the coolness of being a complete asshole in the digital world
So antarcticlust said something the other day about how so many online communities seem to be increasingly loaded with people dedicated to being nothing more than rude and mean. And it's absolutely true whether it be on LJ or a completely unrelated forum.
This has been more than a pet peeve for me in recent years, hence I'm sounding off about it now. Now, looking back, this type of useless behavior was to be expected in the 90s because web forums and communities mainly consisted of pissing contests and flame wars between self-entitled, adolescent brats and 40-something Star Wars freaks still living in their parents' basement. Fortunately, though, around 2000-ish the online population had grown to become so diverse that the web's jackass dork population was relegated to a minority segment.
However, in the past few years it's become almost en vogue to be an elitist asshole on the web. And it goes way beyond the excessive confidence provided by the anonymity of hiding behind a computer. It's almost as if people have seen fit to actively exploit that anonymity in order to screw with people. It's not unlike the act of trolling, except the people really mean what they're saying.
For example, I stopped in at the band Ween's semi-official forum awhile back to get some details about their fall tour and received nothing but snotty, acidic and downright hurtful replies. Okay, yeah, I'm a sensitive plant by nature and I now that going into some place like a web forum without putting some thick skin on would be foolhardy. However, what possible usefulness or good could come from responses like "Haha, loser. Kill yourself," or "Why don't you ask your mom? She was going on and on about it last night in bed that I had to get her to blow me to shut her up," or "You've only made 20 posts and you're asking questions? What a gay nigger," or simply just "Fuck you." Not one legitimate reply. But then I look at other threads and people are having normal conversations. The difference is the people in those threads have fancy, custom titles and thousands of posts and are apparently in the forum's "cool" clique.
It's beyond me why everyone doesn't get over this shit by the time they're 18. What's more it's fucking infuriating. It's one thing for there to be anarchy forums like 4chan's /b/ (which I personally enjoy despite it's malicious insanity), but when that attitude starts to spread to the rest of the web, I think we should start asking questions. On the other hand, I'm well beyond the point of thinking I could possibly effect some sort of positive change in this department. People are going to act the way they want to act. However, the question I want an answer to is why are so many people acting like this?
It's a paradoxical situation in the example of the Ween forum, because the people acting like fuckheads are also some of the most active/visible members (tapers, pre/after-party hosts, and even friends of the band) in the Ween fanbase and yet 99% of the people I've interacted with at the actual concerts are pretty cool people. So yeah, what gives? Why has it become cool to be a complete asshole in the digital world?
This has been more than a pet peeve for me in recent years, hence I'm sounding off about it now. Now, looking back, this type of useless behavior was to be expected in the 90s because web forums and communities mainly consisted of pissing contests and flame wars between self-entitled, adolescent brats and 40-something Star Wars freaks still living in their parents' basement. Fortunately, though, around 2000-ish the online population had grown to become so diverse that the web's jackass dork population was relegated to a minority segment.
However, in the past few years it's become almost en vogue to be an elitist asshole on the web. And it goes way beyond the excessive confidence provided by the anonymity of hiding behind a computer. It's almost as if people have seen fit to actively exploit that anonymity in order to screw with people. It's not unlike the act of trolling, except the people really mean what they're saying.
For example, I stopped in at the band Ween's semi-official forum awhile back to get some details about their fall tour and received nothing but snotty, acidic and downright hurtful replies. Okay, yeah, I'm a sensitive plant by nature and I now that going into some place like a web forum without putting some thick skin on would be foolhardy. However, what possible usefulness or good could come from responses like "Haha, loser. Kill yourself," or "Why don't you ask your mom? She was going on and on about it last night in bed that I had to get her to blow me to shut her up," or "You've only made 20 posts and you're asking questions? What a gay nigger," or simply just "Fuck you." Not one legitimate reply. But then I look at other threads and people are having normal conversations. The difference is the people in those threads have fancy, custom titles and thousands of posts and are apparently in the forum's "cool" clique.
It's beyond me why everyone doesn't get over this shit by the time they're 18. What's more it's fucking infuriating. It's one thing for there to be anarchy forums like 4chan's /b/ (which I personally enjoy despite it's malicious insanity), but when that attitude starts to spread to the rest of the web, I think we should start asking questions. On the other hand, I'm well beyond the point of thinking I could possibly effect some sort of positive change in this department. People are going to act the way they want to act. However, the question I want an answer to is why are so many people acting like this?
It's a paradoxical situation in the example of the Ween forum, because the people acting like fuckheads are also some of the most active/visible members (tapers, pre/after-party hosts, and even friends of the band) in the Ween fanbase and yet 99% of the people I've interacted with at the actual concerts are pretty cool people. So yeah, what gives? Why has it become cool to be a complete asshole in the digital world?