Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Where you were relatively young…the internet started. Not a coincidenceWhen I was young, there was the beginning of “snark culture”, and while I’m not proud to say I participated when I was young and less sensitive to others, it was way toned down. I would grab the weekly tabloids and couldn’t wait to squeal to my cousins “Oh my gawd, what did Keri Russell do to her hair, what was she even thinking?!” Later it moved online to sites like Television Without Pity.
Somewhere along the way this stuff took one heck of a dark turn. For one thing, my understanding (I can’t frequent these sites because I get too weirded out) is that a lot of it is viciously misogynistic. Body shaming, tearing apart how women look, mom shaming, and so on.
For another, the level of obsession on places like that seems to be next level unhealthy. Like it breeds an absolute, hate driven fixation on these people they’ve never met in their lives. I mean I sort of lean towards Buddhism (or Western Buddhism-lite, I guess) and agree with the idea that you should cultivate positive states of mind. Absolutely fixating on internally generating endless hatred towards innocent people is psychologically terrible. And not being able to focus on anything but the people they spew vitriol at - again, I’d go so far as to say that’s psychologically damaging.