The irony epidemic: why people are so mean right now

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Nobody takes anything seriously anymore, the irony epidemic is upon us! So the internet has been crying out over the past few weeks... and I kind of agree with them. In this video I take a closer look at the way people interact with one another on the internet, from pedantically correcting each other's grammar, to commenting that it's not that deep on everything they don't like, to dogpiling on the latest internet "main character". Has irony ruined discourse?


timestamps:
00:00 - chronic online-ness and "clapback culture" (none of these words are in the Bible)
06:10 - a brief history of meanness on the internet
11:55 - the Ethel Cain post
16:00 - they need to stop inventing new celebrities
19:28 - why are people like this? the loneliness epidemic, sitcoms and algorithmically curated comment sections

sources

YouTube videos mentioned:
Not Even Emily - Let's talk about annoying comments on the internet
   • Let's Talk About Annoying Comments on the ...  
D'angelo Wallace - nobody takes anything seriously anymore
   • "nobody takes anything seriously anymore" 🤔  

YouTube videos of the "reading mean comments" format shown on screen are from Liza Koshy, PewDiePie, James Charles, Hannah Alonzo and Jenna Marbles - you guys can find those on your own if you're interested.

articles mentioned:
what is the online disinhibition effect - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_...
trolling and the dark tetrad article -
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles...
Andrew Tate article -
https://www.salon.com/2023/06/22/andr...
The internet’s superiority complex - https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/...
How Friends changed language -
https://metro.co.uk/2021/04/21/has-fr...
the impact of television on language:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24671937

other media:
Polyester podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/27Y1C29...
Ethel Cain deleted her Tumblr post but there's a screenshot here - https://x.com/ethelfiles/status/18479...