I'm glad I never found 4chan as a kid. That's a very unhealthy place for young people to spend their time.
IDK if it's nihilism or the same kind of anti-caring attitude that South Park espouses, but anyone I knew that went on that site regularly became a worse person. Either way, it's a sad place with a horrible sense of humor, filled with Nazis.
I stopped browsing there after a decade in 2019 and it's fucking incredible how much I've changed. Maybe part of it is just growing older but I really genuinely think 4chan specifically and some other websites like that literally give you some form of brain damage
Yeah 4chan can only hook you in if you feel identified with the people that post there, while you're one of them, the minute you notice they're not like you it loses its spell instantly.
It's very damaging because it's a deeply alienating website. Even outside of the fashy stuff, it was a really fringe place in a way people IRL were not. Feeling deeply identified with the online freaks makes it a vicious circle, it deepens your emotional dependence on your online friends. This cuts you off from the world, like you're in some cult. Like instantly receiving a -10 in social skills.
It’s very damaging because it’s a deeply alienating website. Even outside of the fashy stuff, it was a really fringe place a way people IRL we’re not. This cuts you off from the world, like you’re in some cult. Like instantly receiving a -10 in social skills.
Yeah, I got hit with my first major depressive episode at 15 and it really did not help that I had gotten really into posting there at that time. I think a lot about what my life would be like had I not ever gone there. I'm grateful to it in some ways (it was waaay less toxic pre-Gamergate) because it introduced me to a lot of really cool shit but it's really an echo chamber of insecurity and with fascism having overtaken then entire site now there's really nothing worthwhile there anymore
The way I see it, it was like building some sort of inmune system against fascist ideas, I guess. I think it could've been worse. Also some of its fringe interests have turned a bit more mainstream now, you can reinvent yourself as some sort of bon vivant connoisseur of the finer japanese arts.
oh yeah, I ran into a /pol/ moron IRL (I managed to confirm it LMAO) and it's funny fucking with him because he has caught me dicking around on reddit so he thinks I'm some naive redditor but I know the truth :xi-gun:
Lol I've had the same thing happen and been aware of when he's spewing obvious /pol shit, but I don't keep up with what they are ahead of time so I can't dunk that hard on it.
Yeah, I remember being on 4chan way too young in like 2005-2006 and I can say for certain that it contributed to fucking me up. I won't say it's 100% at fault since I was already being neglected and coming from a broken home, but it was a strong contributor that alienated me from my peers.
I was already being neglected and coming from a broken home, but it was a strong contributor that alienated me from my peers.
what fucks me up is thinking I could have had a girlfriend for a little while in highschool but I got too much into posting on /mu/ and became an idiot elitist and basically kinda brushed off this not entirely unattractive girl in marching band who, while not exactly my type probably would have been a healthier use of my time than posting on fucking 4chan lmao
did you at least get to show her Earth 2 - Special Low Frequency Version?
No, but we listened to BADBADNOTGOOD and Interpol while she had her head on my shoulder on a bus ride back from a parade
she's married with a kid now and I'm some deranged commie scum approaching wizard status so
lmao I feel that last sentence, I think there's exactly one woman I had a crush on in high school who doesn't have a kid, and plus my on-again off-again girlfriend through college age (I was still highschool-brained) has one too I think, she's definitely married at least.
Honestly this whole thread has kind of made me realize that posting is the one constant in my entire life, no matter the forum or messageboard or whatever I was posting on and no matter how I felt about the subject matter. I don't feel good about it, but, I mean, I never really felt good about anything. That's why I spent my life posting.
Yeah, I've accepted it now. Some people were born to post. I've seen it even on relatively "normie" websites (like old hobby web 1.0 forums), there are a few posters there were you get the feeling where it was their calling.
I'm just going to keep posting. Maybe I'll find a wife who likes to post, too. It's not really likely, but at the end of the day, does it really matter? It makes me wonder to what exact extent I am an aberration versus just being a product of this particular historical moment along with other hordes of weird, lonely men posting incessantly as if their collective posts will one day converge into one James Joyce esque masterwork of surrealist poetry perfectly capturing the zeitgeist of the fully atomized internet age.
4chan engendered a deep sense of self-loathing in kids that were predisposed to it, and that self-loathing became general resentment and misanthropy. The tone of every thread is wildly aggressive and insecure. No one is allowed a name or individual identity or the illusion that they could treat others or be treated with an ounce of humanity. It's a constant performance of masculinity by and for people who were never able to be masculine in their real selves.
I found it in the late 00s and curiosity got the best of me for a little while but I eventually hated it so much. I'm probably lucky cause I already met way cooler people online than anything 4chan was so it turned me off. I just couldn't get over how unreadable it was trying to follow threads or convos on top of how absurdly fucked everything was.
The Internet of the early 2000s was weird in its own way
Those who grew up on the Internet of the 2010s will still be weird, just... differently so, but they'll survive
I'm glad I stuck to forums and Reddit. Even though reddit sucks, as long as you pruned the defaults and stuck to exclusively small hobby subs it can actually be a decent experience.
That being said, since I've become more politically active in my later teens and early 20s, I just kinda abandoned the site (coming back for Chapo in 2019) because it's still incredibly toxic even on highly curated mode.
Will still frequently use it for getting quick answers to hyper specific questions that I don't feel like posting to stack overflow or some other specialist forum that I need to create an account for.
To be fair at least screamer flash videos aren't a thing anymore.
Try having it in the 90s before parents knew there was such a thing. USENET was a hell of a drug.
How would you describe gamefaqs? I knew someone who used to hang there at one point
It’s userbase was like a precursor to reddit obv, since it’s filled with G*mers. But it was one of the last true forums on the web before reddit aggregated all forums, so each message board felt like a community. I first caught brainworms on the politics board, which ran the gamut from neocons and republicans to liberals and libertarians. Iirc there was only maybe 2 actual leftist regulars, one was a social democrat.
Game message boards were typically dead after a year or so; the real meat and potatoes of the site was its special interest boards like movies, politics, paranormal/conspiracy, and books/literature.
There were plenty of insufferable nerds but also lots of cool people.
gamefaqs
please refrain from using slurs. The correct term is g*mers I guess?
I miss it so much. It felt like Anarchy, everyone was contributing and everything was free.
I watched too much liveleak in high school and fuckin knew it was bad but unfortunately and somehow the endorphin rush outplayed any sensibilities. Shit was unnecessary
