What's the difference between answering a question with a personal story, or with impartial details?

Both. Depends on the question. I would be someone who will give personal examples to support my own understanding of a topic. I think sometimes a person’s own experience can help me to understand where they are coming from or why they are qualified to give a valuable response. If they have had a real life experience with the situation rather than basing their response only on something they have read or their generalised opinion on a topic. Other times I may be impartial because that is what I feel is appropriate.

One of the great things about this site is we can choose to accept or reject the ideas of others. I like that different people, from different backgrounds, with different ways of responding add to the mix in each response. I like the more scientific/empirical responses but I also like the more reflective, personal comments too.

What do you prefer?

I think it’s mostly a matter of personality and communication style. I am a verbose type, I like telling stories, I learn best by analogy, am very humorous and am an armchair writer to boot.

My friends and I always joke about my long voice mails. There are all ends of the spectrum and lots of in the middle. There are those that always hang up on answering machines and voicemail and then there are those like me that need about 5 minutes of uninterrupted feed.
20 seconds is never enough for me. lol

I don’t have any specific preference.

I think people tend to answer in the fashion that is most natural to them and best suited to what they have to say. I’m glad there’s more than one style in use, and so I would say my preference is for variety and appropriateness rather than adherence to a template.

I like all types of answers, as long as they’re genuinely trying to be helpful.

I’m happy with either so long as it genuinely attempts to answer the question.

I use both. Sometimes it is simple to give a straight-forward answer. Other times, I find my answer might seem cold, so I will explain the incident that brought me to my belief.

I like to first give the answer I think (using learned experiences or whatever) is best or most constructive and then give an answer in line with what I’ve known directly. I think it’s important to share real things and also our ideals.

I like the one’s with a little hook at the end, sort of a “brings it all together” statement ,or ending sentence. I like seeing writing like that….and brand new puppies. It’s all good.

It is all good. As long as the question is answered in a helpful manner.

Both work. Hearing someone elses experiences does impart information even if not impartial.

I believe wisdom can be imparted. Its all good.

Both. Personal stories show empathy for the situation, so if the poster seems to feel conflicted or distraught, I am probably more likely to throw in a personal story.

Depends on what the question asks, I guess. I asked about a PlayStation 3 and televisions earlier today. Not wanting to hear anyone’s personal story about how they got into video games. Just technical answers. (which I got)

But say if someone asks how to get over, or learn how to live with the death of a loved one, experiences, anecdotes and personal stuff are more than welcome, (whether or not there are technical ways to deal with this) should one be willing to share.
And if there is more than one way to answer something, s’all good with me. Just makes everything more interesting and varied, not to mention that it offers more angles and points of view to explore.

There are a thousand ways to fuck up a zombie, but only a few ways to truly kill it and…I suck at analogies. Welcome to Fluther. :)

@Symbeline

Never fear, I won’t ever tell any personal stories about playing video games, because I don’t play them, and the few times I have been coerced into trying I suck more than could ever be imagined. I can play a little Wi tennis or bowling.
That’s only because my daughter forces me too, she is determined to get me interested.
Oops…check it out, I just told a story about how I can not get into video games.
Heh..told you I was verbose! lol

Yeah, but you didn’t do it in my latest question, so it’s all cool, chicky. :)

Why should we choose?? Each answer is a gift in it’s own right and whether and opinion, life story or a rant….most will shed a different light on a question asked here and very much a part of the allure of hanging out to see what comes next!!

Completely depends on the question. Some questions are more straightforward and would do better with more straightforward, technical answers. Other times, questions are more open-ended and could do better with a personal story that can help support the answer or illustrate the point. I find I do both, but I’m probably more likely to add a story in there. This question reminds me of the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them. “Give me five bees for a quarter”, you’d say. Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones…anyway, long story short…is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling.

With me, it always depends on the question. I have no preferance.

@DominicX

I love that, I have a great tracking mechanism for non-linear thought processes and story telling. I can follow every twist and turn and detour and still retain the original topic.

But..a lot of peoples brains don’t track like this, they can get extremely derailed and frustrated with non-linear musings. I can easily follow the person all around the back 40 until they return to the front porch, probably cause I’m right there out in the boonies with them. lol

I like them all. If I ask a question, I’m grateful to receive a response. The more helpful and insightful the better.

I answer questions with the same principal. If it’s a serious question I give as seriously helpful an answer as I can.

@Coloma I too have the kind of mind that not only doesn’t mind those kinds of non-linear thought processes, I actually enjoy them. I guess that is why I don’t mind reading questions in which the first line is, “Sorry this is going to be long.” I always read the whole thing and then I read all of the answers. Sometimes I answer on a point by point basis. Other times I will relay a similar situation from my own experience that I hope will help the OP see that they are not alone.

I think I tend to be attracted to questions where a fairly detailed and thoughtful response seem necessary, rather than a one word answer or a simple sentence. Sometimes my experiences help to illustrate where I’m coming from and how I came to my conclusion, rather than just stating the conclusion.

I have 2 close friends that can out-orate even me and @Wundayatta put together, I’m considered the quiet one in this trio, but I can listen to both of them go on at length, with millions of little details and nuances thrown in and still keep up with the story. I think I have learned to take in and process all of the little details that make up the puzzle.

For me, seeing one word answers usually leaves me wondering, “What else?” or “How did you come to that realization” or “Where did you find that answer?” “That was good, but can you elaborate on that?”

Some people want one word answers, and if they do, that’s OK, they can just skip over the long answers.

I prefer personal stories. If you have experience, that means more to me than what your grandma’s neighbor said or what you read in a book.

It would be nice if everyone answered the question that was asked. Unfortunately many here would rather hear themselves speak than actually answer the question and be helpful. soapbox?

looky here. the last two sentences didn’t answer the question. I’m such a hypocrite.

@Kardamom
Write tight…heh

It’s good to know I am not alone. lol

I think those questions not linked personally to the askers provides more depth and span than those attached to the asker personally, unless they are well traveled, and have been in many things through many cultures.