I've been in fandom 30 years, and don't really see a great deal of difference 'tween then and now. There were ignorant wankers around then, and there are ignorant wankers around now.
Exactly. And what did we do before we had nostalgia?
The dumb folks have a faster voice now, that's one difference, they can get their comments out without editing or filtering. Previously, they had to work for it. ('They', I say, with my nose in the air, fully aware I've done my share of dumb things).
I think that speed is a major influence on the dumbness of interaction in fandom. How many of us have written and sent emails and then afterwards realised there were things in there we're not really sure we wanted to say?
Email and the Net gives us a great power to communicate, but it also gives us a facade to hide behind (thus empowering trolls and bullies alike) as well as enabling people to make enormous faux pas that might not have happened in the days of snail mail communication. With great power comes great responsibility, yadda yadda yadda.
Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant, as you can tell it really yanks my chain when me and my fellow bad 'Net fans get dumped on...
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carisma_sensei
no subject
Date: 2002-10-14 12:21 pm (UTC)Exactly. And what did we do before we had nostalgia?
The dumb folks have a faster voice now, that's one difference, they can get their comments out without editing or filtering. Previously, they had to work for it. ('They', I say, with my nose in the air, fully aware I've done my share of dumb things).
I think that speed is a major influence on the dumbness of interaction in fandom. How many of us have written and sent emails and then afterwards realised there were things in there we're not really sure we wanted to say?
Email and the Net gives us a great power to communicate, but it also gives us a facade to hide behind (thus empowering trolls and bullies alike) as well as enabling people to make enormous faux pas that might not have happened in the days of snail mail communication. With great power comes great responsibility, yadda yadda yadda.
Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant, as you can tell it really yanks my chain when me and my fellow bad 'Net fans get dumped on...