The Internet is in High School

"Bad Idea Hat" (taoistlumberjack)
07/20/2015 at 15:04 • Filed to: None

I was a weird kid. I had friends in high school, but I got to the point where I realized that, good fucking god, are these people stupid? What does any of this matter?

I’m primarily talking about the ridiculous manufactured drama that came from simply being in high school. You know, the whole “A is dating B, and I hate B so now I hate A and their friends, even though I was best friends since 4th grade with C and D, who are friends with A” style of bullshit. Even worse is the “person is a faggot” that was seemingly ever present. Our school’s quarterback had a bit of a breakdown late in our senior year. You can’t really blame him, with all of the pressures that came from doing well in post-secondary life. With this, though, came the rumor that he was a “faggot”, trying to escape his problems.

I digress.

We’re at the point where the internet has made it to high school. For those of us who remember the nascent years of AOL chatrooms, Napster, or even as far back as the good old BBS systems, we remember the infancy as a place where you could throw a tantrum or two, scream and cry over trivial things, or just play with your toys (admittedly, said toys were low graphics but probably still more fun than any of the current toys out there).

The internet has progressed to the point, now, where all we have is manufactured bullshit. This is especially true when there are two cliques who don’t like each other, and have the pulpit from which to lob their missiles at each other. You can see it from a mile away, though, that there are going to be people who become collateral damage to fights that they have no personal interest in, only being speciously aligned to one or another side.

So where is it that we go as an internet? Do we allow the high school brains among us to continue ruining peoples’ lives because they made a stupid slip on twitter, or because they want to see a site behave in a more ethical manner, or because we just want everyone to have an internet open and available to all, without fear of retribution for who they are. An even tougher question is, do we even care?

DISCUSSION (9)

WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe > Bad Idea Hat
07/20/2015 at 15:09

So, when the internet hits college level, it’s only going to work when it wants to (which won’t be often), and be blurry, as though it were drunk, any time you do night browsing?

CalzoneGolem > WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe
07/20/2015 at 15:13

Mine would be blurry a lot more often than “at night”

Bad Idea Hat > WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe
07/20/2015 at 15:14

I don’t need any more Apple products.

MultiplaOrgasms > WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe
07/20/2015 at 15:17

My internet already does that tho.

vondon302 > Bad Idea Hat
07/20/2015 at 15:21

The whole world is still in high school.

Future next gen S2000 owner > Bad Idea Hat
07/20/2015 at 15:30

Most likely it will get a little more weird as it go off to college and figures out what is thinks it wants to be when it grows up. Then it will settle down, get a lame office job it doesn’t like while pretending to keep up with Larry or Jerry or Barry or whatever his name is. Settle in for the long haul before it gets old and no longer gives two shits.

BigBlock440 > Bad Idea Hat
07/20/2015 at 15:39

It seems that way because *90% (maybe an exaggeration, probably 60%) of internet users are actually in high school. Another 30% being college kids fresh out of high school, 8% being the retired, and the other 2% being the rest of the population.

*percentages by user hours, maybe. Also, they’re made up.

scoob > Bad Idea Hat
07/20/2015 at 16:05

I think it’s more middle school than high school, but that could just be because of my high school, which might be a special case. Not special in that we were smart kids, because most of us weren’t, but special in that it’s “artsy”

My high school didn’t really have drama. It had tons of insane people instead, and it seemed like there was a competition to be the first one to die from some stupid shit like od’ing on drugs, drinking till your liver exploded, killing yourself, getting STD’s, and so on. Maybe all high schools are like this these days? Idk.

There was this person I knew that couldn’t live without weed... I’m pretty sure that’s why they chose to go to Colorado for college last year.

Herr Quattro - Has a 4-Motion > Bad Idea Hat
07/20/2015 at 18:43

I don’t care, because it’s relatively easy to avoid. And when you do stumble across it, it’s so fun to read how pathetically frivolous & vain it all is, and how angry they get over it.

Now, if they infect Jalopnik/Oppo with there BS... Then I'll have a problem.