Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

theawl.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–108 of 108 posts

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#101

Post by naravara »

throwaway09223 wrote: post #90
naravara wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, with Twitter and Facebook actually being more noxious than anonymous forums like Reddit or HN, I'm not so sure that anonymity is the driver.

I agree with you and I'd take it a step further: I think there's considerable evidence that anonymity is not the driver. Being out of range of immediate physical violence is probably a big factor, though. We have the "fighting words" doctrine for good reason.

Also the ability to disseminate posts to like-minded people creates a sense of false-consensus. Like if you mouth off in a town square the people hearing it and reacting are a fairly representative cross section of the population. If you mouth off on Facebook or Twitter the people reacting are either big enough fans to want to react or sufficiently hostile to what you said that they will lose their shit over it. It makes everything seem more extreme. Your detractors all look stupid, because the most motivated people to pick fights with strangers on the internet are, if we're being honest, more likely to be a little unhinged. Your supporters are also going to be pretty extreme in their agreement and unlikely to take you aside and tell you to chill out for similar reasons.

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#102

Post by ghoward »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #100
ghoward wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you about the value of anonymity. For me, though, I use my real name everywhere because I don't want to be able to hide behind an anonymous identity, and the reason for that is that it's easier to be like the jerks that were mean to this writer when you're anonymous. Not being anonymous means that I think more carefully about what I am going to say and try, in every instance, to be nice, even if I disagr…

That's very interesting. If you look at 4chan vs Facebook/Twitter, you'll see different behaviours. 4chan is extremly politically incorrect but it's also the only place where you can find what people actually think, without filters. Facebook and Twitter are a collection of echo-chambers of people saying all similar things because they're afraid of being judged by their side or society at large. I still try to be nice…

It is unfortunate that people have to self-censor like this! You shouldn't have to, but that's not your fault.

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#104

Post by scoot »

Jun8 wrote: post #39
scoot wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or... you could read the linked article? It seems that you've completely missed what was being ridiculed, and why.

I did (I thought my subtle reference of dodging the bullet to a comment to the piece his ex wrote was clever ;-), I was just going on tangentially about an idea similar to the one that he had, which, in retrospect, is more ridicule-worthy.

> an idea similar to the one that he had, which, in retrospect, is more ridicule-worthy

Like I said, that isn't what was being ridiculed, nor why.

What was being ridiculed was a photo of him in the park with his typewriter, because the image was posted without context. Your story is in no way comparable, because in your case it's the idea of writing poetry that your girlfriend found derisible, not the idea of you sitting on a bench with pen and paper in hand.

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#105

Post by ta2162 »

filoleg wrote: post #62
ta2162 wrote: post #29

Scene, hipster, emo, goth, etc. all but disappeared. Most of the people who would have fallen in one of the aforementioned groups a decade ago are now non-binary, gender fluid, etc. They found a way to tie their identity to their humanity so now it's bigoted to scoff and laugh at them. Have any social psychologists studied this phenomenon? It's a great defense mechanism that seems to be working quite well.

>Scene, hipster, emo, goth, etc. all but disappeared. I don't know where you have been for over the past 5 years, but not only did some of those not disappear, they had a massive resurgence (in the US/Canada, at least). "Emo rap" has been all the hotness over the past 5 years, just look at artists like Lil Uzi Vert or Frank Ocean. Skrillex, one of the most successful producers and artists of our time, went back to hi…

>I don't know where you have been for over the past 5 years, but not only did some of those not disappear, they had a massive resurgence (in the US/Canada, at least).

They definitely almost disappeared, but had a small resurgence, not massive.

>"Emo rap" has been all the hotness over the past 5 years, just look at artists like Lil Uzi Vert or Frank Ocean. Skrillex,

This is hilariously wrong, nowhere near reality. Frank Ocean doesn't have a single reference to "emo" anything on his Wikipedia page. Skrillex is solidly EDM/dubstep, not emo.

>Skrillex, one of the most successful producers and artists of our time, went back to his original emo rock band and recorded a single with them to a wide applause.

