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40oz

Conversation Deterioration

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This question is kinda founded on fuzzy memory, so pardon me as I dont know how true it is or if I'm placing blame on the wrong things. But I'm curious if there's any inkling of truth to this.

Sometimes when I listen to people talk, particularly people who have a strong internet presence, they speak in such a way where almost everything they say is usually one of two things. Its a one-line joke/catchphrase/buzzword, OR it's some announcement about whatever it is they believe in or are thinking in the moment without actually engaging in a conversation with another person.

I see this a lot on social media such as forums and comments pages and chat rooms. It seems like people are more likely to just spitball a bunch of things in hopes of initiating conversation about something they're prepared to talk about instead of participating in a group conversation.

"AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO <blank>"
"wat"
"epic fail"

Ive joined in as a guest speaker on twitch streams a few times, and i often find it difficult to keep a conversational thread going. Most people seem much more interested in blurting out whatever they feel like saying, often interrupting each other or talking over one another. Sometimes they'll be referencing a meme or other narcissistic detail about their lives or opinion that doesn't really help fuel the train of thought the conversation is going in.

I'm finding it more difficult to "talk" to people on the internet as conversations always end up being very light and hollow and rarely flow organically. More often I'm just in a room where people say what they want to say without engaging with one another.

Is this relatively new, or is this kind of a phenomenon that spawned from social media and the growing mass appeal of memes?

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Sick memes bruh.

Otherwise, the influx of social media outpourings has probably relegated most conversations to meme sharing and habitual shitposting. In such regards, it's about who can make the biggest funny for "Likes" and "Shares" and how much of a comedy legend they want to appear to be. It's generally lame and bland, but everyone wants to be 1337 or some shit. It's actually probably more attributed to places like Reddit and 4chan than Facebook or Twitter. But it bled over. Same with forums. Same here, tbh.

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Outside of very small streams, Twitch chat isn't actually a chat. It's a fountain of memes and jerk assery. Seriously, Twitch chats are some of the most cancerous parts of the internet, which is why GDQ and the like tend to limit what can be said in them whenever a girl, trans, or visibly gay runner steps up to the plate.

Other than that, I feel like you're just growing into a crotchety old man due to making no effort to prevent it from happening, and you're mixing together a bunch of different modern social trends with the same sort of nostalgia that prevented previous generations from understanding the generation that followed them.

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I do agree to certain extent.
The use of memes and suchlike has become 'Who can make the biggest funny' , its just become internet culture.
Twitter can be forgiven for this as with only having 140 characters to get your point across ,its kinda designed to be that punchline sort of community.
Facebook.....dont get me started.
Forums on the other hand are supposed to be a place where you CAN carry a conversation and get to know people I'm pretty new here but i've found this community to be the most engaging forum i've ever been apart of.
There isn't the "my post was more relevant/funny/to the point than yours" , everyone seems to get on and theres a ton of respect for each other here.
And from what I've seen on here there is that conversation that you mentioned.
The members of this place should be extremely proud themselves in my opinion. I'm loving this place. Just go and visit some of the other game communities forums official or otherwise , its toxic.

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The Internet doesn't have conversation with you, it just talks at you. Just as I am doing right now.

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often interrupting each other or talking over one another.


Well, minus a level of rudeness only the internet can provide, this is how conversations and debates among friends typically go IRL. Memes and other social norms can be utilized in a conversation as well. However, a lot of folks online seem to think blurting out as much of this in a short amount of time as possible, regardless of relevance or context, makes them seem funny or important.

Really, though, expecting conversations with strangers online to go as they do IRL can lead to a lot of disappointment. However, with people I've actually grown to know or trust over the years, I find I can enjoy a conversation with a buddy online (even on some text-based forum) just as much as if with someone in real life.

For people with a larger audience on the internet, it's easier for them to engage their audience and click more with their viewers and such if they use phrases and memes that people hear so regularly that it's almost comfortable to them.

As for people being narcissistic and only talking about themselves, that's just human nature. People love themselves, people love talking about themselves, people find most other people boring enough to where it's an issue sometimes. Nothing wrong with sharing a story or experience that relates to the situation, keeps a conversation rolling, or reveals one's experience with a particular subject, however.

I'm sure I just wrote a bunch of hypocritical nonsense, but I hope I at least get where you guys in this thread are coming from.

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I think a lot of people out there are kinda empty, even boring. And all the others are frustrated by that, and avoid social media for the most part. What can you do?

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Perhaps because I spend a lot of time on Twitch in different kinds of channels I've become desensitized to the idiocy, but I don't really have strong feelings about the way large Twitch chats work. Yeah, they're often idiotic, but there's no way to have a conversation in a room with 3000 people. At some point you have to look at the chat differently, as a big goofy crowd just yelling and having fun instead of a "chat room" for people to converse in. I find the goofiness genuinely fun sometimes. But yeah, other times people are genuinely, irredeemably idiotic with regards to race, gender, etc.

Arctangent said:

visibly gay


I found this really funny. I know what you're trying to say, but that's not really how that works. ;)

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This is pretty much why I hate Reddit. Especially the more popular sub-Reddits are filled with either people who only reply to a post to get a quick joke in, or pretentious hipsters who talk about subjects they shouldn't be talking about and get angered when you correct them.

I know that the lesser-known sub-Reddits are probably not like this, but it was pretty much the reason for me to leave it behind.

