Things I Say on the Internet

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¹Pretty sure it’s “party rockers.”³

²LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem,” Sorry for Party Rocking, 2011

there is nothing wrong with me

it is the world that has to change

it is the world that will change

revenge makes poor anodyne, but it will have to do

that feeling in the pit of my stomach is the dragon

heaven exists to be summited

an eye for an eye gives me two eyes

Joel Burgess (@JoelBurgess) - 2018-08-21, 7:57 AM

Alright, so inspired by @NPurkeypile’s bee post yesterday, here is one of my favorite bits of Skyrim oral history - the myth of the treasure fox.

I’ve told this story before in talks/etc, but I don’t think I’ve shared it with twitter. Here goes.

it's time to get out soon and don on my disguise.

I take off my gilded crown, remove my dress, erase my makeup,

and put on the ragged dress.

for that is the me the world knows; a beggar, a nobody.

at times I think: what if I didn't?

what if I stood proud as the princess I am?

but then they must think me a fool - a crazy beggar who thinks herself a princess.

I read a great paper about this, I wish I could remember the author, it was a sociological study of the history of the internet. If you go back far enough, people having an alternate online persona was pretty much the norm; then about how early website designs gushed personality, or how online games like MUDs and MUCKs actively encouraged character roleplaying, sometimes as the sole focus of the experience. Fast forward to today and you don’t really see as many alter egos any more, just people trying to contort their real self into something more popular.

There’s a few speculative reasons why this could be. It could be that as “normies” started to get on the internet, they shifted it to something more like what we see today. It could be that once the internet began to be seen as a professional space in addition to a personal one, people started acting more “serious.” It could be that the concept of a social media redefined how people use the internet. Most likely it’s a combination of many factors. Either way, it sucks.