Let’s talk more about the good and the bad of the internet. I spend most of my time online, so obviously, I’m a big fan. But I’ve noticed how the quality of the writing has gone down the toilet. I’m not talking about the AI (though that does, indeed, suck. I’m not here to talk about it, though), which doesn’t help.
(Deep sigh. So many big thoughts about AI that I do not want to share right now.)
Side note: Yes, again. Oh, here’s yesterday’s post in which I railed about all the shitty clickbait that is just getting shittier. And how websites are actively making themselves worse in order to appease their shareholders at the expense of their customers.
When I actually give in and check out one of those, “So-and-so DESTROYED the other so-and-so”, I always hate myself after. I have to be strict with myself because it’s so bad. Even on news sites, there is a tendency to run towards hyperbolic. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I immediately knock off fifty percent of the energy whenever I read a piece. So if something is disastrous, then it’s mildly bad.
I also mentioned that I already have an issue with showing my emotions–feeling them, too. Which is a sign of my neurodivergence. I thought I was just wrong, weird, or broken, but it’s just how I’m made. It’s also my parents making it exceedingly clear that emotions were for them and not fro me. Any time I showed the least bit of negative emotions, I was reprimanded, chided, and criticized. Sometimes, even shouted at.
I got exceptionally good at swallowing my rage, er, emotions. And in not showing pain. In fact, when I started Taiji, that’s something I had to address. My teacher was teaching ushow to do joint lock techniques, called chin na techniques. Basically, you jab or press pressure points to cause the other person immense pain that disappears the second you let up.
Before I get to thaat, there’s another kind of content creation that just drives me up the wall. I want to mention it because I keep meaning to talk about it, then promptly forgetting. Since I just saw something that reminded me of it (and set me off), I decided to do it now. This is the “I can’t believe _______ (people of a certain country) do _______ (something completely normal)!” and it’s cousin, “I finally understand why ______ (people of a certain country) do this weird thing! (Which is not in the least weird.)”
Me: “Oh, you can’t understand WHY PEOPLE IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY MIGHT DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU DO?!”
It’s so fucking annoying. I don’t know about the actual content because I don’t click on those vids (though I have seen one or two of them). “American English is different than British English!” Well, duh. The one that really irks me is when British people make fun of/are incredulous about how we do dates in America. By that, I mean the way we write the date, not how we go about dating.
In America, we write the date as month, day, year. In most of the world, they write day, month, then year. Their rationalization (as least from the Brits I know) is that it goes from smallest to biggest. Which, fine. Whatever. You do you. What I don’t understand is whyi the way we do it in America riles some Brits up so much. I mean, it’s the way you say the date (which they tacitly admit). Very few people say, “Today is the 12th of May.” Most people say, “Today is May 12th.” So while that does not mean that our way is better, it does mean it acttually makes sense.We write it the way we say it. It works for us.
I think part of the issue I have is that so much of it is so negative. I know that’s ironic given how negative I am in general, but I would react much better if, “Brit can’t believe Americans are so thick about ____” was, instead, “Brits are astonished to find out that Americans ______!” Another format I don’t like is, “Don’t say/do these seven things to _______!” (People in another country.) Just flip it to, “________ like it when you say/do _______!” instead. How hard would that be? I know the common wisdom is that the former will get more clicks than the latter, but is this actually true?
Even if it were true, it doesn’t make me any more likely to click on it myself. I hate that shit, and my kneejerk reaction is to block every channel that engages in that shit. Which I do when it’s especially egregious.
Another thing that has caused me to be more suspicious, and this is partly my fault. Reaction videos. Dont’ get me wrong. I enjoy them and watch a few reactors. There are two things I don’t like about the genre, though. The first is that I’m very muc skeptical of some of the things that people have said they haven’t listened to or watched before. Groups like The Beatles, for example. Or very famous songs like Stairway to Heaven. I’m not saying every person has read/watched/heard everything super-popular, but it strains credulity some of the rections I’ve seen.
The second is how intense some of the reactions are. It’s the visual and verbal hyperbole that matches what I hate about the enshittification of the internet. If everything causes squeals and shrikes (of both dismay and delight), then nothing is worthy of it. I get that you have to emote to a certain unnatural degree in order to get views, but again, it’s so unappealing to me specifiaclly. Also, the titles for those videos are also hyperbolic, which feeds my dissatisfaction.
I know why all this is happening, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Or that I have to engage in it. I am in the minority in that I prefer people to just be chill about things–which doesn’t make for riveting content, I know.
I’m done for now, but I’ll be back tomorrow.