Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: internet

I just DESTROYED the internet, part two!

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Before I tell you how I DESTROYED the internet, I have a side note. Yes, alredy. It’s tangentially related to my exasperation at the way hyperbole on the internet is being ramped up in a desperate attempt to get clicks, but even if it weren’t, I want to talk about it.

It’s the constant enshittification (and yes, that’s a real (slang) word now) of the internet, and I am so frustrated with it. In this particular case,  it’s Yahoo! mail. They keep ‘updating’ it, ostensibly making it better. But, in fact, it’s worse. Not only is it uglier, there is a panel on the night side for ads. At first, I did not realize what it was for because I have an ad blocker. I tried to get rid of it to no avail. When I found out what it was for, I was so grumpy.

Yes, I could upgrade to premium or whatever it’s called, but I don’t want to do that. Yahoo is like my dump email, meaning it’s just for garbage, mostly. But also for all my accounts. They have been warning me for the past year or so that my inbox is exceeding 90% and that I should upgrade to avoid the possibility of not being able to receive new emails. I’ve deleted thousands of emails, but that apparently doesn’t matter.

Also, this is a nitpick, but it’s still annoying. When they ‘updated’ their look, they automatically switched me back to the light version, which hurt my eyes. Keep my preferences for fuck’s sake, Yahoo! Sheesh. It’s so ugly now, I can barely stand looking it. I know that’s a feature and not a bug. They don’t give a shit about user experience (that is so last millennium), and they are doing everything they can to maximize profits.

How does this tie into the hyperbole that I’ve found else where on the internet? Because it’s all in the name of making a tiny bit more profit. Whether it’s a mega-corp like Yahoo! or a YouTube channel with 10,000 subs, it’s the same desperation to get one more click that is such a turn-off.

I realized how bad it’s gotten when I found myself talking back as I read video titles. One that is particularly annoying me these days is the “This game has thirty minutes to get me/win me over/other negging.” Or even worse, “Kpop hater llistens to ___ (Kpop gropup) for the first time.”

It’s not that art can’t be judged–it can, of course. It’s just the “Prove that you’re worthy of my time” tone that is just so off-putting to me. Like it or not, but don’t act like a snot. Many people seem to like that premise, though, so maybe i’m in the minority on tihs subject.

Another that really annoys me has two versions. One is, “We NEED to talk about___” to which I automatically shout, “No we don’t!” The other, and it’s closely related to the first is, “Why is no one talking about_____ (incredibly popular thing that everyone is talking about)?!” I will punch my computer table the next time I see either one of these configurations.


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You won’t believe what this post is about!

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I am a big fan of the internet. BIG fan. However, one thing that irritates the fuck out of me is how hyperbolic ledes/titles can be. I cannot stand anything that has a title that starts, “You won’t believe what____”, “So-and-so CRUSHED/DESTROYED (his/her opponent!)”, or anything else of this ilk.

Another format I dislike is, “Did such and such a thing mean such and such?” I once read that if a headline asked a question, the answer was always no. Which I have found to be true 99% of the time.

Yet another thing that grinds my gear is titles that are negs in disguise. “Kpop hater listens to (Kpop group) for the first time! Will it change his mind?” That is such a bad premise, but it’s so clickbaity because most people want that redemption arc, even if it’s manufactured and/or trite. In the gaming world, the equivalent is, “I gave ______ (a game)” thirty minutes to make me interested.”

I will not click on any video that has any of those in the titles. Not only are they so negative, but they are overtly manipulative. If you’re going to manipulate me, it has to be much more covert than that. I resent being able to see the manipulation, and it’s so clumsy, too. It outrages me that these content creators think I’m that naive/ignorant/swayable.

It’s reached the point where if I see any title that starts with “Such and such hater tries–“, I just shut it down. Or tell YouTube not to recommend that channel. Also, it’s made me much more cynical in general. All the hyperbole, I mean. “You won’t believe–” Oh, I bet I will.

