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GET OFF MY PORCH: AN OLD MAN IN A SOCIAL MEDIA AGE - by Mr Biffo

19/4/2016

32 Comments

 
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Here's something that occurred to me today. I read a piece on Kotaku which talked about the rise of YouTube "drama".

The Kotaku piece kicked off after PewDiePie - you know him as The King of Internet Let's Play-ers, and the Internet's equivatent of the village idiot - published a video complaining about "drama".

Being an intellectual heavyweight, drama is something that PewDiePie "absolutely hates".

Do not misinterpret this: The Pewd isn't referring to the specific mode of narrative, typically fictional, that we see represented in performance art.

​No. Mr Pie points instead towards YouTube channels which are now dedicated to discussing the latest YouTube drama and gossip, resulting in a climate where "everyone is on edge", where people are just poised to attack the next someone for "fucking up or doing something bad". 

I can't say I'm a massive fan of PewDiePie, but he makes a fair point in the video. Exasperated, he suggests that everyone should stop using the Internet as a "platform for justice". Good luck with that, Pewdus. We're living in an Age of Global Puritans, with social media stonings and scarlet letters.

I'd go further still than PewDiePie's suggestion: let's just scorch the earth, and be done with that entire generation. I'm not even joking. 

THE JESTER
Actually, I am joking. I was just doing a "social experiment". Ha ha. Please like, share and subscribe. Stay tuned for my big announcement/reaction video.

But after a week-and-a-bit of thumbing my ineffectual parts into the Gamergate gloryhole I'm done with Internet drama. I honestly wonder whether I'm just too old for it all, whether bickering with one another online and shaming others is simply the Millennial version of free love or punk. If so... way to sock it to the man, kids! Your grandchildren are gonna be so proud of what you achieved.

I grew up in the 80s. You know what our version of all that was? No, neither do I. Probably acid house or something. Being cool, I was too busy playing Dungeons & Dragons to notice.

Instead, the accepted form of creative expression for young people now seems to be rampant narcissism. This is their rebelling. Staring at their own faces in the camera viewfinders 24-7, or trying to convince the world that they're good people, because they're capable of getting angry about A Thing.

Newsflash: you're not the centre of the known universe, stupid! You're not even the centre of your own borough. Or your own family. Most of your family probably hate you. I would if you were my child.

ANGRY OLD MAN
This might make me sound like an angry old man on his porch, waving my fist at those kids who keep skateboarding past my house... and I suppose I am.

But here's how I see it: there's an entire generation beneath me that has been raised on a diet of narcissism and - yes - drama. It's normal to them. They're not out forming a band, or taking drugs and dancing in a warehouse. Or going on a march to campaign for something they truly believe in. They're buying fucking selfie sticks and lighting rigs, and making videos bitching about one another.

They're vlogging about their soy lattes, and having with arguments with other vloggers over which of them is the most hardcore vegan. Well, fuck you and fuck your ethical lifestyle, child: be a vegan, but do it for the right reason, not because you want everyone to think you're the most compassionate human being on the planet.

If all you want to get from it is a reaction, then I hope your veganism gives you the runs and makes your backside collapse in your sleep.

I may not have lived through World War II like my grandparents and parents did, but having played Dungeons & Dragons I've got a pretty good idea of what being in a war would be like, and I didn't go through all that just so you lot can whinge and bitch about every last thing.

I mean... I can't remember the last time I actually fell out with someone, but let's say - for the purpose of this argument - that I didn't like the trees my neighbour planted in his front garden. The only time I'd consider making a video complaining about that would be if I became mentally ill. 
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CONCRETE SCHOOLYARD 
​I have three adult daughters, and the sorts of schoolyard dramas that they dealt with growing up are now being writ large across the entire Internet by people who should know better. 

Too often it's kidults thinking their stuff should matter to everyone, roping in supporters to join them on the bitchiness merry-go-round. It's the sort of stuff most of us grow out of after puberty.

Like most things people do, gossip, drama, whatever you want to call it, is a social tool. It unites communities.

Philosopher Julian Baggini described it as a "moral appraisal of other people" and "the judgement of what people are doing and whether it's right or wrong, good or bad".

The "drama" PewDiePie talks about has always been with us, from the earliest hunter-gatherer tribes, villages, and borders. It reinforces social connection. It ties us together. Strength in numbers. Link arms and form a wall.

"I hear that Ug from the Bongwonga Tribe stole some bananas".

