Support, both individual and group is a necessary component of our daily lives. For those who use social sites like Facebook, Myspace, and live journal such support is derived from selected "friends" and family, but what about open forums? There are countless sites for things ranging from technical support, medical advice, to personal relationship advice; you name it, theres a forum for it. With sites like Facebook and friends only a select few are able to see and comment on our "rants" and problem posts, but what if just anyone could see and comment on them. For better or worse in open forums any post, subject, or issue is fair game. One of the best examples of this kind of forum is the multitudes of the "chan's". The numerous "chan" websites follow an anonymous posting style made famous by one of the first iterations, 2chan. A particularly famous story of group support and camaraderie sprang forth from a men's single's board on 2chan. This true tale told inside the message board evolved into an extremely popular urban story called "Densha Otoko" or Train Man. While the actual meat of the story isn't very relevant to the topic at hand, the use of the 2chan single's board is. In this story based on an actual forum thread in 2chan's single's board a young extremely introverted young man used the message board as a support group to help him win his loves' heart. The story depicts both the good and the bad, the constructive criticism and the "trolling". For many the idea of openly broadcasting details of a personal relationship is taboo and embarrassing, yet due to the anonymous nature of these open forums many overcome these biases and eagerly participate. Today one can find support for nearly any problem at the click of a button and while this is in essence a good thing, does it pose a problem in that it removes the personal interaction from the equation? Is it problematic that we may begin to look to the anonymous multitudes of the internet for the answers to our problems without knowing who or even what is interacting with us?
For those interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Densha_otoko
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2chan
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