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I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

theawl.com

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Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#111
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of it, geek culture is a hipster culture. Oh you listen to obscure geeky bands and wear comic/anime t-shirts all the time? You purposely disengage from mainstream society? You're overly critical of the status quo and only socialize with people exactly like you? Gee, that sounds like the guy you're criticizing.

Being hipster is just trying to look cool for doing everything that isn't actually cool. Being geek is about doing things that you like that just happen to be geeky.

When he does it, it's phony hipsterism. When you do it, it's pitiable nerdism. When I do it, it's cool. :)

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#113

The website she referred to had a series of essays they dubbed “It Happened To Me” that they sprinkled in amongst feminist-leaning news and features. “I want to talk about how all of this makes me feel. You, all over the Internet, right after you dumped me.” Does that seem bizarrely self absorbed to anyone else?

I can definitely relate to the feeling. For a full 1.5 years after my ex and I broke up, it felt like my friends were being deliberately cruel, first by continuing to involve her in various events, then by continuously posting about stuff they were doing with her on facebook. For a long time, it felt like they were actively trying to push me out of the picture or drive me to jump. The only difference is, this woman wrote an article about how that feels.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#114
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the obsession with t-shirts?

T-shirt obsession is really a universal techie thing. Everything from the latest hip startup to the most stodgy of conventions give out t-shirts, often sizes far too large for most people to wear.

I guess. T-shirts just seem like one of those hyper-cheap things that companies can give out with their logo. Not much different than pens or foam 'stress toys'.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#115

Hipster-hate strikes me as just another thinly veiled form of bullying, and it's interesting to see how readily internet nerds - the people who are disproportionately to have been bullied in the past - engage in it. Look! He's different! Let's make assumptions about his motivations and get him! It's also interesting to see how many times Reddit (and other communities) fly into a rage-fest because of lack of context,…

This is going to sound inflammatory but I basically consider anyone younger than around 25 to be functionally insane . They're in a period in their life where they seriously believe that they cannot spend the rest of their lives with someone who doesn't have the same taste in music as they do. You're busy cultivating a sense of identity, I get it. But more often than not you grow up and find yourself in love with som…

Ha, I know what you mean. But it's not the kids I'm worried about, it's the adults.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#116

The website she referred to had a series of essays they dubbed “It Happened To Me” that they sprinkled in amongst feminist-leaning news and features. “I want to talk about how all of this makes me feel. You, all over the Internet, right after you dumped me.” Does that seem bizarrely self absorbed to anyone else?

Then again, imagine if it happened to you, and all of your friends were continually reminding you of it, forwarding you more and more tumblogs where the meme was propagating, commiserating, condemning your ex, etc., et bloody cetera. It'd make almost anyone feel somewhat strange.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#117

Hipster-hate strikes me as just another thinly veiled form of bullying, and it's interesting to see how readily internet nerds - the people who are disproportionately to have been bullied in the past - engage in it. Look! He's different! Let's make assumptions about his motivations and get him! It's also interesting to see how many times Reddit (and other communities) fly into a rage-fest because of lack of context,…

Reddit is visited by tens of millions of people of virtually every demographic. Corralling them as "internet nerds" seems a bit like you're trying for some bullying yourself. In any case, talk about much ado about absolutely nothing. A bunch of people said silly things, largely under the assumption that it was no consequence (that no one was hurt, etc): In many ways the comments on there are performance art. It is th…

>Corralling them as "internet nerds" seems a bit like you're trying for some bullying yourself.

Exactly. Encouraging the stereotype that in addition to having deserved bullying in high school for their poor social skills, nerds deserved bullying because they are mean spirited and just waiting till it's their turn to be the bully.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#118

The front page of reddit can be a cruel mistress My wife and I had one of our wedding pictures take the number one spot on /r/all one day -- There was some rather embarrassing text super-imposed on it that said "Oh you think married women still give BJs" (google Condescending Wife to find it). Despite some of the comments in the thread being pretty mean, my wife and I took it in stride, we're both internet people, we…

The nice thing about memes though is it rarely has anything to do with the people in the photo, and more about what kind of universal message the photo can convey. I believe the scumbag steve guy discusses this since he went through a lot of emotions over his photo being so popular. Nobody who makes these memes is thinking of him personally, but rather of the character that can be extracted from the photo.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#119

Hipster-hate strikes me as just another thinly veiled form of bullying, and it's interesting to see how readily internet nerds - the people who are disproportionately to have been bullied in the past - engage in it. Look! He's different! Let's make assumptions about his motivations and get him! It's also interesting to see how many times Reddit (and other communities) fly into a rage-fest because of lack of context,…

Ah yes, because that kind of thing never happens on HN...

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#120

Hipster-hate strikes me as just another thinly veiled form of bullying, and it's interesting to see how readily internet nerds - the people who are disproportionately to have been bullied in the past - engage in it. Look! He's different! Let's make assumptions about his motivations and get him! It's also interesting to see how many times Reddit (and other communities) fly into a rage-fest because of lack of context,…

Reddit is visited by tens of millions of people of virtually every demographic. Corralling them as "internet nerds" seems a bit like you're trying for some bullying yourself. In any case, talk about much ado about absolutely nothing. A bunch of people said silly things, largely under the assumption that it was no consequence (that no one was hurt, etc): In many ways the comments on there are performance art. It is th…

Reddit is visited by tens of millions of people of virtually every demographic. Corralling them as "internet nerds" seems a bit like you're trying for some bullying yourself.

The post to which you're replying didn't even mention Reddit. Reddit is by no means the only place where a nerdy demographic (and I'll define 'nerdy demographic' as 18-25 that skew towards STEM education and exhibit above-average internet usage) tends to engage in destructive behavior, but they're certainly guilty of it.

A bunch of people said silly things, largely under the assumption that it was no consequence (that no one was hurt, etc)

The whole point of the article is the inherent falsity of the assumption that what you do online has diminished/no consequences.

People who are on the Internet tend to forget that literally everybody else is on the Internet too. Being a jackass isn't somehow excusable just because you don't know who you're being a jackass to (in fact, some would argue that it makes it worse.)

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