"No way!"

"Yes way. You should totes do a cave painting about it. What a cuck."


But because of the nature of our connected world now, it is reaching near hysterical proportions, where whining, entitled, brats insist that their petty bickering and meaningless lives are meant to matter. And when that doesn't work... well, just shout even loud or join a mob! That'll make you feel like you're making a difference, right? All your voices harmonising in a cacophony of privilege.

Jon Ronson - whose recent interview with Monica Lewinsky is well worth a read - wrote a brilliant book called 'So You've Been Publicly Shamed', which deals with all of it in greater detail than I could ever manage here.

He once said: "Social media gave voice to the voiceless, so I think it's a sad irony that a way to survive social media now is to go back to being voiceless".

I don't know if that's the only way to survive... but it's certainly an option for getting through it without wanting to smash your face to a pulp against a rusty grate.

SUPER FRY GUY
The thing I despair at the most is that, because we all exist in a connected, multimedia, social media world, there's no way for those of us who want to opt out to escape it entirely.

It's become a constant thrum in the background of modern life - no, not a noise; a smell... like a handful of manure wrapped in a rotting scrotum. Whether it's the pillorying of Stephen Fry by the Twitter pitchfork brigade, or another One Million Moms crusade, or someone trying to guilt-trip you on Facebook into sharing some cause that means nothing to you personally, it's always there.

Guilt. Anger. Outrage. Whine. Poor me. Repeat ad infinitum.

It really does feel, as Pewdus says, like they're poised, waiting, for another mess-up to wander into their sights. It could be you, it could be me. Hunting season is 365 days a year now. We're all stumbling around in their hunting ground; you just have to upset the wrong group, wander in front of the wrong hunter with a taste for innocent veal.

It doesn't matter whether you say the wrong thing, or the right thing, so long as you say a thing that they can spin. Hell, even if you say nothing they'll probably find some sort of implicit guilt in it. Watch as they destroy another life, then go back to their playground bickering, their vlogging the contents of their metaphorical handbags, and their shrilly hollow, take-no-prisoners, ethical standing.

Drama. It's all hollow drama.

I might say that the Milliennial generation's punk or free love might be narcissism. Thinking about it more... maybe they're just a generation of dicks. And I'm sick of all of them. Are you listening, kids? You're idiots. 

Now get off my porch. 

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32 Comments
Euphemia
19/4/2016 10:56:51 pm

I agree wholeheartedly. Children of today have no idea what it was like to suffer the horror and relentless fear, in the 1980's, of Marillion.

You'll regret ever letting that one squeak out, sir.

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Mr Biffo
19/4/2016 11:00:18 pm

Marillion fan since the age of 14. You can't conceive of the pain I've lived through.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
20/4/2016 07:04:57 pm

Hey, plenty of great people loved Marillion. Like Neil from The Young Ones.

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Damon link
19/4/2016 11:36:11 pm

I think I've alluded to similar ideas before on here. The only thing I can do is nod solemnly.

I will point out that this blog has encouraged me to write things again, though I try and only publish things that I think somehow contribute something.

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Kelvin Green link
19/4/2016 11:54:44 pm

Well, not five minutes ago I wrote a rambling blog post about how my brain isn't working as it should right now and I can't get anything done or do anything right as a result, and I wrote that blog post because I thought it would do me some good to put those feelings into words.

I don't care if anyone else reads it, and I don't expect any sympathy from it, and if I had a diary I'd probably write in there instead, but I don't; I have a blog so that's where I wrote it.

I imagine that's what some of these people are doing. They're not courting an audience but instead are getting what's bothering them off their chests in the only way they know, and I can't condemn that.

That said, when it goes down that weird call-to-action tribalism rabbit hole, yes, I have much less sympathy for that.

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fatbinary
20/4/2016 01:29:19 am

You might have something there.

But you know in The Division where you're in a safe house and you're near a radio? You know that bloke that's always on? If you read this post in his voice it's brilliant.

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ThatsNoMoon
20/4/2016 01:36:29 am

Was at a beer festival a few years ago and overheard a load of old gits complaining about "this generation". Baby boomers, every one of them around 50-60.

Apparently the young of today don't know how good they have it and are grasping, selfish pricks that do nothing for this society. Unlike the baby boomer heroes that never fought in any war, watched the decline of British industry, have gilt-edged pensions and yet still believe they contributed so much to our society.

