Because None of Us Are as Cruel as All of Us – Boxxy
- Thread starter Diamond
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kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
Things that actually matter in the world<=============================================================================>This load of complete bullshit
scifisam
deleted
Why did so many people apparently care enough about an individual girl's personal video? I mean, I care enough to post on this thread, but that's about it. She's just a slightly odd/sweet (delete according to opinion) girl with the mannerisms of a toddler, but no malicious intent. What's the big deal?
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
BTW, WTF is this doing in TPH?
electrogirl
dignity is overrated
I had never heard of Boxxy or 4Chan until last night. And then I overdosed on the whole thing and also found something called cracky-chan.
And also a boy singing a song called Chocolate Rain.
I went to sleep feeling a bit weird tbh.
Not as weird as when IHB linked to mydeathspace on here.
And also a boy singing a song called Chocolate Rain.
I went to sleep feeling a bit weird tbh.
Not as weird as when IHB linked to mydeathspace on here.
subversplat
writer of wrongs
4chan has that effect on people.
bluestreak
HomosexualityIsStalin’sAtomBombtoDestroyAmerica
And yet, 4chan can be motivated by random acts of kindness. Anonymous can gang up to take revenge on the wronged just as swiftly as they attack those who are merely fucking idiots.
bluestreak
HomosexualityIsStalin’sAtomBombtoDestroyAmerica
harpo
Listening to Radio Jackie
Fucked up people fuck other people up. The pleasure, the warmth, the safety of the hate pack. The thrill of belonging. Of being the hater, not the hatee. In the pack no-one can get you. This is no different to classic playground bullying, just on a larger scale with more efective tools.
That is crazy.
I thought about putting it in the general form but then I reasoned that my attempts at analysing the whole shebang would not sit comfortably there and would consequently be shouted down.
There is a school of thought that this is the direct effect of the internet (although I don't like describing it thus because it is too restrictive, maybe invisible hyper-connectivity would be better if it didn't sound so pompous) on the human mind. It's called the online disinhibition effect and arguably results in a large number of paradoxical consequences.
Here are the basic principles. You can probably think through the consequences on your own:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disinhibition_effect
Second argument. Re: the value of propagating a meme
Ok, this is the second argument that I outlined in my OP. It addresses why Boxxy as a meme, rather than as content, gained the momentum required to move beyond I Am Bored, into 4chan and into the wider internet wilderness where we encountered it.
As such it is the most straightforward of the three arguments.
There seem to be two basic elements for Boxxy, or any meme for that matter, to move beyond their initial context and gain the momentum to find a wider audience.
They are, the cultural capital that accrues from propagating the meme, and the cultural deficit that results from being ignorant of it; in the context of it being a known unknown, to use a Rumsfeldian notion.
The cultural capital point should be easy for most to understand.
In an information culture people’s worth in the eyes of others is determined by their relation to information. Whether they possess it, whether they disseminate it, whether they are ignorant of it.
This is exacerbated in internet culture by the inherent anonymity of the process.
Any identity through the screen is established by the information that the person provides on it.
Consequently, instead of only an important part of one’s identity being determined by one’s relation to information, all of one’s identity is determined in this manner.
As a result there is no higher value for an individual than providing access to new and valued information.
Look at how threads are titled and written. At how tentatively, yet exclamatorily people announce new information phenomena.
http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=277815
http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=278416
http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=278318
Above all else look at the forms of language that they use. I could go on but this section’s probably boring you and already suffering from diminishing marginal returns.
So that’s the cultural capital point: the pull factor which means that people gain value and identity from discovering and propagating new information.
The second point provides the push factor which forces people to seek out new information.
Arguably this is simple curiosity but I think it goes further than that in an information culture.
What motivates the curiosity moment in this context is the awareness in the individual of a cultural deficit.
It’s a little like a water cooler moment in the office (though I confess I’ve never actually seen one of these happen).
The second that an individual sees a congregation of individuals around a water cooler, their curiosity will be piqued. What are they talking about? Do I know about the subject? What if I don’t? Should I know? I’ll go and find out.
It’s a fascinating moment: the creation of an information debt in someone’s mind out of nothing.
These two phenomena: the cultural capital and the cultural deficit run side by side. They are not novel or unique to the internet, but like much of internet culture they are magnified and supercharged by the superfluity and superabundance of information online. This is what determines that internet memes have a unique nature, that they can tower skywards with breathtaking speed before collapsing back in on themselves with the same velocity.
Ok. That’s the basics of this section. I suspect people won’t be so interested in it, but I could go deeper into my thoughts on the matter. They tend towards ideas such as internet hysteria as determined by opinion hysteria, identity hysteria and information hysteria. But they are not wholly relevant to the whole Boxxy thing and they do trundle on a bit. If you want more on it, do say and I will respond, otherwise I’ll continue straight on to the third, final and most interesting argument.
