which is common among Australian shepherds from what I understand.
I don't recall how they figured the border collie part, but it was something to do with his mathematical skills. Those dogs are amazing mathematicians.
We had a bloodhound who was an expert hacker on the case, but after we lost him to a poisoned batch of dog treats, the trail went cold. We'll catch him though eventually and soon I hope. He is a demolitions expert and needless to say he travels well armed and is extremely dangerous.
I once had a case where we were hot on the trail of a notorious enemy agent who our forensics team was able to identify as an Australian shepherd/border collie mix due to some spelling peculiarities in his writing. Apparently among other things he would drop the combination "ou" when he wrote, which is common among Australian shepherds from what I understand.
I don't recall how they figured the border collie part, but it was something to do with his mathematical skills. Those dogs are amazing mathematicians.
We had a bloodhound who was an expert hacker on the case, but after we lost him to a poisoned batch of dog treats, the trail went cold. We'll catch him though eventually and soon I hope. He is a demolitions expert and needless to say he travels well armed and is extremely dangerous.
Here's a piece of on-topic news: I have reason to believe that Sam would have received the Dexter books at the correctional facility today.
Well, just for fun - this video is light and fun
Here's a piece of on-topic news: I have reason to believe that Sam would have received the Dexter books at the correctional facility today.
Ruh roh...did you send him books? FYI I just finished watching Season 2 of that show and it's surprisingly addicting. It's pretty creepy how they make you actually like the serial killer and feel a bit sorry for him. I can see why these youngsters like it so much - the whole idea about wearing the mask at all times; the mask that hides the dark side of yourself, the monster.
I think there is a reason the show is on Showtime. I think a healthy adult can handle that stuff, but damaged and impressionable young peeps can't separate the fiction of it from their lives. Kind of like when I was a teenager and EVERY song on the radio was about me, my life; they were all singing to ME! Yeah, pathetic admission I know
...I've never met anyone from online in real life,but in general people in my real life suck and don't have anything smart or interesting to say like you fictional websleuths character creations....On the Internet, no one knows that you are a dog.
I agree that sometimes when you meet an online persona in person it can be surprising. On the other hand, I've met a lot of people that I first knew online f2f and almost all of them have turned out to be more interesting and just more of themselves in person. I can only think of one person that sort of scared me when I met them face to face.
However, since one aspect of what I do professionally is known as "quantitative text analysis", I have to argue that in some cases one can actually determine aspects of personality and many other things directly from a text. It really depends on the specific situation and text but I agree that you need to be careful where and how you apply this sort of thing. FWIW I've previously used these techniques to detect persons using multiple accounts aka "sock puppets" as an example. Perhaps our lovely resident linguist will opine as well.
Here's another angle on the same subject which I've hinted at before. Non-professional observers can make accurate assessments about mental illness from very short interactions with unfamiliar individuals. On top of the possible disconnect between his text self and the real person face to face, if Sam was already having emotional trouble when he went to Farmville the girls may very well have noticed this almost immediately.
See http://people.virginia.edu/~ent3c/papers2/Articles for Online CV/(34) Oltmanns et al (2004).pdf
etc.
PS Tapu, I am perfectly harmless. I don't know what you are talking about.
Zigz -- you should see how violent the video games I played from 3rd grade through college were.
...I've never met anyone from online in real life,but in general people in my real life suck and don't have anything smart or interesting to say like you fictional websleuths character creations....