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Curating Internet Use For Your Own Good

Started by Chedney Honks, July 14, 2021, 10:00:20 AM

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Chedney Honks

Over the last year or so, I've found myself relatively attached to online chat and social media, more so than usual, for obvious reasons. My conclusion is quite inane: The more I can customise or curate what I see, the more I enjoy it, the more I get out of it and the less stressful or irritating I find it.

There's a received opinion among some people like us that we're somehow unhealthily narrowing our horizons by not engaging with the full spectrum, and while I used to broadly agree with this I've had a change of heart. In my experience, it's much better to just focus on the stuff you find interesting and which you can enjoy, rather than trying to funnel the entire maelstrom of shit into your brain. The alternative is quite exhausting, mentally and physically. Flimsy analogy likely stolen by my subconscious, but you don't go to an all you can eat buffet and try to consume everything. You would feel shit.

Twitter is perhaps the best example of a well-curated experience for me because of mute words. To give an uncontroversial example, I find people endlessly talking about the value of Xbox Game Pass irritating so I just mute all related terms. Towards the more serious end of things, I find that politics is ill-suited to the platform. I also can't bear the Marvel Cinematic Universe or anything related to it and it's really great to have one tiny sphere of reality where superheroes don't exist. My mute list is probably a hundred words. My feed ends up being an entertaining, interesting mixture of photography, movies, visual arts, some history stuff, some gaming, some small online community pals and some daft stuff. I will chat with people on there, have a bit of a laugh but mostly be fairly passive and just enjoy reading and looking at some things. Facebook on the other hand is a disaster because of how few options there are. I will just wipe it again soon because I recognise how little I enjoy any of it.

I don't want to go into forums too much because it will inevitably read as passive aggressive or insulting. I will say though that some people are just too stupid not to ignore. Hehe, a good old joke. The ignore list has actually been very useful on here but it's obviously not as effective as mute words. This is where it does narrow things a little too much. If I ignore someone for posting a lot of stuff I find obnoxious or repetitive or plain stupid, then I miss out on Merry Hell or German beer reviews (another good joke). On balance, though, I would rather throw the baby out with the bathwater. On here, I have very few on ignore but on a larger forum I use, there are probably a hundred or so on the list.

There's the idea that by muting people, we create an unhealthy echo chamber or become less tolerant. I think that's very possible but it depends on how you use different platforms and your intent. On a forum, I'm not disregarding dissenting viewpoints so I don't have to question my beliefs, I'm just nullifying people who want negative attention, plus the odd bore. On Twitter, I'm not silencing people, just certain topics. Ironically, I think it makes me more tolerant of the odd voice which gets through or the occasional boring conversation I have on a work night out. Because I have a lot less unpleasant noise to deal with online, I probably have a fair bit more patience and empathy for these topics offline. I'm happier to listen to someone tell me I must watch The Avengers and I will nod and smile for quite long time before starting my monologue on bullet hell shmups. Of course, if they kept coming to my desk to tell me, I would simply quickly and efficiently kill them.

Ehh, I've lost patience with the post. Long story short, I used to think it was healthy and dutiful to engage with the full spectrum of opinion online, now I think it's much better for my own enjoyment to tune out the vast majority of noise.

Dex Sawash

I never read anything longer than 3 sentences

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: Dex Sawash on July 14, 2021, 12:03:41 PM
I never read anything longer than 3 sentences

This is why you lost your job as a magistrate.

Petey Pate

Can't wait for the latest Avengers game to come out on the Xbox Game Pass. Also, Keir Starmer is rubbish at being the leader of the Labour party.

JesusAndYourBush

I don't block anyone on here, but what I find myself doing (here and other forums) is avoiding threads which I know are going to be a shitshow.  For that reason when I see someone criticising another user for some behaviour it confuses me at first because they usually seem a great bunch of lads, but then I remember that the behaviour being objected to is probably in a thread I haven't visited.

colacentral

Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on July 14, 2021, 02:11:06 PM
I don't block anyone on here, but what I find myself doing (here and other forums) is avoiding threads which I know are going to be a shitshow.  For that reason when I see someone criticising another user for some behaviour it confuses me at first because they usually seem a great bunch of lads, but then I remember that the behaviour being objected to is probably in a thread I haven't visited.

I'm the same. When things are genuinely winding me up to a toxic level on here or elsewhere, I just think it's a sign that I'm devoting too much mental time and space to it. It's a sign to not visit or disengage for a while rather than to curate it. You're always going to be aware that some irritant is there, and for them to be worthy of totally ignoring, it's probably because they've taken over a whole thread, so I just don't go into those anymore, ie the endless threads about Star Wars.

Twitter is different. I guess it can be used as a news source rather than necessarily a discussion tool. I find it to be such a horrible format that I can't imagine getting any joy from it other than as a masochistic wind up tool.

Cloud

It's usually related to political stuff, where the more you isolate yourself to only people you agree with, the more extreme your views can become.  Radicalisation works that way, I believe.

