"I think Gen X is a very sarcastic generation, and sarcasm doesn't really translate online. Gen Y has grown up interacting with people online. They've developed different social skills, a different rapport. Being sort of dry, sarcastic, snarky – that's not going to get you any friends online. Social currency is only built around positive interactions."
-Allison Mooney, vice president of emerging trends at media consulting firm Mobile Behavior, explains the new spirit of bonhomie on the Web.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
58
Just ask 4chan!
Oh wait.
If there's one rule on the internet, it's "don't ask 4chan anything".
Thats what I thought. The internet nice machine wouldn't stand a chance if all the folks on /b/ turned their antisocial impulses outward instead of constantly at one another. Theres is not a comment filtering strategy in existence that could contain the onslaught. Nonsociety wouldn't last a week.
I wouldn't be friends with anyone who didn't understand sarcasm, online or off.
*call me
So I thought my sister joined a cult but it turns out she's just gotten younger. That's a huge relief.
Really? I'm part of Generation Z, we're totally big on passive-aggressive online social interaction. But, y'know, whatever you say!!! xoxo
Fuck me with a Na'Vi Plug bitch.
I'd be curious to hear what Military Mom has to say about Ms. Mooney's theory. (THAT WAS SARCASM, YOU SEE.)
Gen Y is so cute with their "social currency." Fat lot of good that'll do you in the post-Global Warming Eco-Apocalyptic wasteland, assholes. Now go invent me so carbon negative electricity.
(The Gen X thing was always anger. Sarcasm was our attempt to make nice, and it failed.)
Oh, I assume Allison is coming from a place of anger : anger that she's still only VICE president of emerging trends.
Sarcasm. That's cool.
Would also have accepted "Are you being sarcastic? - I don't know anymore."
David Denby won!
:(
I'm sure Ms. Mooney and I would have some very positive interactions if either of us had any inclination to devote time to it.
That's a very nice post, Balk. Thank you for taking the time to share it with us. A big hug to you and all of your cohorts (even Cat! lol).
Zeitgeist trumps all.
Also: I see even in the age of the internet, the age old profession of soothsayer* is alive and well.
*Allison Mooney should be fired from her job.
"It's actually why a lot of those [negative] blogs moved over to WordPress," says Karp. "[They] looked so out of place on Tumblr. It's just not that kind of environment."
How's that whole "making money" thing going, Tumblr?
b-b-but they have SHIRTS
Perhaps, but. From my observation, there is a resulting gulf, leaving Gen Y completely unable to wait at the Pharmacy counter or interact with bank tellers.
Apparently irony is still in Ms. Mooney's stylebook.
i have given up sarcasm online in favor of just being a bastard.
OK, in fairness to the article, there's a distinction drawn between the anonymous "mean" web and the persistent-identity "nice" web.
Also in fairness to the article, Allison Mooney is obviously a dumbass and should no longer be asked for her input on anything.
I think you could make the point that the social web has become more passive-aggressive, though. Don't tag the person you're berating in your facebook note; omit the @name from that trash tweet; blog about shitty friends without actually naming names. It's like seventh grade again -- "behind their back" never goes out of style!
Ha! Very true.
You know who else can't pull off sarcasm? Robots.
Really?
Really?
Not to get all sci-fi, but clearly Bender's AI is modeled from a brainscan from either an Xer or Forrest Tucker.
Additionally:
1) Doree Shafrir has to be about the nicest, bestest writer currently working on the Web or elsewhere; and
2) Have Allison Mooney and Julia Allison ever been seen on the same Sony Ad Death Panel?
There's an Allison Mooney/Julia Allison joke in there somewhere... possibly involving that Pixies song, but damned if I can find it.
I need more coffee.
Doree's so freaking nice she makes feel like a blight on the universe. While I've only met her twice, and briefly at that, both interactions made me feel socially inept.
Wait! She forgot about us Baby Boomers!! Oh, she didn't forget?
Fuck you all ;-) (ya see, the emoticon fixes EVERYTHING).
Quit it! You could generate social capital flight with talk like that...
So the choice is between "dry, sarcastic, snarky" and the mild Asperger's Syndrome that apparently afflicts Gen Y in great numbers.
Open your arms, Gen X, I'm coming home!
I don't get it. Is she being sarcastic?
I blame Barney for this.
"Social currency is only built around positive interactions."
She just does not know what the hell she is talking about. Don't many, if not most, groups define themselves against others? And wouldn't that go doubly on the internet, since it's the quickest and easiest way to identify one's self? Negative interactions help define groups; no one is looking to be everyone's friend. Except, perhaps, Allison Mooney, who agreed to work over the holidays when everyone else was gone and thus was quoted in a publication.
Oh, *wow*. A *Buzzcocks* reference. REAL COOL, I AM SURE.
It made my day. Lucky Mooney!
Whatever, lady! I guess I didn't get the Gen Y "be nice!" memo; I'm much bitchier online than I'd ever be in-person. But maybe it's because I've been with you guys since the old Gawker days. You must have rubbed off on me. I did it by watching YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
God, we really need an edit function. I totally messed up my hilariously awful PSA reference: it should be "I learned it from watching YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" Apologies for the error.
"Yeah, we got it the first time, ya knob."
(see what I did there?)
Oh, I don't know. The Awl is pretty snarky, but there's an undercurrent of niceness, even if it's mainly due to the feeling of "It's just us against all these idiots".
Also, Zack!
I know. We cloak ourselves in snark, but deep down inside of all of us there's a vulnerable, insecure child just longing to link arms and sing 'Good Morning Starshine' round the campfire.
Also, Zack!
Seems to me that this 'Generation Y' hasn't spent enough time in the real world yet.
I know. I'd like to see them now, now that they can't get a wii or whatever the hell latest doodad for Christmas.
Moreover it seems generation "Y" never really existed outside of a few talking heads anymore than generation "X" did.
positive interacti
I concur with anyone who thinks THE AWL is on the Nice tip. THE AWL was way out in front of this curve, niceness-wise, even when being Not Nice, excepting, of course, to the Bad People.
Dude, an incredibly large chunk of "Gen-Y" is in their teens right now, and "Gen-X" is all over thirty. Oh boy, teenagers sure do have a different 'rapport' than thirty(plus!)somethings, whodda fucking thunk?
"... sarcasm doesn't really translate online"?!?!?! My god, exactly what have I been up to all these years? (good question.)
I also like how people are going out of their way to be extra-snarky on this post.
Social interactions on the web don't count, unless you're talking about Second Life, cause that shit's real.
Someone needs to alert Gen Y'ers, because I don't think any previous generation has ever expounded so thoroughly on or been so preoccupied with "haters" and "hatin'."
Do the "different social skills" that she is talking about include rampant overgeneralization? Cuz she's got that down pat.
She sure savaged Pierre Bourdieu!