Discussion forum warriors are not all adolescent geeks, by any means
Pensioners have discovered the delights of posting on Internet message boards
By Esa Mäkinen
The City of Espoo is breaking the law by outsourcing the bailiffs’ work [enforcement activities under the Ministry of Justice] to collection agencies, writes pseudonym ‘Durian’ in the HS.fi discussion forum at the end of April. He is not a happy poster.
A little later on the same thread, someone replies under the username 'Dr. Dulcamara'.
She calls the collection agencies “torpedoes”* and predicts fat years to come for them in the near future.
This spurs Durian to up the ante, and he begins to wonder aloud whether Finland is a constitutional state any more: the country is lacking an independent judicial system.
We'll leave them to it for now; they have much to discuss.
Thousands of such conversations take place on the Internet every day.
The participants do not know each others’ true identities, and yet they still debate fervently.
Durian and Dr. Dulcamara are among the most active posters to use the HS.fi discussion forum. But who are they.. err.. "in real life"?
Dr. Dulcamara replies from Vienna to an email enquiry.
She is a fifty-something entrepreneur from Finland, who has studied at the Helsinki School of Economics and also in Oxford.
She puts up two to three posts a day and says that she is interested in a wide range of subjects: human rights questions, nature, economics, opera...
Her online monicker is incidentally drawn from a [male] character in Gaetano Donizetti's opera L'elisir d'amore.
“I get a lot out of these discussions, as I start to ruminate about people’s writings on threads, and then I reply to them. It is a learning process of a sort that hopefully sometimes even leads to reciprocal interaction”, Dr. Dulcamara says, touching ever so gently on one familiar aspect of message board life - the rarity of finding or achieving a point-of-view change among the correspondents.
Dr. Dulcamara believes that the Internet discussion forums are even a way to have an effect on public debate.
One of the most fruitful threads that she ever took part in dealt with Turkey’s EU membership. Personal attacks, in turn, vex Dr. Dulcamara. Ad hominems abound on the boards.
“I’ve been called a 'feminazi', a ‘doctor up in her ivory tower’ and goodness knows what else."
The other party in the thread dealing with the vexed subject of outsourcing is Durian, a 64-year-old university-educated male entrepreneur from the Province of Finland Proper, west of the capital.
Durian explains that on a couple of days a week he spends a few hours taking part in the online discussions.
Initially Durian’s reason to plunge into the message boards was his desire to have a voice, to wield some influence. Later, it has also become a way to improve his writing.
“Writing is also a means of relaxation. It is a way to shrug off debilitating overspecialisation, the failure to see the wood for the trees of your own field, which is a real threat to anyone engaged in a lengthy work undertaking.”
The motive for posting comes from one’s critical nature and scepticism.
“I easily get taken in by subjects where the propaganda being rammed down the public’s throat contradicts the existing reality. Subjects that get bandied around such as 'the welfare society' and 'uncorrupted civilised constitutional state' leap to mind", Durian continues.
For many, both Durian and Dr. Dulcamara’s age may come as a surprise: is the Internet not supposedly the stomping ground of adolescent nerds?
“Fifteen years ago it was said that on a global scale the Net was merely the hobby and playground of white Caucasian males”, says Maarit Valo, Professor in Speech Communication at the University of Jyväskylä.
“Today pensioners as well as women use the Net. Even 70-year-olds have used computers in their working life.”
On the newspapers’ opinion pages and Letters to the Editor columns, age has always been an asset. Pensioners have the interest and, above all, the time to look into social issues.
“In many respects the Internet message boards are today’s opinion pages”, Valo goes on.
In the view of internet communication researcher Marko Siitonen, also based in Jyväskylä, there is no such thing as a stereotypical Net poster any more.
There are so many different types of discussions taking place that new sub-categories spring up all the time.
In addition to generic discussion forums such as the ones provided by HS.fi and the Suomi24 Internet community, there is a vast sprawl of special-interest message boards geared towards enthusiasts and professionals alike in various fields.
For example medical doctors have their own private discussion forum, football fans log in to Futisforum and debate the merits or otherwise of players and teams, and of course racial-, sexual-, social-, religious-, artistic-, and any other kind of minorities all have their own places to emote, educate, and fulminate.
In many cases these normally relatively select places get swamped by outsiders when something happens in society that touches on them - a good example was the sudden surge in traffic on kennel club or dog-breeding forums when a British TV documentary exposed dog-fighting in Finland.
Also threads within or between people’s blogs, or Internet communities such as the IRC-Galleria can be classified as online discussion.
A good many blogs have their own faithful readerships who thrash out arguments on a daily basis.
“Someone wants to advance his own or his group’s cause, someone wants to disseminate information and educate others wallowing in ignorance, someone wants to promote his beloved hobby, someone wants to meet new people, and someone else may simply want a way of killing time.”
So what do the posters say?
“Newspapers’ discussion forums are primarily just a means of killing time, a momentary time-out from everyday routines”, pseudonym 'JHA' writes.
He is an academically-educated 30-year-old from Vantaa, working in industry.
Another pseudonym called 'Kai Tolkku' speaks of “cerebral gymnastics”. Kai Tolkku is another prolific HS.fi correspondent, and another approaching retirement age.
Veikko Päiviö, 74, who writes under his own name, says he has given up television in favour of the Internet.
Spending his winters in Tenerife, Päiviö surfs the Net and takes part in online debate while his wife knits socks.
Another poster who logs in as 'The Unknown Civilian', says he rather reads people’s message board offerings than reporters’ stories from the papers. The Unknown Civilian is a 71-year-old Doctor of Technology from Helsinki with a further Master's degree in the arts.
“Compared with the situation in many other countries, the Finnish journalists’ general knowledge and even their honesty are questionable”, he charges. Ouch!
The Unknown Civilian believes that in time the Net discussions will start having an effect on the society on a larger scale.
So, why would anyone want to post their opinions on the Internet message boards?
What exactly does one get out of it?
“My life experience and general knowledge are larger than those of an average poster. I try to correct people’s faulty impressions on various matters and I also try to turn entire conversations into something deeper and more probing", says The Unknown Civilian.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 21.5.2009
* The term "torpedo" here perhaps requires a little glossing. It is slang, and derives from a 1920s term used primarily in the US for a hitman for the mobs. Swedish uses the word "torped" for this same purpose.
Note: There have also been those who would like to have a similar feedback and discussion forum arrangement on this site to that on the online pages of the Finnish-language parent newspaper. It is mainly an issue of moderating and manpower - unfortunately not all Internet posters are well house-trained. We'll see what the autumn brings...
Links:
Flame Warriors - a humorous look at the more extreme types one encounters on discussion forums. All (virtual) human life is here. You may even find yourself.
ESA MÄKINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
esa.makinen@hs.fi
|
| 26.5.2009 - THIS WEEK |
Discussion forum warriors are not all adolescent geeks, by any means
|
|