But there's another aspect, like choosing who to follow on Twitter  I do the same, but because I don't use Twitter as a political platform I don't follow people who are constantly bringing up politics on whatever side of whatever fence they reside.  More interested in stuff like what some content creators are up to, random musings of friends, news from the few companies I care to hear news from etc so those are the kind of accounts I follow

Trying to stick to more lighthearted stuff here too this time rather than jumping into controversial topics with hot takes and pissing everyone off (though the Glinner thread is always too tempting) but ironically this comment probably does exactly the same thing!

Icehaven

I mean this in the nicest possible way but I barely care what anyone else thinks about often contentious subjects including (but not limited to) politics, racism, immigration, gender politics, LGBTQ+ rights, culture wars, the class divide, wealth distribution, Covid or Meghan Markle, so although (bar Markle) these things are important and I have opinions on them I'm not remotely interested in discussing them on the internet (or in person tbh) or in listening to other people's thoughts on them, so I don't. That means my online experience is an echo chamber not so much of my opinions but of things I'm actually interested in or enjoy talking about, much like the OP described (I think anyway...). If I was going to engage politically, it sure as shit wouldn't be online.

Chedney Honks

Quote from: colacentral on July 14, 2021, 02:24:32 PMWhen things are genuinely winding me up to a toxic level on here or elsewhere, I just think it's a sign that I'm devoting too much mental time and space to it. It's a sign to not visit or disengage for a while rather than to curate it.

For me, it's not that. I used to feel partly responsible for getting 'too involved' or 'not scrolling past' and would step away for a while until my tolerance and patience were restored, only for the cycle to gradually repeat when I returned.

There simply are certain posters I find obnoxious or irritating. That's not my fault or theirs, it's just the nature of a larger community. There will be plenty of people who don't like my posts and I'd encourage them to mute me. Instead of chastising myself for not being more tolerant, I'd rather acknowledge that after however many weeks, months or years, I prefer to entirely disconnect from certain people. They're not 'cunts', I just don't want to hear their thoughts. As a consequence, I don't get irritated to the point that I mistakenly think 'it's my fault, time to take a break'. In fact, I haven't been irritated on here since Neil turned on the ignore function.

Quote from: icehaven on July 14, 2021, 02:59:53 PM
That means my online experience is an echo chamber not so much of my opinions but of things I'm actually interested in or enjoy talking about, much like the OP described (I think anyway...).

This is exactly it for me. I talk about photography, movies, sport, hobbies, interests, that kind of thing.

TrenterPercenter

I've really tried to not rub it in your face about you being wrong about Returnal mini Cheds.  Hope we can still be friends.

Chedney Honks

I went back to it recently because my brother was raving about it. Enjoyed it much more. I completed Act 2 again, although it was took me another sixty runs or something, feel like I engaged with the game properly this time. I definitely got lucky first time with leech rounds, adrenaline leech and damage siphon for the last boss, when I'd hardly unlocked any other items. On the other hand, it was slightly unfortunate because I didn't feel like I'd really engaged with the systems or had to learn anything. GOTY for me so far.

There are about 5 gaming forums I go to and only read and post in the shmup thread.
I'll sometimes talk about horror films or some daft pc game or something in another thread.
Been doing this for ten years or something.

Every time I get curious and pop my head in another thread, it's just cunts bickering and I nope out of there pretty sharpish.

Yeah, just stick to the things and people that make you happy.
Relax, stay groovy, don't waste your internet time winding yourself up or reading about something you couldn't give a shit about.

Sometimes people go "what? You post on there? It's fucking awful! The place is absolutely heaving with walnuts!"
and I'm like "Oh, is it? Everyone in the shmup thread is sound as"

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: icehaven on July 14, 2021, 02:59:53 PM
I mean this in the nicest possible way but I barely care what anyone else thinks about often contentious subjects including (but not limited to) politics, racism, immigration, gender politics, LGBTQ+ rights, culture wars, the class divide, wealth distribution, Covid or Meghan Markle, so although (bar Markle) these things are important and I have opinions on them I'm not remotely interested in discussing them on the internet (or in person tbh) or in listening to other people's thoughts on them, so I don't. That means my online experience is an echo chamber not so much of my opinions but of things I'm actually interested in or enjoy talking about, much like the OP described (I think anyway...). If I was going to engage politically, it sure as shit wouldn't be online.

That's exactly it for me.  Sometimes I'll read a contentious thread and come out of it thinking less of both sides, due to the whiny nature of it all.  On the few occasions I do comment in that type of thread my comment will usually be short so I try to add something more to my post to flesh it out... and if anyone comments it'll always be in reference to the chaff I added rather than the meat of the post which is fucking annoying so I try and not comment on those type of threads.  Occasionally I'll be tempted and spend too long writing a reply before realising it's not worth it and deleting it (that happens a lot on reddit!).

madhair60

Quote from: Chedney Honks on July 14, 2021, 10:00:20 AMIf I ignore someone for posting a lot of stuff I find obnoxious or repetitive or plain stupid, then I miss out on Merry Hell

nah you can stick me on ignore and just go to the website mate, not arsed. don't even want to wake up most mornings, just want the void.

Sebastian Cobb

You eventually get to spot who has long ignore lists because they're the ones wandering in to conversations reiterating points that have already been made; in a way their attempts to block noise create more of it for everyone else.