That barely made a blip, not even 3 million listens on YouTube and Soundcloud.

>I don't see how those things are mutually exclusive. Plenty of non-binary/genderfluid/etc. people would count themselves as a part of those groups, just like cis/straight people would.

The entire non-binary wave didn't really come about until the outlets of being emo/scene/goth ran out. Being non-binary in 2018 was the same as being emo/goth/scene in 2008.

>The point you were trying to make would have been indeed interesting to look into, if the reality matched a bit closer with what you were claiming was happening to those emo/goth/etc. groups.

It has matched reality, almost to the T. Frank Ocean being emo is not reality.

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#106

Post by ta2162 »

wearywanderer wrote: post #63
ta2162 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's no longer as socially-acceptable to bully strangers for being “weirdos”. Is that it? Not at all. People/children still bully each other, always have, always will. Now they can easily bully each other through social media, relentlessly. >Have you not noticed what's replaced these? We have hundreds of subcultures: weebs, dank memers, bronies, demoscene, lifehackers, outside, Bitcoin, competitive Pokémon… What you…

> Something else is going on Scenes require supporting media. In the age of print and broadcast, access to media was comparably limited. Consequently, the number of scenes was comparably limited. The "something" that happened was the general public learning how the internet could be used to easily publish media for as many scenes as people could think of. It's now feasible for individuals to globally publish media re…

>Scenes require supporting media. In the age of print and broadcast, access to media was comparably limited. Consequently, the number of scenes was comparably limited.

If anything, it's the complete reverse. Scenes were more localized and had many different variations and unique cultures.

> The "something" that happened was the general public learning how the internet could be used to easily publish media for as many scenes as people could think of.

Which lead to a great consolidation, something we see in other areas as well. Regional cultures become less and less stark as national TV/news came about.

>It's now feasible for individuals to globally publish media regardless of how many other people are interested in it.

Which means the other scenes die out, and a predominant one appears. That's why you see flags and pronouns all across Twitter, but nothing much else. It's also why American culture is being exported globally, destroying unique cultures in its wake.

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#107

Post by ta2162 »

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #61
ta2162 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's no longer as socially-acceptable to bully strangers for being “weirdos”. Is that it? Not at all. People/children still bully each other, always have, always will. Now they can easily bully each other through social media, relentlessly. >Have you not noticed what's replaced these? We have hundreds of subcultures: weebs, dank memers, bronies, demoscene, lifehackers, outside, Bitcoin, competitive Pokémon… What you…

> Something else is going on, Large groups have broken into smaller groups because people are less required to be a part of a large group to be accepted.

>Large groups have broken into smaller groups because people are less required to be a part of a large group to be accepted.

I'd say the opposite: disparate groups have ceased to exist as they got consolidated into the larger group. You see this more often across all cultures as the information age has come around.

Re: I am an object of internet ridicule, ask me anything (2013)

#108

Post by ta2162 »

bingidingi wrote: post #89
ta2162 wrote: post #29

Scene, hipster, emo, goth, etc. all but disappeared. Most of the people who would have fallen in one of the aforementioned groups a decade ago are now non-binary, gender fluid, etc. They found a way to tie their identity to their humanity so now it's bigoted to scoff and laugh at them. Have any social psychologists studied this phenomenon? It's a great defense mechanism that seems to be working quite well.

There are plenty of new ones all the time; egirls, fuckboys, vsco girls, streamers, influencers, incels, you can also be "basic", "based", etc... it's possible you're not seeing it as much because you're getting older and these are adolescent tribes

> There are plenty of new ones all the time; egirls, fuckboys, vsco girls, streamers, influencers, incels, you can also be "basic", "based", etc... it's possible you're not seeing it as much because you're getting older and these are adolescent tribes

Most of those are not new... "egirls", fuckbois, etc. were all around back then as well. These groups are somewhat non-related, since many of the listed groups are not mutually exclusive. You can have a fuckboi influencer, vsco egirls, etc.

Post reply on HN