Being online is weird. We want to learn, but, more than anything, we want to be heard. We want people to acknowledge us…or our cause… we want to be right. We may even be right. However, something about the online mob ends up being really scary despite being right/justified/sincere/authentic. Fear of that mob and its consequences has a silencing effect. How can one be heard if we are afraid of just that…
During our course, I watched Netflix’s Anti-Social Network and that got my spouse and me talking about the online “town square” and how it has changed from our early days online. The documentary discusses the evolution and devolution of 4chan, a place that still informs our meme culture today, and the rise of Annyomous out of that community. I watched it for the lore, but stayed for the crossover to our course discussion.
The crux of the documentary is cyber vigilantism and its potential impact on both the vigilante and the “target.” As a non-vigilante, I am concerned with the feeling of having to walk an ever-shifting line to avoid my entire life blowing up: the wrong meme, the wrong follow or like, the wrong comment or joke, the wrong set of private dms without context leaked…All this shit scares me. I can tell you, in the early days of the Internet, I effectively spewed whatever nonsense that came into my head on myspace and other forums/communities without fear. I shared less than SFW photos with strangers, made jokes I absolutely thought were funny, but would not have said in front of my own mother, and circulated clips and memes that were probably problematic… you get the just of it…I never anticipated the consequences or implications. Obviously, I do now as an adult. Those early years are very likely lost to the recesses of the internet, and I am thankful for that, but I realize that is not the norm now. I am concerned for young people who are trying out new ideas and identities, and pushing the limits like we were expected to. Now, however, young people and their dumb/half-baked ideas are eternally memorialized on their Twitter or other linked socials. I am concerned that after two shots of Sour Puss and a Zyn pouch someone posts something dumb and it haunts them into adulthood. It should be noted, I am not talking about outright racist or threatening remarks, but rather using unbecoming words/phrases that teenagers might use in private with their friends where there is rapport and an understanding of intent/character/sarcasm/jokes. Depending on what is trending for online activists, teenagers might find themselves doxxed, harassed, silenced, and opportunities stifled like admissions and job prospects. We looked at examples in class. Is it fair, that up until now, every other adolescent got to yell at their parents, get thrown in the drunk tank, say irresponsible things, and collect and reject bad ideas/ideologies/identities without lasting consequence? The internet and the phone have forever changed this. Imagine shoplifting mascara as a pre-teen and your photo ends up circulated on facebook via crime stoppers for your whole family to see… I would dieeeeeeeee
I shoplifted mascara. Blue mascara at that!
Bright blue mascara by Calvin Klein. I’ve had blue mascara before, but this is amazing!
byu/xitssammi inMakeupAddiction
It never looked this good though.
The counterargument to all this is that maybe a little accountability is a good thing. Maybe that is right. All I can say is my worldview, politics, and set of values were formed by having bad ideas I was allowed to test openly IRL and the online town square. Maybe there are worse things than inappropriate words or childish philosophies asserted by dumb teenagers…maybe young people growing up to be virtue-signalling wolves in sheep’s clothing who say all the right things due to social pressure are worse…maybe…
Image: Beware this male feminist. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/meme/comments/fppalg/beware_this_male_feminist/