105. This Place Sucks



Ahhh. The internet. The promise of the library of Alexandria, but the reality of the Library of Babel. Gen Xers saw this whole thing unfolding. We saw how it started as a place with great niche information, interesting message boards and slow loading porn. We saw it evolve into a place supported by ads, shaped by your biases and with fast loading porn.

Today any idiot can have a webpage (what-what tens of thousands of hits right here, baby). Any idiot can write in the internet's pages. And every idiot does. I like to think about the messages that we put out there and try to make them sound like they came from a human mouth in a social setting. It's awful! You would just hear people saying stuff from their subconscious, consequences be damned. No real back and forth, just a bunch of people saying awful things about other people, other artists or other gamers. No one really comports themselves like this in a social setting. Except that one dude, but everybody hates him!

I'm not saying that I'm any better, I'm definitely not. But it is interesting how our opinions are so easy to distribute, whether they have any merit or not. People listen to whatever the Kardashians say 1,000 times more frequently than what climate scientists have to say. People listen to their friend's reviews of Game of Thrones more than professional critics. Is it more democratic? Maybe. I think it's leading to an erosion of trust of experts and expertise. I am not convinced this is a good thing. Flat Earthers, Measles Outbreaks and Right Wingers are all happening now and I truly believe the internet helped these things coalesce into something less than ethereal.

Extra Panel:

I am no saint. I've had my internet meltdowns in my 24 years of writing into the void.

Word cloud created by Wordclouds.com  and the text of this comic and a meltdown post from a user in a forum long ago.

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