Tag: internet

Nextdoor Famous

Briana HansenLeave a comment

I recently became the number one post on Nextdoor.

I’ll sign autographs for anyone who wants one.

If anyone is unfamiliar with Nextdoor, it’s basically a social media app for your neighborhood with the slightest amount of accountability. You have to put a name (it doesn’t have to be your real one). You have to be confirmed that you live in a certain area (I’m sure there’s easy work arounds for this one). And you can usually only see posts and information in certain areas, to keep it local (again…I’m sure with some savvy clicking this doesn’t have to always be the case).

It is a wild west of social interaction. Some people post pictures just to share. Some people post questions that could be easily Googled. Some people complain about menial or major happenings. Some people write helpful posts about missing or found pets. Others write depressing posts about their dead or dying pets. Some people just want to rant or be heard. Others scream friendly-yet-empty greetings into the void.

I’m obsessed with it in the same way I’m obsessed with French Silk Chocolate Mousse pie. I know I can’t control myself and that it has adverse reactions. But once in a while it’s the best thing in the world to indulge in.

For a little primer and a lot of entertainment, check out the Best of Nextdoor on Twitter.

My story of Nextdoor fame begins humbly enough, with a simply Ring video of a hard-to-describe animal caught in our driveway in the wee hours of the morning.

My post said (something along the lines of) “Let’s play a game: Guess this animal!”

Tons of people responded. Like almost 200 or so in a day…which, on Nextdoor, is basically viral.

What’s funny to me is how many people made this clearly joke game suddenly an aggressive way of finding critiques, either with the other people who responded or with my own video. There were accusations and criticism that the video wasn’t long enough. Or it was too blurry. Or it was too far away. There were people convinced it was one animal and angry that other people were saying it was another. It was a pretty even split between people just having a good time (as intended) or people getting incredibly invested and very quickly angry at the nature of the post.

It was a goofy post about a weird-looking animal. And yet…vitriol from some, and neighbor to neighbor anger from others.

Even with the seeming accountability of the app, this post to me encapsulated so much of what is wrong with communication apps and all anonymous internet interactions.

It’s that we lose sight of each other’s humanity.

And maybe it’s especially intense right now because many of us have been holed up in our homes without too much outside human influence with only the digital creations of tech giants who make money off of our attention (and we give more of it when we’re fired up, especially when we’re scared or angry). Maybe the fact that we don’t actively have to interact with people who disagree with us because we can always find people who agree with us allows our ego to feel even more validated to scream loudly into our echo chambers and dehumanize those who might disagree based on their own just-as-valid life experiences. Maybe it’s a whole number of factors, seen and unseen, that have led us to this point. I don’t know.

But I do know that I’m tired of it. It’s draining. For all of us. It’s not our true human nature. We both survive and thrive largely because we’re kind to each other.

Yet as we feel and get more detached from our communities, we feel more isolated from both mother nature and our true nature.

In short, we’re sad little selfish assholes. And free social media services who promise to help keep you connected and validate your human experience profit from our assholery, our narcissism, and our depression.

So maybe we call them out. And we change our behavior. We get offline and we look other humans in the face. We let go of our need to be right and once again engaged our innate curiosity about others, recognizing elements of our own selves in them. We start remembering that we are actually a part of this earth, and not parasites who can drain it of its natural resources supposedly without repercussions.

We slow down. We calm down. We change our pace and think outside of the box. That way goofy posts meant to be jokes don’t turn into a soapbox where people call each other stupid.

And to preemptively answer everyone’s burning question: The animal has been confirmed as a beaversquirrelracoonfluffyfatcat. You’re welcome.

Blogger chooses blog over social life

Briana HansenLeave a comment

When some friends asked Henry Fetter if he wanted to go partying, he told them “no.” He felt it was the only responsible choice for the dedicated blogger, since it had been twelve hours since his last posting.

Fetter, who keeps a simple personal blog filled with mild and often conflicting opinions on every day people and events, has been dedicated to the project for almost a year now.

“It started because I felt like I needed my opinion to be heard,” Fetter explains. “I wanted to have an opinion on everything- even things that didn’t require it.”

The blog has required a great deal of his time in maintaining, leaving very little time for socializing and making friends. “As a blogger, you have to really dedicate yourself to this online identity,” says Fetter. “Normal people can go out and make friends and maintain relationships. But bloggers aren’t normal people.”