And all the ‘crushed’, ‘destroyed’, ‘humiliated’ talk is outright bullshit. I watched several of those (usually a liberal ‘destroying’ a conservative), and it’s never the humiliation that the channel is trumpeting it to be. At best, it’s a mild point scored for the liberal. At worst, it’s the liberal being shown in a bad light.

Look.

I know that it’s hard to get eyeballs on yyour channel no matter what the niche. There are a zillion channels, and you have to find a way to stand out. But this is so not my jam. I am turned off by negging and the exaggeration.

I don’t even know if it works. I mean, it must, right? Or why would people keep doing it? (Don’t answer that. I know there are other reasons why people might keep doing it.)

This kind of senseless sensationalism has infiltrated so-called serious journalism as well. There’s another problem there. They have to fill 24 hours, and that’s not easy to do. I’m thinking specifically of news stations like CNN. Think about it. We used to have a daily paper. Now, the news in a constant barrage peppering you relentlessly at every moment of the day.


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Smash the monopoly

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I got a text from Xfinity saying I’m almost up to my 1.2 Terabyte limit of data.  Wait, what? They so generously said I get one grace month, but after that, the price is 10 bucks for every extra 10 GB (or something like that), up to an extra hundo a month.

Wait. What what???? I looked at what is considered data, and there is no way in hell I was using that much by myself. I called my bro. He said it might be a virus. i did a scrub. But, the stats weren’t suggesting a virus. I Googled. And it turned out that other people had this issue. And that Xfinity did jack and shit about it. It’s nearly impossible to get a human when you call Comcast, and I ended up shouting at the phone because there was nothing  I could do to get past the automated system.

I firmly believe that this is so they don’t have to deal with people. And they can do this because they are a monopoly. There are two real options in my area, and one is the one I used to have–Century Link. Honestly, the fact that I can’t get a human being has enraged me. I do have a couple numbers that I got from my last issue, and I may bust them out if I can’t get to a human in the normal way.

Redaing the forums, this is not an uncommon issue. It’s exactly the same as what I went through. Negligent usage until suddenly, they were over the limit. Mine went from 19GB to 13GB to 301GB to 626GB to 533GB to 872GB last month to 1151GB this month. What??? Even if Windows is updating. Even if there is a virus. Even if I had everything running on blast all the time, there is no fucking way my usage has increased 10 times over a few months.

I do have a new modem that I have yet to hook up. I got it because I was having internet issues the last few months. I wondered if this was related to my internet issues. I asked my brother and he said maybe. It  was a few months before that when my usage jumped. But it’s only in the last two months that I’ve been close to my limit.

This is such a little thing to be worked up over–but it’s not. My biggest issue is that my usage is not going up. I should not have to worry about bumping the limit. I’m paying through the nose for this bundle–which I may change, anyway. I know this is partly so they can get me to upgrade to limitless data. Which. I. Don’t. Need.


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Virtual but still reality

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It’s funny to me when people talk about the internet as not being real. I mean, communities on the internet. I understand that attitude from twenty years ago when it was new and unusual. But. It’s been a thin now for quite some time, and people have made lifetime friendships and even met their long-term partners in this fashion. I met Ian on Twitter a decade ago, and our friendship is still going strong. Most of our interactions are online-based, but that doesn’t make it any less real. I know that he would do anything for me (and has). He knows I would do anything for him (and have). My door is always open to him and vice-versa. He’s coming to visit in a week and staying for two weeks. It’ll be the first time I’ve seen him since the pandemic, and I cannot wait. We have such an easy rapport that it’s like being by myself (which is a compliment). My cat loves him almost as much as he (Shadow) loves me, and that’s saying something.

I met K in person nearly three decades ago, but we only talked once every few weeks. This was before messaging and texting was common. We got together once every other month or so, but we knew that we could see each other more often than that if we wanted. Until she moved to Philly. I will admit that was hard. Even though we didn’t see each other that often, the knowledge that I could drive fifteen minutes to her house was comforting. We message every now and again, and we talk once a month for hours. She’s planning on visiting in a month or so, and I cannot wait. I picture us thirty years from now in an old folks home, heckling the other inmates.

