One of the things I keep talking about is that we need a new vocabulary, if we’re going to keep distinguishing between virtual and physical space. Or we need to stop distinguishing.
I’m inclined to simplify and just say things like “we met a year ago” and let online be as valid a meeting as any other venue. And yet, some people find that misleading, and want to know when you met “in person” (when what they really mean is “when did your bodies occupy the same 8-foot circle”).
Mac News: Social Networking: More Than a Convention, It’s a Smeeting
People actually coined a new phrase: ‘Nice to “smeet” you.’ S-M-E-E-T,” says Randal Moss, executive director of the conference.“Smeet,” Moss explains, is short for “second meeting,” the first one having happened on the Second Life grid.
Perfectly clear: First meet happens in Second Life, and second meet happens in first life.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Domitor // Aug 27, 2007 at 3:49 pm
I’m w/ you — I think online meetings are valid. It’s ironic that though people want to live their alter egos through online interaction, you sometimes end up getting closer than you do to your meatspace peers.
2 ChelleMoore // Aug 27, 2007 at 7:48 pm
It was fantastic meeting you at SLCC!! And yes, I hope that Jazz and I prove online meetings are valid!
By the way, you now have 2 more fans
3 Peregrine // Aug 28, 2007 at 5:19 am
Ugh. I hate it when they start coining new terms. Partly because it really screws with the spell checkers. But also because of the ridiculous terms they come up with. I mean “Smeet”? Sounds like something you do with custard.
When they start doing that, and coming up with fancy Portmanteaus that come across like double entendres, it just goes to make the whole online experience tacky. I still don’t like the term “Blog”. It sounds like something in a ’50s B-movie that creeps toward you very slowly. “Don’t go in there! The Blogs will Smeet you!”
Domitor’s got a point, though. As much as I prefer interacting in meatspace, I find that most of the people I’ve interacted with tend to be online. Most of my meatspace friends work through the week, and only ever ‘hang out’ on weekends. As a result, the majority of human interaction I have in a week happens in forums or over Messenger.
4 regina lynn // Aug 28, 2007 at 8:32 am
Peregrine - it’s true for me too, working from home; my people contact has to be online or I wouldn’t get any at all. Eek!
It’s not that one prefers to interact online so much as … that’s where one’s friends are. The method of interaction is a side issue. I love hanging out with all of you but we all live too far apart to do it in person all the time. Given the choice between never hangin’ out or hangin’ out online, well, that’s hardly a choice. Of course we’ll interact online — until such time as we can drape all over each other again.
5 Xylitol // Aug 28, 2007 at 10:13 am
I generally use the terms “have known”/”got to know” and “met”/”met with”. It’s not perfect, but makes it fairly clear even to non-online people - you can “have known” your pen pal, the secretary at the other corporate office, etc for years without having exactly met in meat space. It implies no physical meeting but that you consider yourself to be part of a relationship in some sense or another (not specifically romantic) without specifying in by what means (internet, fax, smail, telephone, vibrating air molecules, observing reflected light, what have you) that came about. So in daily conversation (with non-geeks and requiring a quick summary) I got to know my wife 15 years ago, we met 10 years ago and we’ve been married nine years. This is usually clear enough to be sufficient, unless the other person takes it as a conversation starter and ask for follow up information.
Oh, and I don’t like smeet. I, too, feel it sounds more like something else. I can deal with new terms, just not feeling it with this one. I think “meet RL” or “meet physically” is sufficient and traditionally accepted enough to not need a one-word replacement if it’s got to be unambiguous. I pretty much favor not differentiating most of the time and when then needing to differentiate simply tack modifiers on like in “I met her” vs “I met her in Switzerland” vs “I met her in Oklahoma” instead of making up different words for “met in Switzerland” and “met in Oklahoma”. My opinion might have more clout if English was my first language, I guess.