yUO R IN MY INTERNETS

[Janvier]

The internet effect: A memetic analysis

This work attempts to hypothetize an answer to a number of questions about the effect of the internet on society:

Q: What are the effects of the advent of the internet on communication online?
A: Communication is reviewed and filtered on a lot more layers than normal communication, extending the level of complexity.

Q: What paradigms are developed and what paradigms disappear within the altered form of communication?
A: Internet opens the road to the devolopment of any paradigm.
   However, if a paradigm is heavily resisted by the community it is introduced in,
   it will take a great amount of effort on behalf of the individual trying to introduce the paradigm.
   It could be likened to proselytizing to a machine, something a follower of God would probably frown upon in this country.

A number of important paradigms to web communities are:
Constructive, or Good, is Cooperation, striving towards a "greater good". The people who engage in Good are praised and showered in symbolic virtues and, if they contribute much, the power to change the rules.
These individuals often go on to become Moderators or Admins, typically answering to the community, a set of rules and the owner of the website, who tends to delegate much of his or her responsibility and power.
Destructive, or Evil, is conscious deception, attempting to bend the rules and mocking other members. The people who engage in evil activities are resisted by the community and the "powers that be", because they just might show the rules to be deficient.

Good is on-topic: in line with the communities' themes and memes.
Bad is off-topic: responding in a way which, according to the community, is seen as non-sequitur to the content of the thread.



To what degree are these changes in communication and paradigms translated to "real life"?
A paradigm that can gain widespread acceptance in a web community could well be translated into a widespread off-line belief.
A paradigm that can only affect a limited number of people in a web community will be unlikely to become a widely held belief, but may transpire to everyday life in part or as a whole in the few.

However, for these questions to be properly answered it is necessary to gain an extensive understanding of what online communication entails and how it has developed.
To this end, the first part shall consist of a number of investigatory essays into the nature of the information age.

Part I: The Information Age cometh

Subtopics:
- Concepts of the world wide web before its debut
   In a sense, anyone who is and was capable of abstract thought built (or builds) their own web.
   The world wide web can be seen as the resulting effort of all the people who have used it and all the people who have shaped it,
       as they have all (though some in only a limited way), contributed to what it is in the present.

- The early days: mail, usenet and HTTP
How much more serious the web must have been in those days, when there were no shiny banners, no YouTube, no pornographic imagery, none of those things to interest the base strata of society.
All the world's depravity and genius is present on the web today, where it began as a project for intellectuals.

- The dream of free information
In 1983, the GNU project was announced. Driving it was Richard Stallman's dream that information can be shared freely on the internet, if the information you get in return suffices as enough reward to keep you sharing.
Perhaps Richard should have better considered the fact that introducing many to the internet would logically lead to an increase in depravity and a general decrease of content. (This poke at Stallman is pretty unwarranted, and inspired more by my personal beliefs than objective analysis. Consider, for example, his Unix Beard.)

- Instant communication: IRC and instant messengers
Instant messaging evokes the illusion of dialogue, while robbing it of most physical aspects. In an IM conversation you are not going to be guided by body language, tone of voice, facial expression, or any other distraction we commonly encounter in real life. Exchange of ideas is filtered merely through the grasp of the others' language. One might thus consider communication online to be more "pure". However, the prospect of this purity can be scary to those who are guided more by physical aspects than by thought. Perhaps this is why convincing those on the other side of the "digital divide" proves so hard.

- Towards internet communities: Social networking, BBS, Blogs, imageboards and wikis
This is where proper exploration still lies in wait... One could imagine a sociological model in addition to a memetic or mechanistic one. I like memes. (and acid, obv )

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Did you seriously use the word "paradigm" more than once in your life a thread?

Now, was there a point to all that rambling?

[Janvier]

Did you seriously use the word "paradigm" more than once in your life a thread?

Now, was there a point to all that rambling?

Trolls can do anything. You can fuck an internet community up beyond recognition. You can fuck up individuals in an internet community beyond recognition.
Then you start trolling IRL and you can fuck with the rules of society as well as individuals, but obviously never the rules of nature (for thou shalt not pursue Siddhi's! obv obv)

[Requia ☣]

Hey, I use 'paradigm' all the time.