The fact that I have to use technology to nurture both of these relationships for the most part doesn’t make them any less real. We don’t have to be physically in each other’s presence in order to care about each other. I love both of them just as much as if I see them every day. Honestly, probably more because I am a solitary person. I wouldn’t want to see any person every single day, though Ian did stay with me for four months (on was it three?) when he had an internship with Game Informer, and we had no problems.

I get that there are different vibes when you’re hanging in person than when it’s online, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a different kind of friends within an online community. Like in the RKG Discord, I do genuinely care about the people. I want the best for them. I’m happy when something good happens to them and sad when something bad happens. There are in-jokes and short-hands. There are shared experiences and some of them meet in person (the Brits) on the regular.


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Everything’s easier on the internet

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a tangled web we weave.
Socially networking like a bawss.

I’m a heavy internet user, but I’m trying to lessen my time on social media. Why? It’s having a negative effect on my mental health. I realized that if I hopped on Twitter first thing in the morning, it would negatively affect my mood for the rest of the day. I now take Wednesday and Saturday off, and it makes me feel better. I’m thinking of adding Monday, but I haven’t done it yet.

I’ve noticed something about the online world vs. the real world. It’s much easier to be stuck in an echo chamber because you can tailor everything to your preferences. It’s not a bad thing because why would I want to see tweets from right-wingers all day long? Apparently, Jack (from Twitter) doesn’t agree and is considering messing with the algorithm so that you see tweets outside of your bubble, which, no, Jack. Just no. Look, I get the reason for thinking this is a good idea. Like I said, it’s easy to just hang out with people you agree with and for your opinions to harden into rigidity. However, the solution to that is not to force heinous tweeters on hapless users. While the idea is a good one, it’s too much of a benevolent dictatorship for me. Ideally, the user would have a healthy mix of tweeters she followed, but let’s face it–most people aren’t that self-aware.

It’s also easy to craft theories in your head that work perfectly but don’t stand the sniff test when taken out into the real world. It’s the academic fallacy in which you can talk about a subject with your friends/colleagues for hours, come to an agreement with them, then think everyone in the world thinks that way. I see way too many philosophical arguments that don’t have anything to do with real life, and it’s especially difficult to burst that bubble because we all have a bias for believing what we think is reality. I tested this during the 2012 election by randomly asking people in the real world (people I knew, not just strangers) who weren’t on Twitter what they thought of some hot Twitter topic, and they never knew what I was talking about. All my friends follow politics more than the norm, and they still didn’t know about the Twitter outrage of the day.

I see this all the time, especially on certain progressive sites, including one of the advice sites I frequent. There are buzzwords that get thrown out willy-nilly, and it only works if everyone agrees on the meaning of said words (or phrases), which, sadly, is often the case. I had a discussion with Ian the other night about how heuristics are important, and I’ll get to that in a minute. It’s true that they are important, but it’s also true that when heuristics become FACTS, it can be a problem. For example, the term ’emotional labor’ gets thrown around a lot these days. It started as a way to describe situations in the workplace in which the worker has to suppress her own emotions in order to do what needs to be done at work. A good example is retail. Colloquially, it’s come to mean managing the emotions in a relationship (any relationship, but most often romantic), and it’s often relegated to the woman in a heteronormative relationship. By the way, that’s another word that is more useful in academic settings–heteronormative.

Anyway, now, people are throwing emotional labor out there to mean anything from having to deal with someone else’s feelings to having to set boundaries and a half dozen of other things that may be tangentially related, but not actually emotional labor. Another one is the word toxic to describe a situation. I’ve seen it used in situations which have negative aspects, say, the hubby doesn’t do the dishes every night, but isn’t necessarily bad in and of itself (he does the laundry, takes care of the children half the time, makes a decent living, remembers anniversaries, listens to his wife, etc.), and I think it dilutes the term when it’s used so loosely.
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