I definitely picked up on the avatar difference, it became prescient to me around when the furry thing gave way to actual trans people popping up everywhere. Right-leaning people always knew furries were clearly not real life, so there was always the "furfaggotry" jokes and what not, and people making fursuits to wear around IRL, they were looked at as weird. In that day, a dude with a chick avatar was definitely odd, if not an outright "trap," then something was up with that dude. But then the trans thing caught fire, and I thought "how can this many people suddenly like... not accept real life? Like be in full swing denial of facts right between their legs? I can see how an exceedingly rare person could just have this disability like color blindness or something, but just because ADA-compliant website design became hip, everyone didn't just suddenly turn color blind to fit in... what gives?" And then it clicked, it's all these young, left leaning kids in the internet generation that spent way too much time on the internet, and literally can't tell the difference between their online personas and their real lives. They think a few crowd funded sprint development cycles can just change reality and... yeah that's when it dawned on me, you can tell a lib by the avatar: they project who they think they are or wish they were into the avatar. Whereas most right leaning people pick an avatar as a reference to impress each other, whether that's make somebody laugh, fish for the recognition of an obscure cultural reference, make a political statement, etc. the avatar is so definitely not "them," literally.
The other aspect of that transition from furries to transgender was that there was finally medical/surgical ways to just force it. Give it time, CRISPR will let people grow their own fur, and then these same people will think they're really born foxes in the wrong species and they'll turn trans-specist, and then I'll be a bigot for pointing out they're deranged, and they'll call me a fursecutor, etc. I think we're in a race to see what we can normalize first: Pedophilia or beastiality.
"[O]ur hoarding behavior diminishes the utility of the information that is truly valuable."
I kinda got caught up over the pandemic when I set a goal of one picture per day to be completed. Now I'm sitting on weeks of travel pictures completely unreviewed from the fall. My existing storage and workflow system flat out isn't working anymore.
So...going to play around with reducing friction and trying to diminish my perfection bias in April with a new workflow setup using an iPad Air on my trip to Scotland. See how it goes. Historically there should be a significant amount of time in cheery pubs on wet days to sit with a pint and give it a go.
Interesting point about avatars. I used to have anime villains (like Johan from Monster) and historical villains as avatar when younger, to go with my edgy horror author persona. Then when I got older I switched in to sort of edgy pictures of myself, with black and white filter, face partly covered (this lost its mystique 2020 though) or with a slightly sinister smile. This seems to be the typical style for my in-group of 30-40-something horror and scifi writers. Avatar has to be slightly dangerous, even that we are moms and dads with day jobs.
"Internet as self" maybe because for me internet is a tool for escapism and to feed my information addiction I have hard times grasping those whose whole existence is some sort of online identity game - you know, insert multiple little identity groups on your introduction. There's also the split of identity being "what you do" and "what others can see on then surface"
“The internet as a tool vs the internet as the self” literally summarized half of a lecture I’m working on in a sentence, and I am very thankful for that.
You ever read a sentence and then you can feel your brain just like, sending out tendrils in all these different directions to explore it and connect the idea with all these loose ends you already had? Yeah. That kind of shit.
As a lefty who works in a pretty right-wing space (Country music) the idea that everything (not just the internet) is connected to the self tracks with my world view whereas I’m thinking though the idea of how so many of my co-workers see/use everything/one as a tool. Hmmmm. Thanks.
Potentially! I do two lectures for a Social Media class, and an Esports class at my alma matter. Usually it’s on Discord, Twitch chat and “personal spaces inviting marketing in”, the identity of fandom and what brands do to overcome marketing resistance with authenticity. In rewriting it this year it includes a lot more media literacy and critical thinking talking points.