Don't go comparing me to that ball of fail in the OP.

[Janvier]

Hey, I use 'paradigm' all the time.

Don't go comparing me to that ball of fail in the OP.

How about you shut the fuck up and let the professionals handle this, alright baby?

[Requia ☣]

wait, professional? people actually *pay* you to be a self important prick?

And here I thought scientologists were deluded.

[Janvier]

wait, professional? people actually *pay* you to be a self important prick?

And here I thought scientologists were deluded.

I meant to say little beyond "You Are Not Pro."
But you do show promise.
Perhaps, with the proper training, you would not suck so badly at the internet.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Hey, I use 'paradigm' all the time.

Don't go comparing me to that ball of fail in the OP.

How about you shut the fuck up and let the professionals handle this, alright baby?

Professional?  You?   

[The Good Reverend Roger]

wait, professional? people actually *pay* you to be a self important prick?

And here I thought scientologists were deluded.

I meant to say little beyond "You Are Not Pro."
But you do show promise.
Perhaps, with the proper training, you would not suck so badly at the internet.

This thread is going places.   

[Janvier]

wait, professional? people actually *pay* you to be a self important prick?

And here I thought scientologists were deluded.

I meant to say little beyond "You Are Not Pro."
But you do show promise.
Perhaps, with the proper training, you would not suck so badly at the internet.

This thread is going places.   

One would have to be deluded not to recognize a thread on a Discordianist forum wouldn't derail if you posted "srs business".
*mad cackle*

[The Good Reverend Roger]

wait, professional? people actually *pay* you to be a self important prick?

And here I thought scientologists were deluded.

I meant to say little beyond "You Are Not Pro."
But you do show promise.
Perhaps, with the proper training, you would not suck so badly at the internet.

This thread is going places.   

One would have to be deluded not to recognize a thread on a Discordianist forum wouldn't derail if you posted "srs business".
*mad cackle*

Naw.  I was just commenting that this thread has gotten everything it deserved.

[Janvier]

wait, professional? people actually *pay^-* you to be a self important prick?

And here I thought scientologists were deluded.

I meant to say little beyond "You Are Pro."
But you do show promise.
Perhaps, with the proper training, you would not suck so badly at the internet.

This thread is going places.   

One would have to be deluded not to recognize a thread on a Discordianist forum wouldn't derail if you posted "srs business".
*mad cackle*

Naw.  I was just commenting that this thread has gotten everything it deserved.

Perhaps it has for you. Have you read it?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

wait, professional? people actually *pay^-* you to be a self important prick?

And here I thought scientologists were deluded.

I meant to say little beyond "You Are Pro."
But you do show promise.
Perhaps, with the proper training, you would not suck so badly at the internet.

This thread is going places.   

One would have to be deluded not to recognize a thread on a Discordianist forum wouldn't derail if you posted "srs business".
*mad cackle*

Naw.  I was just commenting that this thread has gotten everything it deserved.

Perhaps it has for you. Have you read it?

Kind of.  It's too badly written to really follow for long.

[Janvier]

wait, professional? people actually *pay^-* you to be a self important prick?

And here I thought scientologists were deluded.

I meant to say little beyond "You Are Pro."
But you do show promise.
Perhaps, with the proper training, you would not suck so badly at the internet.

This thread is going places.   

One would have to be deluded not to recognize a thread on a Discordianist forum wouldn't derail if you posted "srs business".
*mad cackle*

Naw.  I was just commenting that this thread has gotten everything it deserved.

Perhaps it has for you. Have you read it?

Kind of.  It's too badly written to really follow for long.

1. What is your litmus test for bad writing?
2. I figured as much. One could say that my megalomania blinds me, but you could also see it as my mind showing me a different possibility...

[Payne]

I got to about half way until it started reading as an oblique and uninformed criticism of either "us", or people like "us", "us" being the denizens of PD.

And not a particularly original or thought provoking critique either.