Cloud

Or you get idiots like yours truly who have a bad habit of wandering into a thread to throw a hot twopenneth in (out of boredom or whatever) with the intention of reading the rest of the thread later.  Only to read the thread later and find that hot take had been done and debated on page 2 and we're now on page 197 and the conversation has moved on a tad...

Greg Torso

Quote from: icehaven on July 14, 2021, 02:59:53 PM
I mean this in the nicest possible way but I barely care what anyone else thinks about often contentious subjects including (but not limited to) politics, racism, immigration, gender politics, LGBTQ+ rights, culture wars, the class divide, wealth distribution, Covid or Meghan Markle, so although (bar Markle) these things are important and I have opinions on them I'm not remotely interested in discussing them on the internet (or in person tbh) or in listening to other people's thoughts on them, so I don't. That means my online experience is an echo chamber not so much of my opinions but of things I'm actually interested in or enjoy talking about, much like the OP described (I think anyway...). If I was going to engage politically, it sure as shit wouldn't be online.

I agree with the bit about not feeling the need to voice opinions on the internet or discuss heavy topics with people I don't know. I barely come into General Bullshit because even if I'm trying to avoid politics, news, 'cunts on Twitter' type threads, they tend to bleed into other threads. The ignore list is good, but it only goes so far, and I don't even like putting people on it, because - with a few minor exceptions - I really don't think anyone on here is acting in bad faith or winding people up (or maybe I just never see those posters because they're mainly active in threads I keep out of).
I don't like discussing things like that on the internet, I'm basically here to chill out and piss around. I'm happy to chat away about anything face to face with people, but can't possibly see any merit in getting into arguments with complete strangers whose motivations, backgrounds, personalities etc you have no idea about.
Twitter seems like an absolute hell hole. Endless barrage of witless dreary people trying to get their soundbites in and hoping for the up-ticks. I might be wrong, but it's not for me. I'm in touch with the people I want to be in other ways, and the less I know about famous peoples' personal lives and political opinions, the better.

Chedney Honks

Quote from: madhair60 on July 14, 2021, 03:52:52 PM
nah you can stick me on ignore and just go to the website mate, not arsed. don't even want to wake up most mornings, just want the void.

I gave you and Shoulders as funnee examples because I enjoy your posts and people would recognise the topics.

Quote from: ImmaculateClump on July 14, 2021, 03:40:41 PM
Yeah, just stick to the things and people that make you happy.

With the help of about a hundred ignores on another forum, I have finally managed to follow this good advice.

___

Interesting to see people's perception of Twitter because it's so different to mine. I don't follow any famous people (not actually famous people) or any big names, just people with shared interests. My feed is just loads of photography and art and movie and aesthetic stuff and some game stuff. It's a really interesting stream of stuff I like to look at. Virtually no opinions about anything. I've muted so many hot topics over time. I still see people's posts, I haven't muted anyone, but I don't care to hear about certain stuff in that context so I nix it.

madhair60

i don't see much point posting on here anymore due to the existence of ignore lists 'cos i know i'm on em

comes across as petulant but whatever the people who don't care aren't reading this anyway

i hope everyone who put me on ignore dies tbh

TrenterPercenter

Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on July 14, 2021, 03:45:44 PM
That's exactly it for me.  Sometimes I'll read a contentious thread and come out of it thinking less of both sides, due to the whiny nature of it all.  On the few occasions I do comment in that type of thread my comment will usually be short so I try to add something more to my post to flesh it out... and if anyone comments it'll always be in reference to the chaff I added rather than the meat of the post which is fucking annoying so I try and not comment on those type of threads.  Occasionally I'll be tempted and spend too long writing a reply before realising it's not worth it and deleting it (that happens a lot on reddit!).

this 100% been going on for years and it's gotten much worse.

People seem to wear they're hypocrisy and beligerance as a badge of honour.

"Well I'm just completely unreasonable mate, contradict myself alluva time, likely to fly off me ol'andle and start making the whole conversation petty and personal if I'm feeling threatened or otherwise I'll just ignore any posts that are con-tor-rare-e to my thoughts, never seein' disagreement as a chance to refine, nah not me, I much prefer a witty put down or an emotive appeal that someone is morally inferior.  Racist, sexist those are usually good options, I find as long as you keep the conversation about 'em and not me then no one notices my behaviour........but yeah like I was saying I'm really worth listening to on this particular subject"

Bernice

I made a pact with myself to have fewer opinions a little while back. I'm not sure how I feel about it.

TrenterPercenter

Quote from: ImmaculateClump on July 14, 2021, 03:40:41 PM
Yeah, just stick to the things and people that make you happy.
Relax, stay groovy, don't waste your internet time winding yourself up or reading about something you couldn't give a shit about.

I have to say removing myself from a certain thread exactly for the reasons you said really made me explore and value other parts of the forum.  I literally thought HSart was some web design thing for the last 7 years.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: icehaven on July 14, 2021, 02:59:53 PMIf I was going to engage politically, it sure as shit wouldn't be online.

Yeah there's about 3 billion people on there which is a lot of nuance, or lack of nuance.