When it comes to Twitch-chat, it's kind of the same story; the more popular a channel is, the more likely it is that the chat is filled to the brim with internet-pollution.

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Benjogami said:

I found this really funny. I know what you're trying to say, but that's not really how that works. ;)

I mean, I think a girl giving her girlfriend a smooch during set-up is exactly how it works. Unless they've made a neogay, but in that the case I'm pretty classic.

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Agentbromsnor said:

This is pretty much why I hate Reddit. Especially the more popular sub-Reddits are filled with either people who only reply to a post to get a quick joke in, or pretentious hipsters who talk about subjects they shouldn't be talking about and get angered when you correct them.


Hell, they get angry when you ask for evidence or proof when they claim something. The top comment is always some sort of in-joke that pertains to the post, while not even one or two comments down the chain divulges into silly references, memes, or just plain gibberish. The actual discussions (especially ones that differ from the standard Reddit opinion) tend to get buried at the bottom.

The smaller subs do tend to be very enjoyable, however. Dark Souls and Morrowind are always a lot of fun to go visit, even if the former does get a bit circle-jerky.

Twitch chat I can forgive because on the larger channels it's there one second and gone the next. Chat really isn't useful, unless it's in slow or subscriber mode, on channels with a lot of viewers. On the other hand, the smaller channels (a lot of the guys from DoomWorld, too!) tend to be a lot more on-topic and helpful, not to mention more friendly.

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I thought this conversation was about 40oz joining a skype/discord channel to talk live on a playthrough stream and feeling a disconnect. But I guess it's about AGDQ twitch chat being a waste of everyone's time. *Insert twitch emoticon for that feel when you expect something interesting and thought-inspiring, but get something hopelessly mundane and petty.*

40oz: Honestly, it's not all just memetalk. I've been on many different podcasts and streams and I'd say people listening to, say, the Cacoward post-mortems would have very little idea what I'm talking about in, say, an IDL pre-draft show. Insider talk, insider jokes. When I listen to Term's Intermission podcasts, I'm just hanging for dear life, because these guys are going too fast about things I know little about. I wouldn't stand a chance of meaningfully contributing to most of their discussion were I a guest there. But I'd expect good hosts to "dumb it down" for the newcomers and ease them in. What's the point of inviting someone on a show and then drowning them in obscure references and injokes.

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Gamer With Dignity said:

I'm invisibly gay.


Nice to meet you.
I'm happy you were banned.

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Basically what everyone says above. People want to get many likes and shares among others for some reason. By saying something stupid/embarrassing/humiliating and yet funny tends to lead to that, usually shared and liked by people with the same attitude. It's the new fad.

kb1 said:

I think a lot of people out there are kinda empty, even boring. And all the others are frustrated by that, and avoid social media for the most part. What can you do?

I can't seem grasp the point you're trying to make here. Explanation please.

Gamer With Dignity said:

I'm invisibly gay.

Is this a good example what you are saying, 40oz? Blurting out something that's supposed to be funny, even though it's not really helping the topic at hand?

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Sick Bow said:

Hell, they get angry when you ask for evidence or proof when they claim something. The top comment is always some sort of in-joke that pertains to the post, while not even one or two comments down the chain divulges into silly references, memes, or just plain gibberish. The actual discussions (especially ones that differ from the standard Reddit opinion) tend to get buried at the bottom.

The smaller subs do tend to be very enjoyable, however. Dark Souls and Morrowind are always a lot of fun to go visit, even if the former does get a bit circle-jerky.

Twitch chat I can forgive because on the larger channels it's there one second and gone the next. Chat really isn't useful, unless it's in slow or subscriber mode, on channels with a lot of viewers. On the other hand, the smaller channels (a lot of the guys from DoomWorld, too!) tend to be a lot more on-topic and helpful, not to mention more friendly.


I've actually seen a post on Reddit (can't remember the name of the sub-Reddit) that centered around an article about a horrible car-accident that took place in the Netherlands and killed someone's daughter and two parents. The guy who killed them was a Polish guy who was drunk while driving. After the court sentenced the man to just a couple of hours of labour instead of prison-time, the victim's dad picked up a chair and threw it at the judge. Take a guess at how the top-comments looked on that thread; painfully stupid "jokes" that were obviously written to attract upvotes.

I didn't know there was a Morrowind sub-Reddit.

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Agentbromsnor said:

I didn't know there was a Morrowind sub-Reddit.


Hop into the conversation if you want. It's the only place I've found a lot of half-decent Morrowind fans gathered in an open forum since the old modding days. Still play the hell out of that game. If you wanna check it out, I'd visit:

reddit.com/r/Morrowind
reddit.com/r/TSLore
reddit.com/r/TrueSTL (Morrowind memes and circle-jerk - it's all meant to be satire of the lore)

There's a subreddit for everything, my friend.

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Sick Bow said:

Hop into the conversation if you want. It's the only place I've found a lot of half-decent Morrowind fans gathered in an open forum since the old modding days. Still play the hell out of that game. If you wanna check it out, I'd visit:

reddit.com/r/Morrowind
reddit.com/r/TSLore
reddit.com/r/TrueSTL (Morrowind memes and circle-jerk - it's all meant to be satire of the lore)

There's a subreddit for everything, my friend.


Its good you posted those links. I enjoyed digging through the TrueSTL. After so many years, they are still going with a few threads per day. Is there a Doom version perchance?

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