Anything involving a picture gets way more replies regardless if it's a troll attempt or actually real? Most often the meme threads are garbage like people throwing random pictures to see what sticks on the wall or not.
I have given up on forums except here because it's the same thing. Only 'treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeendy' threads ever get noticed. If you complain or call out on it BOOM INSTANT BAN!!!
Regrettably, I've concluded that this is one manifestation of the "MTV attention span" cultural generations. Ever since the rise of music videos, you've got to have a cut every two seconds to hold their attention. They've been immersed in that since early childhood and have no awareness of any other condition.
We lost most people at the third word above, when they subconsciously thought, "booooorrrrrrrinnnnngggggg" and moved on. If you made it this far, congratulations.
SECRET BONUS: For only the diligent readers that will see this, back in the 80's the guy that made MTV into what we it as today is a crypto-Nazi billionaire living under an assumed identity. No kidding! But in fairness, you probably could have guessed that.
But he also invented podcasts, so he’s got that going for him. I hope you’re talking about Adam Curry Spice, and not Russel Brando with the euro-MTV.
Haha, no, it was the guy that was running MTV at the time and hired Adam Curry and all the other VJs as part of a total revamp of MTV. Before that it was literally just music videos.
He went on to run NPR for a few years. Most people would think, "Who cares?", but at the time he was doing it I looked at the ratings. Limbaugh and Hannity had audiences of about 20M, but "Fresh Air" and "All Things Considered" each had audiences of about 30M.
I actually tried emailing AC about this years back, but my emails were, ahem, compromised.
Thanks. I forgot about the 'MTV Gen' as I haven't watched it and STILL don't even know what MTV really is.
I figured something was creepy about all those billionaires who made these reality shows.
How far do you think most people would read what you wrote?
Well, if you had to go by the metric of what the highest number of people did, I would say they got 0% of the way through. That is, they saw the length and thought, "There's no possible payoff worth that" and their eyes slid right off. I'm sure it's all taking place at a subconscious level.
When you start paying very close attention to people's interactions, you can see how very little actual engagement there is. The vast majority of conversations are simply intersecting monologues.
The more closely I study what people actually do, the less surprised I am that the world is the way it is. Still an optimist, though!
You'll like this then! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INMpsFfhaVk
Thanks for the link! I'd heard the name before but never looked into it. As frightening as Dead Internet Theory is, and I'm sure there's more truth to it than we guess, I think there's much truth to the opposite and it's terrifying.
That is, many real people behave at no higher a level than bots, and NPCs are way more prevalent than is comfortable to think about.
I was recently DMing with someone from Reddit and asked him 4 yes or no questions in a row, the last one being, "Do you understand what a yes or no question is?" I got zero answers of yes or no. Would anyone write such a malfunctioning bot? I don't think so.
But do some human brains actually work more poorly than malfunctioning bots? I fear so.
I understand the first half but what do you mean by 'easier to gain traction outside of said community?'
Which sucks as you can't see what others REALLY think.
THOTS
People have short attention spans and enjoy humour.
I generally don't updoot memes here unless they advance knowledge somehow. I will on /funny though.
Way of Forums in 2022 (and for the past decade)
If you want intelligent discussion, find a long form blog that has curated comments.
What is curated mean?
Swisscow it, duh. You’ve got the whole wide world, in your hands.
What you see is only what the mods/admins want you to see. Otherwise described as removing the garbage and low quality stuff, in the opinion of the mods/admins.
If you want an honest answer, it’s because pictographic languages and symbols existed long before the written word.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Plus, what we do is fucking terrifying. We peak into the armpits of the globohomo elite, and we try to see and be the dust escaping from under the rugs —-when the brooms are massive and constant.
We need laughs.
Laughter is the best medicine.
Life without laughter is madness.