I pointed out to them that those so-called selfish, grasping kids were in Afghanistan fighting for their baby boomer pensions. They were also working zero-hour contracts to support the companies that make up the unit trusts their pensions are invested in.

These selfish young people are so deluded that they actually think free university education is a good idea. You know, like the baby boomer's kids had. Or maybe even a well funded NHS, like these old gits grew up with. Hell, even having a manufacturing industry, from which the less academically-inclined could make a living from, would be a nice idea. A couple of unions to fight their corner if an employer decided to screw them over would be lovely too. Like the baby boomers had.

Nope, apparently young people are dicks and it was all so much better blah blah.

Fact is we are being ruled by baby boomers. The most selfish, narcissistic generation in history. Yes, kids like to do selfies and sexting and all the other stuff old gits like me find bewildering (although sexting does appeal a bit) but if you ever talk to anyone under 20 they are genuinely worried about where the world is going. Probably because they'll be around another 70 years to deal with it.

I'm as grumpy an old man as anyone here but the young are not the ones making terrible decisions. As they are the poor sods that have to deal with the shit our parents have left them I think we need to cut them some slack.

Drama drama drama is force-fed from an early age, thanks to the influence of what their parents watch on TV. I am regularly amazed/worried at how my daughters' friends watch and discuss Eastenders/Corrie etc. They are all approximately 9 years old.

I remember Neighbours (with varying degrees of fondness) but the sort of issues and DRAMA that children see these days are streets ahead of the relatively mundane goings on in Ramsay Street.

I'm sorry to say that Mr Biffo is one of the people contributing to the problem he is complaining about. Without DRAMA being so much a part of today's media (children's TV especially) the younger generation wouldn't feel that it was the default setting for life. Maybe stories were gentler back in the day, maybe in my day they didn't need to be so hard-hitting and true-to-life.

Better in my day...I'm beginning to sound like those idiots at the beer festival.

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Shish
20/4/2016 04:10:11 pm

Maybe life sucks for the young (like never being able to afford to buy houses) *and* the internet enables them to be dicks on a world-wide scale? Those things don't seem mutually exclusive (Maybe they're even related? No idea, I'm a programmer not a sociologist)

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Greg
20/4/2016 03:27:44 am

Been saying it for a bit now, but ted kaczynski was about 25 years early on his anti-tech crusade :P

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Spiney O'Sullivan
20/4/2016 08:28:19 am

I don't know about this one. You acknowledge that this sort of brigading and tribalism is basically universal throughout societies in different forms. The only differences to my mind are that this generation has access to the biggest megaphone of all, and lives in an era where much of their discourse is on public record forever.

The only other thing equally universal between generations is that we're always convinced the next one down is weird and wrong in a way that we weren't. Remember the supposedly self-absorbed, coddled, and cynical Generation X?

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Mr Biffo
20/4/2016 11:34:09 am

Well... it was meant as *slightly* tongue-in-cheek. Though to be fair to you, my other half read it this morning as well and said "It doesn't come across as tongue in cheek at all".

Oh well!

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Superbeast 37
20/4/2016 09:19:50 am

How many people are we talking about that are poised to attack? What percentage?

It's only ever a hardcore minority.

It's amazing the impact that a few obsessed people can have on the Internet.

You can have thousands of adults having a mature debate about a serious issue, one 14 year old kid sets up a few anonymous accounts, sends some threats and the whole thing including the thousands of adults gets derailed, dismissed as drama/hate etc.

That's the problem, one kid with too much spare time can entirely road block rational discourse.

Granted these drama mongering kids are enabled by those who often exploit and amplify such behaviour when it suits their political goals or brings in the victimbux.

I don't think it's a problem with the millennial generation as a whole. The apprentices and graduates I meet at work are all entirely admirable and impressive human beings and nothing like some of the morons you see online.

But that's the thing isn't it, the 99% that aren't mentally ill are rarely seen and heard as they have better things to do than pretend to be the internets answer to Judge Dread.

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Paul Jon Thrillin'
20/4/2016 12:55:29 pm

I have a series of mental health issues and yet am still not keen on Youtube vlogger people. Not sure they're trying to look like white reggae guy Judge Dread, though. Actually, maybe they are. I see a lot of terrible facial hair on The Yoof..

Agree with Kelvin Green above, though. If the only way a lot of kids have to deal with their issues is by making youtube videos, then fair enough. In my day all we had was emotional repression and sadboy indiepop, leading to a horrific stew of adult brain problems.

