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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

#21

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,…

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.

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

#23
Tangentially related, things like this are why I have not stopped wearing my fedora (in appropriate situations, with appropriate outfits).

Dear Internet Fashionistas: You've decided that fedoras and suspenders are the mark of a horrible person. Your opinions have no connection to reality. Over here in the real world, I look good. When I come back to the bar the next day to pick up my credit card, and the bouncer remembers me well enough to compliment my outfit from the previous night, that means I'm doing it right.

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

#24

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?

Of course it is, but I don't think it's possible to write about yourself without being self-absorbed. Personally, I think it's an interesting story idea from a perspective that I never would have thought about before.

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

#25
This was the best line for me during the argument between two Redditors:

"you do realize things have value even if they're not digitized, right"

Brilliant point and something that is sadly being lost in our evolving digital community. As a former Anthropologist, we are leaving less and less artifacts for those future civilizations to discover us by.

At times, it's incredibly depressing to me this is the case. How will people know about the human race if our entire culture is wrapped up in bits and bytes and discarded without a thought to their permanence? It will as though we never existed.

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

#26

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,…

The other funny thing is that there's a violent dislike of mainstream media on websites such as Reddit, and constant criticism when news stations take things out of context. Then they do things like this themselves on a daily basis!

^People write this comment on Reddit a lot. The one I'm about to write, they also write this one too.

You can't talk about Reddit as a hivemind, because it isn't one person, or even a definite collective of people. The people who take things out of context, and the people who call them out, are different sets of people. If Reddit seems to have multiple personalities, it's because... well, it does.

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

#27
I have the utmost respect for anyone that can take their natural (legal) talent, go to a park and turn it into beer/food money in an hour or two. When I met my wife she was substitute teaching occasionally and to make ends meet she would do pencil portraits in the park. She would always wear a floppy hat and a colorful long skirt. Back then (1975) she would have been referred to as a hippy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie :-) as opposed to a hipster. I remember sitting in her apartment and watching her gleefully straighten and count a pile of small bills. Great times!

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

#28

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,…

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.

Ehh, I think there is certainly some overlap, particularly in the "retro" tastes, but I don't think what you are describing as geek culture is really a subset of hipster culture. Mario tshirts? Sure, you could call that hipster. Anime tshirts? I wouldn't say so.

People with both styles are in many of my social circles, but they still seem relatively distinct to me.

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

#29
post #4

Related to his original idea: I think it's simply fantastic. Not only does it help avoid writers block (You constantly have a stream of stories to create), but it's forced practice. Nobody says Mozart's first few works were brilliant. It wasn't until he practiced for years that he became a virtuoso. An approach like this, while easy to view from the lens of simply making people happy, is an investment in one's creati…

You're either loved, hated, or ignored I'm curious what you'd suggest as an alternative. To have strong, passionate, but neutral, feelings about people?

The alternative is to have less strong and passionate feelings. Like "Oh I wouldn't really do that but that's cool that he is." Why would one need to have such strong opinions about a random guy in a picture?

I think the point is that the hivemind/bandwagon/mob mentality pushes everything to an extreme, because the people with more neutral opinions aren't very motivated to post them.

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

#30
If everyone's public, online comments were tied to their real, physical identity, would the internet on a whole be a more pleasant place? I don't see the type of vitriolic comment threads on Facebook that I see on Reddit. What would be the long term implications of that? Is online anonymity in a public forum a right that we have?
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