I get totally different vibes from the chat-esque furry avatars, which I see as both an extension of the increasing fluidity of identity on the internet/AFK/remotely and a push for representation and "positive shamelessness" (am I just trying to say "self-acceptence"?). Waifus still come across more ironically, clearly memes in casual settings, and without those aspects of identity and representation. Stuff like VRChat/Vtubers blurs that line and brings identity fluidity back into the picture, but that doesn't feel like what's happening here, nor does it's appearance on literally every page carry the tone of irony needed to combat cringe, but... I kinda like it, and kinda wish it was just totally cool to have a waifu on my site too without having to lean into irony or identity to "justify" it against this cringe instinct. Maybe that instinct comes from a specific subculture on a younger internet which, although still present, need not color the spread of these aesthetics forever. Like rage memes, which come from eg. SA/4c but have been widely adopted to the point of belonging more to "the internet" than specifically to their roots.
The nature of communication on the internet makes for some very weird signifiers - I remember getting into fountain pens and finding out that a pretty undesirable group was into them as well and it was on the cusp of being a signifier for politics I don't agree with. Luckily it never got to that threshold, but basically something can become a signifier for something else just by virtue of volume - Pepe is probably the best, clearest cut example, with different groups literally mass posting pepes as much as possible in a battle to "own" that signifier.
I was originally going to say "Hey, just do you" but then I totally get that feeling of "I'm into X just because I like it but for some stupid reason X signifies Y which I really don't care for" and it sucks.
Would you expand a bit on the fountain pens as a symbol of subculture/political stance? An otherwise well-adjusted friend of mine has been into fountain pens for a while and I would like to know more.
> "positive shamelessness" (am I just trying to say "self-acceptence"?).
> I kinda like it, and kinda wish it was just totally cool to have a waifu on my site too without having to lean into irony or identity to "justify" it against this cringe instinct.
it's only once you accept that you are cringe, that you are are free to become truly based.
I find that there is something inherently suspicious in having a parallel online identity. I respect anonymity, but for some reason people constructing a parallel world and personality online always irritates me.
I think the difference is that I usually don't notice usernames, unless I want to check if the same person wrote two comments. In this sense, they are just opaque identifiers, or a trivial identity that doesn't express anything in itself. An online identity is something more, because it usually comes with a personality, an image, a history. To me it isn't even that something is being hidden, rather that a lesser version of oneself (merely virtual) is being overvalued. This argument could be extended to people who might base their online Instagram/TikTok/etc. persona on that of their real life, but glorify it beyond recognition, while at the same time reducing its being to digital communication.
I don't think it's right to say that an online identity is lesser. In many ways "easrng" is more real, more me than my irl identity, because online expression is easier for me. I can craft and change representations of all that I am, in ways that I can't really offline (without significant amounts of time, energy, and potentially money.) I don't know if this is a young/old divide or a neurodivergent/neurotypical divide or a trans/cis divide or what, but I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.
To me, it seems lesser because online communication is inherently lesser to real life communication. It always appears as a restricted emulation of of "the real thing". Even now, you don't know my tone, you don't see my body language, what I emphasise, etc. I started writing this sentence, then rephrase it because it didn't sound good. I cannot hide this when speaking face-to-face.
Again, to me "easrng" means nothing. When starting to read your comment I had no idea what perspective you were coming from, if you were about to agree with me or not. All I know about you are the 99 words you have written in this comment.
Setting aside scams, if you meet someone online, when you get along well and become friends, would you reject the opportunity to meet them in real life instead of communicating virtually? I think most people would take that opportunity. I guess I am still young, and I think that most people my are inclined to agree with me -- especially after the lockdowns.
But what you say is interesting: When I hear "I can craft and change representations of all that I am", I hear someone saying that they can make up a fake persona, instead of being the person they actually and inherently are. An online persona starts blank, just like I have no image of you before our first message. Even the most generic person has something that makes them ever so different from most other people, that they cannot deny.
On the contrary, I think that anonymity makes people more honest, because they don't have to fear the repercussions of saying something that either a real person or an online persona. They both have to hide, while the lack of an identity makes you free.
It's not an emulation, it's just different. As for not being able to convey tone? skill issue. You can do it, emojis help, formatting helps, even with plain text you can repeat punctuation or AlTeRnAtE cAsEs or whatever, that's without even getting in to 1337speak style typing quirks (there's more than just replacing E with 3). I frequently rewrite messages before sending, but I do that irl too, I just say corrections out loud which is harder for the person listening to track than if I just had an textfield to compose what I wanted to say. As for usernames, they don't mean anything, they're just pointers to the people who use them. You say I can make up a "fake" persona, but what does fake even mean? Why does it matter if who I am online isn't a 1-to-1 copy of my irl self? They're both reflections of my personality, and that's what matters. And psuedoanonymity isn't the same as anonymity. I have an online identity, I have people who know me by it, and I wouldn't want to just throw all those connections away. If I said something fucked up, I would presumably lose my friends and such, and sure I could make a new identity but making a new identity and forming new relationships isn't a trivial thing to do. Just because you can't see my body doesn't make my identity any less real imo.
...I think I like it