Problem with emotion

[SnEptUne]

Since school is ending, I have some free time to do things, such as playing computer games. However, I found that computer games, especially World of Warcraft, is more stressful and depressing then needed.

Yesteraday, someone in game asked me to play with him in an "instance", so I spent 20 minutes walking to the entrance and asked if anyone in group has a quest here. They pretend they didn't hear me, so I asked them again and they still don't reply. After 30 minutes and asking if they are human instead of bot, someone tell me he can just leave, as if he is threatening me to shut up because I need his help? I got so frustrated that I quit the game.

A virtual game can be a reflection of the real world. What do I do when someone asked me for help just ignore me after he/she got the help? I am not asking for any reward, but at the very least, that someone should tell me why he/she ignore me, or is that too much to ask for people these day?

Anyway, I am getting so easy frustrated in the last few weeks with people (including professors) constantly attacking religions saying religious people are more likely to be closed mind and such. The statement is acceptable to today's society because it is about religion, but imagine the same statement is made to black, etc... And what is worse is that there is question like this in the exam:

Question x) Which of the following group is most likely to attack a guy who don't conform to gender role: a) religious people, b) drug abuser, c) a lesbian....

People are free to believe in what they want, they can be rude if they want to be. But I just cannot bring myself to smile at them when they are rude to me without telling me why. I can forgive someone only if I can understand them, but I am completely clusless what is on their mind.

[12praiseGOD]

Praying for ya! You didn't do anything wrong, some people are just harder to get along with than others. You never know if they were having a hard time, so we just have to learn to deal with rude people.
God bless you!

[Aedin]

I don't really know what to say about the religious people part, other than I'm not a big fan of people who assume religious people are more likely to be close-minded and such.

However, I did play WoW for two years, so I can comment on that. Most people on that are not very nice or friendly. They'll usually not respond to your questions, and get mad and leave when things aren't going well, at least on my server that's how it was. It's not you man, most people on WoW just aren't very good people in general.

[SnEptUne]

Thanks people. If people are rude at me because I am ugly or stupid, I can understand. I guess I should catalogized the behaviour as the lack of communication skills/computer operative skills. I am most likely reading too much into it, they probably have learnt only how to only ask for help in English :p

I will try to find a better use of my time, maybe I will go back into oil-painting instead.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Religious people are more likely to only accept certain world views as they must factor in religious doctrines. If you want to prove people wrong, show that you're an open-minded Christian.

Out of curiosity: to you, what does being an open-minded Christian entail?

A virtual MMO may try its best to be a microcosm of the world, but it will never succeed in totally being one. Despite similarities between virtual worlds and the real world, it does not take away the fact that the virtual world is still virtual.

I used to play WoW, I got up to about level 62, and then I quit because of school. It's been about a year since I played, and I still have the urge to play, but I constantly remind myself to never go back and play. XD

Don't let it get to you, there are always rude people on the internet. Likewise, there are always nice people on it too, granted there's probably more rude people than nice people. It's a no-brainer that people are more inclined to act aggressively and/or rudely when anonymous, and the internet lets people hide themselves very well.

Question x) Which of the following group is most likely to attack a guy who don't conform to gender role: a) religious people, b) drug abuser, c) a lesbian....

Yeah the answer is obviously A (unless by "attack" it means a physical attack). If you want to speak statistically of people being "close-minded", then yes religion plays a factor in it. A legitimate Christian to me would see notice and understand other ideologies in life, yet separate it from God's truth. There is a difference between understanding and acceptance. You do not have to be accepting of everything to be "open-minded". Notice that most people who claim that religious people are too close-minded are often themselves too close-minded in their own preconceived ideas of what religion is. Often times it's a two way blockade.

If people want to attack religions, then I guess it's their prerogative. Personally, all it does for me is let their lack of intelligence to shine even further. The way I see it, opponents of Christianity and make mindless complaints and attacks towards it don't have a firm grasp on philosophy and logic.

[SnEptUne]

Nevertheless, I expect a university professor to be more informed than me, yet she kept making insensitive remarks about religions.

It is a problem in social science, they claimed that women's is less logical by doing brain scan, black people have low IQ on average, and men are more self-destructive on average. They can be all true, but does it meant when you see a black people walking on a street, do you say "Ah ha, you are black, so you are more likely to be stupid!" Of course not!