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dab88
20/4/2016 01:25:36 pm

the people promoting and producing all of the 'drama' on youtube are not children. They are grown adults exploiting the large demographic of children that watch youtube. The 'drama' channels have such huge numbers behind them that any 'drama' they report quickly becomes a story in itself and other channels feed off this by producing content based on the current 'drama'. Even seemingly unrelated channels are getting in on the act as many now use keyword search trends to dictate their content. If drama is what people search for and drama is what get's served then we end up with what we've got: a self serving circle jerk of shitty content. You choob.

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Glyn
20/4/2016 11:34:04 am

So just to confirm this is an article about how much you don't like people who blog about the latest drama and gossip? I agree but you have to appreciate the irony. :)

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Mr Biffo
20/4/2016 11:34:58 am

That was intentional after the past 10 days... But yes - didn't flag it up enough!

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RG
20/4/2016 11:43:17 am

Show them the triangle Biff, show them the triangle... :)

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RG
20/4/2016 11:48:47 am

Sorry - I'm very sarcastic. Generation X, see...

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Mr Biffo
20/4/2016 11:49:10 am

I'll shove it right up 'em.

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A Concerned Citizen
20/4/2016 07:10:01 pm

I have devised a better model: the dramaroboros. Unsolvable, unending, all participants are victims and perpetrators at once (that being a matter of perspective). It applies quite nicely to the last few years of drama in gaming.

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Clive Peppard
20/4/2016 12:07:40 pm

Bravo

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MrPSB
20/4/2016 12:55:49 pm

Generation Fannies

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Darcy
20/4/2016 12:57:04 pm

Socrates Johnson had a nice quite about this. Went something like: "The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Party on!"

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Wicked Eric
20/4/2016 03:41:24 pm

Dust. Wind. Dude.

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Wicked Eric
20/4/2016 01:17:20 pm

Any moaning done by the older generation about the younger generation always brings to mind this excellent Bagehot piece written just after the London riots.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2011/08/civil-disorder-and-looting-hits-britain-0

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Sealoin
20/4/2016 03:16:32 pm

I wish 'normal' people were not silenced by this. Not that I wish them to get involved in this, but just ignore this and still go on communicating, so we can look up and say 'yes, the crazies are just a minority and we are not alone...'.

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Mr Biffo
20/4/2016 03:24:16 pm

Don't worry. Nobody listens to me.

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Penyrolewen
20/4/2016 09:31:09 pm

You could always not use this 'social media' that everyone is always moaning about...I don't (really. I deleted my Facebook account years ago, never done Twitter, bebo, my space, whatever). I use the Internet when I feel like it, post here and there (need to sign in with Facebook most places so I can't!) and when I disconnect, I'm disconnected. I don't have push on email on my phone or computer, my phone is always on silent, no vibrate, and I manage just fine, thanks. I can be online when I want and offline when I want- which is most of the time. Try it! It's easy.

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FEoD link
21/4/2016 08:06:55 am

You, Sir, are spot on.
I switch my phone off at bedtime and switch it on in the morning before I leave for work. At weekends it's rarely on at all and when it is, this is so I can use it as an actual phone to make a call, not as a hub for tedious minutiae updates from Internet randoms...

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The C-Man
20/4/2016 09:52:53 pm

Generations come,
Generations flow.
Old people are young people,
Minus the ego.

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terragher
21/4/2016 12:12:14 pm

I had a weird situation last week where a man on the internet wrote something I disagreed with. This isn't unusual - but on this occasion it was someone I usually agreed with. So I told him. It's freedom of speech right ?

He disagreed with my disagreement. Things escalated. Several minutes later I decided to take drastic action and see things from his point of view instead of trying to persuade him to see things from mine.

I'm far from being esp wise, or tolerant - I just couldn't be arsed to go round in circles. I don't think age is a particularly helpful criterion to apply here. Perhaps maturity, or in my case sheer laziness. People need to be lazier - it's easier than growing the fuck up.

But I'm not prepared argue about it.

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Oakreef link
22/4/2016 11:01:26 am

This "new" phenomenon people are talking about of people jumping on everything and anything internet celebrities do and turning it into "drama' sounds completely indistinguishable to me from gossip mags that have existed for the last hundred years. But for some reason people like to pretend that the internet invented repeating certain phrases and motifs for humour ("memes") and being an asshole ("trolling") too so I guess if it's on the internet it's ~magic~ and ~different~ somehow.

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