Today and in the past, I have seemingly changed a person's mind on the internet. While of course the internet isn't exactly reliable, it has seemingly happened.
I recall one day I was playing a game of Guns of Icarus when a teammate and I had a real conflict. I said something on the lines of, "I just want myself and everyone else to have a good time. You are perfectly allowed to have fun, or not have fun," and continued to talk about having a good time and that the conflict was rather silly. At the end of the game he apologized for his behavior and acted exceptionally kindly, as if I had brightened up that person's day. Even if for whatever reason they were faking the whole thing, it appeared to me as if I had influenced them to have a better day.
Another time, I was conversing with a chatty and relatively pair of "trolls" in a Minecraft game, when one of them said something like, "I don't really care what I'm doing." I responded by telling that individual that there are a million better things to do than troll a Minecraft minigame. The other one asked me if I was their mother, but the first one seemed somewhat unsure, and was typing things in like he was questioning the reasoning behind them trolling in the first place. After spouting out some of my beliefs and common advice that I believe are helpful things to say, in the chat I read, "Brother (Note: they had said earlier on that they were siblings) , stop!" from the second one. This leads me to believe that the one stopped trolling, at least for a moment.
Needed another text breaker! Some bubble-esque things I whipped together in Photoshop.
Though my intention all along was to keep them from trolling, it was staggering to see one of them get it, even if it was for a mere moment. I play counselor because I find it entertaining, but when I legitimately make a person do something because of it, it gets scary. In fact, it's downright terrifying that I may have just changed the way a person's brain works even if it was just the slightest bit, and over a chat on the internet. The possibility that I just influenced a person's entire life with mere words. No matter how slim of a chance it was that I legitimately did influence them, it is still frightening. The power of words is immense, even in an anonymous location. I know it is relatively minor, the thought that I just MIGHT have influenced a person's life, but my crazy brain amplifies it into me playing god. The one in a million chance that I may have affected a person's life is, again, staggering. I'm repeating myself so much because it is what is running thru my head. That "what if".
Have I really changed a person's perception of the world? Even if it was for a mere day, or hour, or a sliver of a second. The way a person thinks is what shapes their beliefs, which shapes their actions, which shapes their reality. The idea that I could have led a person to do something, to change a person's reality, is mind boggling. I can't imagine what it must be like to be a YouTuber who legitimately has shaped a person's life, or a million people's lives. This kind of goes back to my hopes/expectations thing, I HOPE that I will make a person's life better when I say that, but I don't EXPECT it by any means.
Anyways, have a nice day (if you do solely because I said so, I might faint! :)