I definitely picked up on the avatar difference, it became prescient to me around when the furry thing gave way to actual trans people popping up everywhere. Right-leaning people always knew furries were clearly not real life, so there was always the "furfaggotry" jokes and what not, and people making fursuits to wear around IRL, they were looked at as weird. In that day, a dude with a chick avatar was definitely odd, if not an outright "trap," then something was up with that dude. But then the trans thing caught fire, and I thought "how can this many people suddenly like... not accept real life? Like be in full swing denial of facts right between their legs? I can see how an exceedingly rare person could just have this disability like color blindness or something, but just because ADA-compliant website design became hip, everyone didn't just suddenly turn color blind to fit in... what gives?" And then it clicked, it's all these young, left leaning kids in the internet generation that spent way too much time on the internet, and literally can't tell the difference between their online personas and their real lives. They think a few crowd funded sprint development cycles can just change reality and... yeah that's when it dawned on me, you can tell a lib by the avatar: they project who they think they are or wish they were into the avatar. Whereas most right leaning people pick an avatar as a reference to impress each other, whether that's make somebody laugh, fish for the recognition of an obscure cultural reference, make a political statement, etc. the avatar is so definitely not "them," literally.
The other aspect of that transition from furries to transgender was that there was finally medical/surgical ways to just force it. Give it time, CRISPR will let people grow their own fur, and then these same people will think they're really born foxes in the wrong species and they'll turn trans-specist, and then I'll be a bigot for pointing out they're deranged, and they'll call me a fursecutor, etc. I think we're in a race to see what we can normalize first: Pedophilia or beastiality.
This rings so true from that Wired article:
"[O]ur hoarding behavior diminishes the utility of the information that is truly valuable."
I kinda got caught up over the pandemic when I set a goal of one picture per day to be completed. Now I'm sitting on weeks of travel pictures completely unreviewed from the fall. My existing storage and workflow system flat out isn't working anymore.
So...going to play around with reducing friction and trying to diminish my perfection bias in April with a new workflow setup using an iPad Air on my trip to Scotland. See how it goes. Historically there should be a significant amount of time in cheery pubs on wet days to sit with a pint and give it a go.
Interesting forum discussion here about photography stored on cloud accounts after someone dies:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/dealing-with-a-deceased-persons-lightroom-cloudy-library.44634/
Death online is enough for a book!
Interesting point about avatars. I used to have anime villains (like Johan from Monster) and historical villains as avatar when younger, to go with my edgy horror author persona. Then when I got older I switched in to sort of edgy pictures of myself, with black and white filter, face partly covered (this lost its mystique 2020 though) or with a slightly sinister smile. This seems to be the typical style for my in-group of 30-40-something horror and scifi writers. Avatar has to be slightly dangerous, even that we are moms and dads with day jobs.
"Internet as self" maybe because for me internet is a tool for escapism and to feed my information addiction I have hard times grasping those whose whole existence is some sort of online identity game - you know, insert multiple little identity groups on your introduction. There's also the split of identity being "what you do" and "what others can see on then surface"
“The internet as a tool vs the internet as the self” literally summarized half of a lecture I’m working on in a sentence, and I am very thankful for that.
You ever read a sentence and then you can feel your brain just like, sending out tendrils in all these different directions to explore it and connect the idea with all these loose ends you already had? Yeah. That kind of shit.
As a lefty who works in a pretty right-wing space (Country music) the idea that everything (not just the internet) is connected to the self tracks with my world view whereas I’m thinking though the idea of how so many of my co-workers see/use everything/one as a tool. Hmmmm. Thanks.
Thank you, Matt! What's the lecture for? Will it be recorded?
Potentially! I do two lectures for a Social Media class, and an Esports class at my alma matter. Usually it’s on Discord, Twitch chat and “personal spaces inviting marketing in”, the identity of fandom and what brands do to overcome marketing resistance with authenticity. In rewriting it this year it includes a lot more media literacy and critical thinking talking points.
That's awesome!
how personally should i take this
also, i have to disagree with you re: lain-- i see lots of teen girls ID, next one i see i'll drop a link under one of your comments