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The Internet Ruined My Life

Last posted Oct 29, 2016 at 06:48PM EDT. Added Oct 28, 2016 at 11:39PM EDT
9 posts from 8 users


Have any of you seen this show before? What are your thoughts on it?
As for me, the only episode I've seen about it was the one with the crazy Vegan people and Brianna Wu. I did feel sympathy for the chef guy in the episode a little bit, but once I saw Brianna Wu I knew this would be exaggerated. I feel like this show seems to show only the side of the victim, and portrays the internet as this place akin to Hell, which isn't the case. I imagine what happened with a lot of people on that show was they pissed off some people on the internet and ended up getting trolled royally.
One reason I bring this up, is because recently or most lovable oaf Chris-Chan decided to tweet to them asking if he could be on the show.

I'd imagine that once they see his whole story, they'll be on him like flies on shit.

Bouncing off what CCC said above, anyone remember that Colbert bit where he likened that guy who taunted anonymous to sticking your dick into a beehive? I feel like these are people who stuck their dicks into beehives and are now on a show called "How bees ruined my dick"

The funny thing is, nobody would know who they are if it wasn't for the internet.

The internet is the prime example of a "double-edged sword." It allows you to connect to people around the world, but that doesn't mean that all those people are nice or like you.

I feel like that should be a required class nowadays. To tell kids that people can be mean on places with anonymity. Maybe in college too.

So chris chan might end up becoming mainstream? We always new this day would come.

But in all seriousness, some people just lack common sense when they go on the internet. Like you would think shit like, don't use your real name, don't use the same username for porn accounts, don't upload sensitive files into cloud storage, and just generally try not to act like a jackass, would be common knowledge when coming to the internet.

But i guess not.

TripleA9000 wrote:

So chris chan might end up becoming mainstream? We always new this day would come.

But in all seriousness, some people just lack common sense when they go on the internet. Like you would think shit like, don't use your real name, don't use the same username for porn accounts, don't upload sensitive files into cloud storage, and just generally try not to act like a jackass, would be common knowledge when coming to the internet.

But i guess not.

I think "common sense" is an overused phrase. First, common sense can actually end up being wrong or oversimplified. Second, it tends to lack perspective. Common sense should truly be "common." You don't have to have a specific experience to have that sense. And interaction online regarding geeky web culture has some huge differences from IRL interaction and even social media like Facebook.

The nature of the Internet is very much like interacting with people IRL. So you kinda expect people to act as if they would if you saw a stranger online. It's not likely that a person physically in front of you is going insult and rag you for not knowing something rather specific to a situation. At worst, they'll ignore you or make a snide remark. But they aren't going to take your specific instance and share it with all of their friends right then and there and spread it to anyone within earshot. You can generally assume people are "good" IRL unless you provoke. That is "common sense."

But that isn't common sense to someone who's been online. People who spend time online know that people only take things personal when it comes to themselves, and they often say that you should have thicker skin so they don't have to feel bad about being a prick. So that is only common sense to people that know web culture. You don't have to think that anonymous people are mean and just want to laugh at something (even if it's another person) without inhibition.

And I suspect a lot of these people on the show had their lives ruined, because the first time they got burned was more severe than the first times we learned that people on the Internet don't always act like they do IRL. We generally get out with our pride hurt but relatively unscathed.
 
Either way, I don't care about the show. Most of these kinds of television shows are for people who aren't involved with web culture. It only tells them what they already know: The Internet turns people into a-holes, it allows natural a-holes to act in a way they can't IRL without getting knocked the f*ck out, and it draws the most socially awkward and unaware people to these a-holes to be insulted and run off of the Internet.

It'll be cancelled in two months.

Last edited Oct 29, 2016 at 03:33PM EDT

@Verbose yeah "common sense" is known to be a flawed argument since it is immeasurable and means different things to different people. https://scienceornot.net/2014/02/06/the-appeal-to-common-sense-garbage-in-the-guise-of-gumption/

Ryumaru Borike wrote:

Bouncing off what CCC said above, anyone remember that Colbert bit where he likened that guy who taunted anonymous to sticking your dick into a beehive? I feel like these are people who stuck their dicks into beehives and are now on a show called “How bees ruined my dick”

Boy I love this. This beehive metaphor is pretty great. There's no denying that strangers will be assholes online, but one needs to give as good as they get and get used to the idea that strangers on the internet 9 times out of 10 do not mean legitimate harm no matter what foul rhetoric they employ against you. Earning (You)s on 4chan can be a good indicator of this. For example you can play devil's advocate in spite of your real opinions, and you can call people out and they may or may not respond. Some people will get worked by your post and challenge you; some will take it as a joke and accuse you of baiting, some will play along and others still will legitimately agree. If someone stoops and calls you a pathetic fucking cuck, call them a pathetic fucking cuck back or just laugh at them; it's not hard.

I'd go a step further with this whole idea and suggest perhaps all netizens should paint their genitals in yellow and black stripes before entering any beehives.

"they often say that you should have thicker skin so they don’t have to feel bad about being a prick."

That sums up like, 90% of the people i run into on youtube. But yeah, you made a good point, common sense in that context is a bad argument. But what about reasoning and logic, like maybe its not a good idea to publicly say offensive things on a platform that millions of people use.

Skeletor-sm

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