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Personally I think it looks like going back to when your online and offline identities were totally separate. Inhabiting the internet under your real name is li

Personally I think it looks like going back to when your online and offline identities were totally separate. Inhabiting the internet under your real name is living in two different worlds with two different rulesets and pretending the same identity is well-suited to both. 100% of your online identity was under your control in my day. You were exactly who you chose to be. Not anymore. Now if you're ugly, fat, gay, a minority in real life you're the same online. The internet is not an escape anymore. That's why it's making more kids kill themselves now than it was twenty years ago.

dcsommer 5y ago
Are there any studies showing using 4chan, tumblr, or reddit has better mental health outcomes than non-anonymous social networks? I'm skeptical from my own experience.
- guenthert 5y ago
  Probably depends on how much you identify with your alter ego.
- literallyWTF 5y ago
  I grew up on 4chan, it’s nice to be a total flaming fuckface every now and then. Even on this website I throwaway accounts after a while. Anonymity is an escape from the drudgery of this pseudo “real life” created by social media. You associate your real anything and you will pay the price. Whether it be a photo or video, saying something that someone somewhere might find offensive—you end with all hurt and pain with nothing to gain.
  - shrimp_emoji 4y ago
    Living on Twitter and Twitch et al for a while now, my thinking has become that there's only one way to derive well-being from these platforms: humor. The best way to engage with these platforms is to not take shit on them seriously and have fun (whether that's being a total flaming fuckface or otherwise). If some subset of the population can't handle that, that's their problem, and they should get off the platform; otherwise, everyone's well-being collapses down to some lame common denominator, and no one's happy. A thing that sucks is that the platforms themselves are inherently at odds with their users' well-being. Not taking things seriously? That's low-engagement. Humor? That's bound to upset some advertiser, somewhere. No sex, no jokes, only solemn outrage with no bad words plz.
- blablabla123 4y ago
  That's true, also considering how many people believe or pretend to believe in conspiracy theories as absurd as reptile people and looking at violent protests that have been happening in the last years. So at least the negative effects have become most apparent in adults actually
MonaroVXR 5y ago
> Personally I think it looks like going back to when your online and offline identities were totally separate. Even this backfired at me when I was dating. Everything is completely separate and I get misjudged entirely. But maybe I'm talking to the wrong people, but a lot of people are kinda the same in that regard.
- 29083011397778 5y ago
  My current girlfriend was kind enough to take a chance on me, despite having only a single photo on a rarely-used Facebook account. While it worked out, her next guesses were "I'm being catfished" and "Dude's definitely a serial killer". I fully get how having a smaller online footprint makes tracking down a date harder.
  - MonaroVXR 4y ago
    > "...despite having only a single photo on a rarely-used Facebook account. While it worked out, her next guesses were "I'm being catfished" and "Dude's definitely a serial killer" Well, I had that too with a girl, no clue if I'm being catfished. But the worst part (I think) is that I'm being very sarcastic on social media, mostly car stuff and I.T. and nothing else.

dcsommer 5y ago

Are there any studies showing using 4chan, tumblr, or reddit has better mental health outcomes than non-anonymous social networks? I'm skeptical from my own experience.

guenthert 5y ago
Probably depends on how much you identify with your alter ego.
literallyWTF 5y ago
I grew up on 4chan, it’s nice to be a total flaming fuckface every now and then. Even on this website I throwaway accounts after a while. Anonymity is an escape from the drudgery of this pseudo “real life” created by social media. You associate your real anything and you will pay the price. Whether it be a photo or video, saying something that someone somewhere might find offensive—you end with all hurt and pain with nothing to gain.
- shrimp_emoji 4y ago
  Living on Twitter and Twitch et al for a while now, my thinking has become that there's only one way to derive well-being from these platforms: humor. The best way to engage with these platforms is to not take shit on them seriously and have fun (whether that's being a total flaming fuckface or otherwise). If some subset of the population can't handle that, that's their problem, and they should get off the platform; otherwise, everyone's well-being collapses down to some lame common denominator, and no one's happy. A thing that sucks is that the platforms themselves are inherently at odds with their users' well-being. Not taking things seriously? That's low-engagement. Humor? That's bound to upset some advertiser, somewhere. No sex, no jokes, only solemn outrage with no bad words plz.
blablabla123 4y ago
That's true, also considering how many people believe or pretend to believe in conspiracy theories as absurd as reptile people and looking at violent protests that have been happening in the last years. So at least the negative effects have become most apparent in adults actually

MonaroVXR 5y ago

> Personally I think it looks like going back to when your online and offline identities were totally separate. Even this backfired at me when I was dating. Everything is completely separate and I get misjudged entirely. But maybe I'm talking to the wrong people, but a lot of people are kinda the same in that regard.

29083011397778 5y ago
My current girlfriend was kind enough to take a chance on me, despite having only a single photo on a rarely-used Facebook account. While it worked out, her next guesses were "I'm being catfished" and "Dude's definitely a serial killer". I fully get how having a smaller online footprint makes tracking down a date harder.
- MonaroVXR 4y ago
  > "...despite having only a single photo on a rarely-used Facebook account. While it worked out, her next guesses were "I'm being catfished" and "Dude's definitely a serial killer" Well, I had that too with a girl, no clue if I'm being catfished. But the worst part (I think) is that I'm being very sarcastic on social media, mostly car stuff and I.T. and nothing else.