So the bottom line is, what are the social implications on such finding? Who should be held accountable for the loss of jobs and social barriers created by the researches? If you are an employer with two candidates with equal education and quality, one is a black women, the other a white man, who will you hire based on those studies? Similiar, if a person is attending a religious school and that person is bisexual, how safe do you think that person feel based on those studies?

[Mr. SmartyPants]

You're not going to find solutions from a sociologist. They only find problems or the potential root for problems. Regardless, do know that a correlation between two things does not really mean anything. Yes it is statistically shown that Black Americans have a lower IQ than White Americans. Why? Because most people living below the poverty line with not much opportunity for excellent education are black. It's not because they're stupider or any lesser than white people. As such, I believe a lot of characteristics of people-groups are mostly sociocultural. If the colors were reversed, I'm sure that whites would be seen as the "lesser minority" race that has the lower IQ, have the more undesirable jobs, and live closer to the poverty line.

I think that we as a country are to blame for our faults and problems.

[SnEptUne]

You're not going to find solutions from a sociologist. They only find problems or the potential root for problems. Regardless, do know that a correlation between two things does not really mean anything. Yes it is statistically shown that Black Americans have a lower IQ than White Americans. Why? Because most people living below the poverty line with not much opportunity for excellent education are black. It's not because they're stupider or any lesser than white people. As such, I believe a lot of characteristics of people-groups are mostly sociocultural. If the colors were reversed, I'm sure that whites would be seen as the "lesser minority" race that has the lower IQ, have the more undesirable jobs, and live closer to the poverty line.

I think that we as a country are to blame for our faults and problems.

What I meant is that, although those studies help finds problem of the society, they also reinforce the segregation. When, for example, they found that women tends to be less logical, many of the women will start to have an excuse to be less logical or to conform to the society's expectation of them to be less logical. Thus, the identification of problems itself is also social constructing.

And when such problem has been identified, they are often exploited. So what if the underlying problem for black people is poverty? In the previous example, the employor will still more likely to choose the white man because it has less chance for that man to be in poverty and thus higher IQ. By associating lower IQ with black, it matter not what reason is behind it.

In a hospital, it is known that man tends to die sooner. So if an old man got a cancer and an old lady got a cancer, all things equal, the old lady will be choosen for theorapy instead if resource is limited. It is a logical choice, but why gender? Why black? Why not just have a study that shows people in poverty has lower IQ instead of black? Sociologist is to blame.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

It's a sad cycle, I'm afraid. And I think that we are all to blame. I can't say it's really sociology to blame, being that all they do is finding correlations and statistics on what is seemingly true. It's out understandings and misunderstandings that perpetuate these unfortunate cycles in our culture.

[SnEptUne]

I suppose we are all to blame indeed. Nevertheless, irresponsible social science do play a part in the equation.

When the research question is for example, "How does male compare to female in sport?" it is bound to find differences, not because female are inferior, but because they have shorter limbs in general. Besides the whole abuse of statistic significance in social science that doesn't mean anything without considering effect size, unlike in biology and physics, researches published by social scientist are often not subject to the same examinations. As a result, many of the researchs tend to be about proving the author right, instead of finding the truth/reason behind something besides pure speculations by the researcher themselves.

So perhaps it isn't just the individual sociologist to blame, but also the whole institution (including popular media, and culture assumptions of what seemingly true) that fosters such irresponsibility.

It is as if we need must find differences and category, be it gender, ethnicity, or social status. When people see a baby, why do they ask "is it a boy or a girl?" When people meet a racial minority, why do they ask "where are you from?" Although they maybe just trying to get to understand that someone, often time it was to put their mind at ease because they know how to deal with <insert a group here>.

That being said, I am also to blame for catagorizing people, that people with unknown gender in real life can confuse me, because I don't want the whole mess that come with "romantic relationship". But in that case, I would be conforming to heterocentrism, that "opposite" gender would find interest in each other just because of gender, that it matters not what personality and interest they have?

Sorry for the ranting, it seems it is getting off topic :p

[Kamille]

Sorry I saw this a bit late, but I'm glad it looks like you've pretty much got a grip on this.

Next time you get so frustrated, pray for God's wisdom and peace. With them you will clearly and decisively defeat ignorance and injustice (which includes everyone from jerky professors to jerky people on the internet).

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful." - Colossians 3:15