Whatever Happened To Online Forums?

I'm so confused........

"contrived social interaction like coworkers, social workers, managers, patients for 12 hours a day"

By that, do you mean work?

I meant the hospital setting (I'm looking into outpatient and gradually moving away from the bedside). lol But if I could just NOT work...I'd do that too. lol

I've worked outpatient and it's the same interactions. Just that the patient isn't lying in a bed at the time!

I'm pretty young. But I have been alive long enough to be apart of many online forums in my lifetime and I wonder...have forums always been this way? Has it always been about arguing one's point and trying to prove that one's view is more accurate, etc? It seems to me that as the years rolled by online forums have become less about interacting with others or sharing information and growing and more of a way of seeking confirmation for one's views. It doesn't feel like it's about expanding one's mind to other ways of looking at things.

In the early days, from what I remember, the internet was all about "a/s/l?". I'd say it's improved- A LOT.

I've been a member of various BBS and MUDs since the mid-90s. Trolling and flame wars were just as prolific back then, at least among the people I hung out with. I do think that as the internet becomes less separate from every day life, there is literally MORE of it because there are simply more people on the internet.

I started out in the early 80's on dial-up Unix bulletin boards using a 300 baud acoustic coupler. I think things have gotten better over the decades just because there is so much more choice now. 'Keyboard commandos' have been and shall always be with us. I think people would be much nicer if they were not anonymous and were therefore more accountable for their actions.