40oz
diRTbAg
Posts: 5,473
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Post by 40oz on Jan 3, 2017 13:54:33 GMT -5
This question is kinda founded on fuzzy memory, so I dont know how true it is or if I'm placing blame on the wrong things. But I'm curious if there's any inkling of truth to this.
Sometimes when I listen to people talk, particularly people who have a strong internet presence, they speak in such a way where almost everything they say is usually one of two things. Its a one-line joke/catchphrase/buzzword, OR iys some announcement about whatever it is they believe in or are thinking in the moment without actually engaging in a conversation with another person.
I see this a lot on social media such as forums and comments pages and chat rooms. It seems like people are more likely to just spitball a bunch of things in hopes of initiating conversation about something they're prepared to talk about instead of participating in a group conversation.
"AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO <blank>"
"wat"
"epic fail"
Ive joined in as a guest speaker on twitch streams a few times, and i often find it difficult to keep a conversational thread going. Most people seem much more interested in blurting out whatever they feel like saying, often referencing a meme or other narcissistic detail about their lives or opinion that doesn't really help fuel the train of thought the conversation is going in.
I'm finding it more difficult to "talk" to people on the internet as conversations always end up being very light and hollow and rarely flow organically. More often I'm just in a room where people say what they want to say without engaging with one another.
Is this relatively new, or is this kind of a phenomenon that spawned from social media and the growing mass appeal of memes?
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TOS
You're trying to say you like DOS better than me, right?
Glenzinho's Chicabro
Posts: 1,045 
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Post by TOS on Jan 4, 2017 11:31:32 GMT -5
I see it as something new. Social media has given everyone a soapbox to stand on, and each "like" or retweet gives the poster a false sense of grandeur. With people being able to take their internet connection with them anywhere they want (using smartphones, tablets, etc.), they always feel tethered to their virtual soapbox, so they always feel like they have to declare something to feel noticed; because to them, being noticed is everything. Being noticed means being important in the minds of most people now. Thanks to mobile devices, you can feel like you matter twenty four hours a day. With depression rates on the rise, feeling important is just what the doctor prescribed.
That's why I got rid of my facebook a year ago, one less platform to stand on for me to pretend I matter to the world and focus more energy on improving myself.
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Xeep-Eep
this post is a lie about my bodily proportions
Major Arlene obsessed, 100% verified freakazoid. AKA bzzrak
Posts: 2,148 
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Post by Xeep-Eep on Jan 4, 2017 12:15:30 GMT -5
I think those people didn't come to Twitch/whatever to have conversations. Like, real, actual conversations, with > 0,5 sentences per person. Their state of mind is beyond repair, you have no hope of hearing something meaningful from them. Just give up, the Internet is for dumbasses nowadays.
So yeah, it's a modern thing. People spend so much of their goddamn time on the Internet communicating *that way* that they kinda forget how to talk normally.
Luckily I'm not one of those... :]
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Post by Doomer Boards on Jan 4, 2017 15:17:20 GMT -5
Recently I downloaded Speakit to read text on the internet for me. It's not so much that I hate reading, but I just feel incredibly mentally taxed nowadays from reading threads. I think a lot of it has to do with deciphering through idiosyncrasies of the way people type paragraphs. Some of it just feels like reading someone's stream of consciousness. Nevertheless, a good thread comes along every now and again, where I actually learn something new. Or at least motivates me to do some research about a topic, on my own.
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Phml
Doomer
Posts: 30
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Post by Phml on Jan 23, 2017 3:28:47 GMT -5
Whenever this topic comes up, it tends to bring a "clever" quote from ancient Greek philosophers lamenting the lack of values of the youth, then seguing into the argument people have been wrongly ringing the alarm bells for as long as civilization has been a thing. Personally, I have felt conversation quality has been going downhill for 20 years. But then, the consistency of a given perception over time doesn't imply that perception is wrong, even if the sky hasn't fallen (yet).
Greater access to Internet inevitably brings a dumbing down of conversations. The level of tech knowledge required, low as it may be since the 90s, acted as a barrier of access to hundreds of millions of barely literate individuals. And they *are* the majority; it's easy to forget, because natural egocentrism makes us think of ourselves as the standard, but the average person does not want to think. Work, food, sleep, fuck, talk about people all the time, events sometimes, never ever ideas.
Popularity turns into money, money turns into popularity, the two feed on each other. Platforms become built to have low levels of discourse, with like-based technologies encouraging tyranny of the masses. While relatively smart people exist on those platforms, they can't elevate the discussion, only join the meme-hungry majority. Adults become overgrown adolescents so they can enjoy a position of fame and authority much easier to attain than in the real world.
This is inevitable in public spaces. When the leading ideology tells you we are all equals, it logically follows someone with little experience has as much weight as you do. Ten someones like that, twenty someones like that will happily outspam you, in their attempts to signal they're part of the group. There's just no way to have good back-and-forth in big communities. You can drop a bottled message in the sea and hope someone will read it, or be on the other end and find a gem in the rough; but the noise-to-signal ratio ensures no conversation can take place.
To be honest, I don't see it as a problem. Internet has become the new TV, but it still works as a tool to handpick good people and small communities you can meaningfully interact with. While centralization makes the average person act dumber, this isn't someone you could talk to about interesting things to start with; on the other hand, sheer volume makes it easier to find the brightest individuals (in text based communities) and strike a conversation in private.
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Inferno
Doomer
Real Hot Summer
Posts: 85
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Post by Inferno on Jan 23, 2017 7:48:13 GMT -5
I think those people didn't come to Twitch/whatever to have conversations. Like, real, actual conversations, with > 0,5 sentences per person. Their state of mind is beyond repair, you have no hope of hearing something meaningful from them. Just give up, the Internet is for dumbasses nowadays. So yeah, it's a modern thing. People spend so much of their goddamn time on the Internet communicating *that way* that they kinda forget how to talk normally. Luckily I'm not one of those... :] Yeah, the only place where I've seen truly nonsensical "conversations" is Twitch, but I've seen plenty of actual conversations on forums I'm registered to. |
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