Shit that annoys me...

Something that I stumbled across the other day on YouTube in my subscription box happened to be a fantastic video that I feel truly encompasses a key point that this course, and the study of pop culture (especially the internet), makes: people oftentimes get so caught up in media that they allow it to shape their thoughts and actions. In more specifics, media has become so ingrained in us that we have lost a bit of understanding of how to talk to others and thus feel that we can say whatever we would like to in whatever fashion we choose. It makes me feel a lot better to know that I am not some old-fashioned twenty-something year old who feels that the internet has allowed for people to lose their common sense in talking to other people, because I am obviously not the only twenty-something (or person really) who believes this is a problem that needs to be addressed and remedied. Just because there is this screen and a whole bunch of complicated code that I could never even dream of understanding separating me from the people I am talking to, it does not mean that I can be extremely rude to them and not feel bad about it. I would in turn argue that because of the physical disconnect and separation in this mode of conversing, we need to be even that much more aware of not only what we say but also how we say it. 

But enough about my own personal ideas about how people talk to each other on the internet, I suppose I should probably start talking about the original video that was the reason for this blog post in the beginning, right. Ok, so I am a subscriber to a channel titled abb3rz07 and think she is a fantastically unique and original person ( I recommend checking her out if you have time) and thus  I immediately clicked on her most recent video- shit that annoys me about the internet.
In this video she references two other YouTube videos, which I must admit I then had to go watch- YouTube has a way of stealing half a day from you sometimes. These two videos are from two different men with two different perspectives on the same event: Joey Graceffa and Nate Clark. The whole issue started when Joey parked his car directly behind Nate’s driveway blocking him in for hours and hours. Nate eventually called a towing company and had the vehicle towed so that he could leave his own house. Which sounds perfectly reasonable in my opinion, right- totally fine way to handle the thing. However, this is where a giant issue began. Joey Graceffa is a rather popular You Tuber and has a lot of subscribers, so when he made a video about his car being towed for “blocking someone’s driveway by that much” and then saying that the car is a ” fat ass and can’t get out of your freaking driveway”, Nate (also on You Tube) created a video response explaining the true events and refuting some lies Joey was putting out on his channel. For instance, the fact that the car was blocking the entire driveway instead of only part of it.
And really, the videos themselves and the towing of the car aren’t all that important- they just play a role in creating the environment that allowed for some really ugly behavior. Because the comment sections of both videos got insanely heated and there where even some death threats passed from those on Team Joey to Nate himself. This is ridiculous and completely out of line! But it does an excellent job at showing how the Internet and pop culture in general have shaped what people view as acceptable behavior towards others.

Because comments are made “anonymously” on the Internet people seem to feel as though they can say whatever they want to and not worry about the repercussions because they do not know who they are talking about and the person receiving the mean comments does not know the person saying them. But it still does not make it ok by any means. And not only is the anonymous nature of conversations on the Internet a cause for the inappropriate comments people make, the fact that so many people are writing such comments is making it seem normal and ok for everyone to do that. Which in some way connects back to the idea of the social learning theory in that we are learning how to behave and think based off our observations of what others are doing. In this case, the “others” would be the other people on the Internet who have become symbolic models for actions like inappropriate and hateful comments to become acceptable in some people’s eyes (except…they aren’t acceptable people).
Ok, so now I feel as though I have ranted and driven this point into the ground and I have thus come to a good stopping point. One last thing I want to add though, think before you post or comment just as you would think before you speak to someone in real life.