Ok, this is the second argument that I outlined in my OP. It addresses why Boxxy as a meme, rather than as content, gained the momentum required to move beyond I Am Bored, into 4chan and into the wider internet wilderness where we encountered it.
As such it is the most straightforward of the three arguments.
There seem to be two basic elements for Boxxy, or any meme for that matter, to move beyond their initial context and gain the momentum to find a wider audience.
They are, the cultural capital that accrues from propagating the meme, and the cultural deficit that results from being ignorant of it; in the context of it being a known unknown, to use a Rumsfeldian notion.
The cultural capital point should be easy for most to understand.
In an information culture people’s worth in the eyes of others is determined by their relation to information. Whether they possess it, whether they disseminate it, whether they are ignorant of it.
This is exacerbated in internet culture by the inherent anonymity of the process.
Any identity through the screen is established by the information that the person provides on it.
Consequently, instead of only an important part of one’s identity being determined by one’s relation to information, all of one’s identity is determined in this manner.
As a result there is no higher value for an individual than providing access to new and valued information.
Look at how threads are titled and written. At how tentatively, yet exclamatorily people announce new information phenomena.
http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=277815
http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=278416
http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=278318
Above all else look at the forms of language that they use. I could go on but this section’s probably boring you and already suffering from diminishing marginal returns.
So that’s the cultural capital point: the pull factor which means that people gain value and identity from discovering and propagating new information.
The second point provides the push factor which forces people to seek out new information.
Arguably this is simple curiosity but I think it goes further than that in an information culture.
What motivates the curiosity moment in this context is the awareness in the individual of a cultural deficit.
It’s a little like a water cooler moment in the office (though I confess I’ve never actually seen one of these happen).
The second that an individual sees a congregation of individuals around a water cooler, their curiosity will be piqued. What are they talking about? Do I know about the subject? What if I don’t? Should I know? I’ll go and find out.
It’s a fascinating moment: the creation of an information debt in someone’s mind out of nothing.
These two phenomena: the cultural capital and the cultural deficit run side by side. They are not novel or unique to the internet, but like much of internet culture they are magnified and supercharged by the superfluity and superabundance of information online. This is what determines that internet memes have a unique nature, that they can tower skywards with breathtaking speed before collapsing back in on themselves with the same velocity.
Ok. That’s the basics of this section. I suspect people won’t be so interested in it, but I could go deeper into my thoughts on the matter. They tend towards ideas such as internet hysteria as determined by opinion hysteria, identity hysteria and information hysteria. But they are not wholly relevant to the whole Boxxy thing and they do trundle on a bit. If you want more on it, do say and I will respond, otherwise I’ll continue straight on to the third, final and most interesting argument.
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
Read The Tipping Point. 4chan is a collection of all 3 acting principles that Gladwell says are required to create a tip - connectors, mavens and salesmen. Connectors in this case will be anyone who is on 4chan who posts elsewhere; mavens being those who will collate and store the informaiton, and salesmen...well, that's pretty obvious.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point_(book)
Is a good start...
can I add that when I saw them I thought they we're & are suspicious in quality... the lighting's suspiciously good...as is the lip-sync or lack thereof...almost overdubbed.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand some of the "mashups" appear to be made up of source material...not copies... I'm still yet to be convinced this whole "meme" is a not a construct 
Shippou-Sensei
4:1:2.5
the amusing thing is when you search urban for chanisms
an hero, bel air, desu, this looks shopped all are scattered over the place
not to mention more well known stuff like longcat
we have dark underbelly
an hero, bel air, desu, this looks shopped all are scattered over the place
not to mention more well known stuff like longcat
we have dark underbelly
bluestreak
HomosexualityIsStalin’sAtomBombtoDestroyAmerica
Well, some of that dark underbelly is because some urbanites are also posters or lurkers on 4chan. Some is because 4chan is a meme factory and it gets spread across the internet from there.
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
Quite honestly I like rolling over and exposing my dark underbelly for a rub and a tickle every now and again...
oh oh oh...and the "Valkyrie" reference is suspect too...in the time-line sortof thang.
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
oh oh oh...and the "Valkeryie" reference is suspect too...in the time-line sortof thang.
What, because of the Cruise film? This is 4chan we're talking about, where memes cross pollinate each other with the ease of incestuous twins.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
I'm finding this whole discussion a bit lol because the answer is 'a crowd is as intelligent as it's least intelligent member'
substitute crowd for anonymous internet crowd and intelligent for ethical and there is your answer.
The ugliest shit rears it head on 4chan. And sometimes the great stuff like the scio protests, or really funny cat pictures.
substitute crowd for anonymous internet crowd and intelligent for ethical and there is your answer.
The ugliest shit rears it head on 4chan. And sometimes the great stuff like the scio protests, or really funny cat pictures.
Shippou-Sensei
4:1:2.5
I'm going with this http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=149886 and will forget about it. i guess.
Shippou-Sensei
4:1:2.5
an heroic thread
electrogirl
dignity is overrated
heh. niche.
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