I stumbled across this really interesting article on the NYTimes today:
/b/ is the designated “random” board of 4chan.org, a group of message boards that draws more than 200 million page views a month. A post consists of an image and a few lines of text. Almost everyone posts as “anonymous.” In effect, this makes /b/ a panopticon in reverse — nobody can see anybody, and everybody can claim to speak from the center. The anonymous denizens of 4chan’s other boards — devoted to travel, fitness and several genres of pornography — refer to the /b/-dwellers as “/b/tards.”
Measured in terms of depravity, insularity and traffic-driven turnover, the culture of /b/ has little precedent. /b/ reads like the inside of a high-school bathroom stall, or an obscene telephone party line, or a blog with no posts and all comments filled with slang that you are too old to understand.
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Today the Internet is much more than esoteric discussion forums. It is a mass medium for defining who we are to ourselves and to others. Teenagers groom their MySpace profiles as intensely as their hair; escapists clock 50-hour weeks in virtual worlds, accumulating gold for their online avatars. Anyone seeking work or love can expect to be Googled. As our emotional investment in the Internet has grown, the stakes for trolling — for provoking strangers online — have risen. Trolling has evolved from ironic solo skit to vicious group hunt.
“Lulz” is how trolls keep score. A corruption of “LOL” or “laugh out loud,” “lulz” means the joy of disrupting another’s emotional equilibrium. “Lulz is watching someone lose their mind at their computer 2,000 miles away while you chat with friends and laugh,” said one ex-troll who, like many people I contacted, refused to disclose his legal identity.
Well after reading this article I just cant believe people would go to all these lengths of actually phoning someone from the internet..and making a mockery of someone’s death in the process. I think it’s just so incredibly pathetic that they use the anonymity of the internet to basically get away with these sorts of things. And I would seriously question just how much of a life these people have, hanging out on these boards and hacking a dead guy’s MySpace page just to put up a stupid photo….seriously.
Then again, the article also notes the death of that schoolkid who hung herself after she was bullied on MySpace. On a separate note here, I don’t actually agree that MySpace and whatnot should be blamed for all these suicides or whatever…I mean if this girl was that depressed why did her parents not notice and do something about it!? And furthermore, the parents of the bully should have known better than to provoke a teenager on MYSPACE for gods sake.
ANYWAY, back on topic. The writer met a few ‘hackers’ or ‘trolls’ - whatever you want to call them; and I have to say, they’re statements seriously disturbed me. I don’t know if it’s an American thing …. but mann some people are cra-zy. I mean, does life totally revolve around the internet here!?!?!? Especially with that Weev guy…who sounded like a total bastard - I just don’t understand why there aren’t tougher laws on the issue of privacy and everything.
Like with the whole Youtube debate this year of those chicks beating up that one girl in a house…that was all over Youtube and people kepts posting phone numbers and stuff right? Like, how do people gain access to these sortsa things?! And what can be done to stop all this!?
Furthermore…why anyone post their address or phone number or social security number online is beyond me.