Despite the fact that very few people read it, Fetter is certain it will be picked up by the mainstream media anytime and transform into a sensation. And he wants to be ready at all times for that possibility. Thus he remains in his room, sitting, typing away, and hoping someone in the cyber world will notice.

Upon losing access to the internet, girl discovers she has her own thoughts

Briana HansenLeave a comment

While in the process of moving apartments, Dana Ollinger lost access to the internet for a few days. Between not living in her old apartment and waiting for the new services to be set up, she was in this prehistoric-like waiting period where she lost much of her modern ability to communicate and connect to the world.

Within a day or so, Ollinger started beginning to have strange thoughts. Ideas would simply pop into her head while she was wandering around her apartment. She would find herself writing down these ideas in a “journal”-a written version of an online blog that is meant to be kept “private,” which means for only one or a few select people.

As she began writing in this journal, she quickly realized that she was hearing her own voice within her head coming up with all sorts of things to include on the pages.

The strange part about the voice was that it was her own.

For as long as she could remember, Ollinger’s mind had been distracted by constant access to the internet and the world of ideas and thoughts that are included. She had become accustomed to listening to other people’s opinions and ideas. It had never occured to her that in the process, she lost touch with her own well of ideas and opinions.

That is, until she was forcibly removed from the chatterbox of the internet. Shocked to find that she had her own thoughts and opinions outside of the internet, she began to be truly inspired. She began writing more stories and creating fun story lines.

Last Wednesday, however, her internet was finally set up again and Ollinger found herself once again lose touch with that creative spark inside. Now that she knows her own thoughts are inside her, though, she hopes to keep off the internet a little more than she did before.

That is, of course, after she watches a series of related YouTube videos and comments on them for an hour or two. Or five.

Smileychik33 shocks YouTube community by leaving neutral video comment

Briana HansenLeave a comment

Adele, a 16-year-old honors student from Milwaukee, regularly watches YouTube videos like most kids her age. While watching the videos, she signs in as “smileychik33”, and often comments on each video after watching it.

“It’s clearly very important to have an opinion about each video you watch, and to share that opinion with the entire world,” she says. She explains that youth have grown up knowing how important it is that they share their voice and opinion with the rest of of the world by leaving comments and rating certain videos, no matter what endlessly shifting criteria they choose to use to rate them.

“Usually, you either write “LOL” or some combination of letters that make it obvious you’re laughing hysterically if you like the video, or you write something scathing and personally offensive,” Adele further explains. “The more you can personally insult both the people involved in the video project and the other people who have commented on it, the more effective your post is. Grammar, spelling, punctuation and factual evidence are not important.”

Last week, however, Adele-under her username “smileychik33”- decided to leave a comment under a video that was neither scathing nor a compliment. She simply wrote, “Watched it. Fine.”

Though the inclusion of the word “fine” may seem like she was approving of it, she assuredly answers that “fine” is neutral in the world of the internet. The attention-starved people who regularly put up and comment on videos need much more than “fine” to feel like their work has been approved of.

Her lack of opinion sent shockwaves throughout the YouTube community. A wave of other users immediately began to insult her neutrality, forcing her to take a side one way or another on the video so they could better come to rash decisions about how they felt about not only the video, but about her as a human being. After the wave of insults came another wave of users who defended Adele’s comment and retorted insults to those who were insulting her in the first place.

As the digital debate rages on, Adele remains neutral. “The video was fine. Nothing great, nothing horrible. Just fine. I refuse to add anything else to my comment,” she states.

For many YouTube users, however, her neutrality is “waiii not wiked kewl” and some consider her a “b^!@#”.

Onslaught of detailed tweets affirms water on outside window is rain

Briana HansenLeave a comment

Charlene Grandview heard small taps on her outside window as she sat in her living room in Springfield, Illinois. As she looked at the window, there seemed to be some sort of watery substance that was hitting the window panes. Unsure where to look for further details on the mystery, she logged onto her trusty Twitter and began checking the Tweets of people she knew were local.

Many of the Tweets discussed rain or the rain they were hearing outside their window. Many of them used the rain as an excuse for not exercising or any number of other excuses for not doing a simple act. These numerous Tweets she read and responded to, affirmed for Hoffer that it was, in fact, raining outside her window.

“Sure, I could have just checked Weather.Com or logged on to my local online news source and found out if it’s raining in my area, but I figured Twitter would be more up to date than those sources,” Hoffer claims.

When asked if she considered simply stepping outside to see if it was raining or not, she looked befuddled and said, “But, I could get wet. Plus, I wanted to see what was trending at the time.”