If I saw what the picture purports to show, a hipster in the park typing on a typewriter, I might smirk or roll my eyes or something if I did anything at all. However, if you want attention commenting on a post on reddit, or anywhere, you can't just say "There's a chance I'd subtly roll my eyes at this" - you have to go more extreme. In the same way that BuzzFeed described the picture as one that would make you "Black out with rage" you've got to go from "10% chance of smirk" to "I will smash this hipster-doofus's typewriter."<p>A lot of stuff in internet comments is stuff that would absolutely never happen in real life. If you saw a hipster on a typewriter and a crowd of people bullying him in real life, it would be absolutely clear which behavior was worse. Plus, none of those people in real life would actually do any of the extreme things they write about in internet comments.<p>The whole thing makes me imagine a forum of the future. Maybe it's more like a physical forum or park in virtual reality. There's a story at the center and radiating out from it are avatars that have been left behind by commenters. The avatars would be run by an AI that has been briefed on what point the commenter wanted to make. Other users, using the forum live, could wander through the park and interact with the deposited avatars or one another. Bringing some elements of reality to the forum experience - i.e. making it look like you are in a public space and interacting with people, may also bring in some elements of civility that we enjoy in reality and not online.
I don't know if there's a named maxim for this phenomenon, but something I learned on Twitter is that everything you say can be interpreted in bad faith.<p>This can be done on purpose, or it just happens because there's not enough shared context to connect how you read something to what the other person was trying to say.<p>(Also, while a picture still says 1000 words, I've never had less faith in the veracity of those words.)<p>I've tried to be earnest on social media, for reasons like this. You see a photo of a guy with a typewriter, try to paint it in a good light for yourself.<p>I'm not sure how I would have reacted, but I had a short phase in college where I dredged up an old typewriter from a friend's garage and used it to type love letters to girls. So maybe I could have related a bit better!
I once had a blog post go a little bit viral on HN, Reddit, Twitter etc, years ago.<p>At first I was really worried about the negative comments, and tried to justify myself or make corrections. After 24 hours I was so numbed to it all, that I began to find the negative comments amusing.<p>One Reddit commenter called me a "Incompetent fuckbucket" and I enjoyed that phrase so much that I ended up screen capping it and using it in a couple of public talks.
“ After I posted, the message board thread’s climate changed immediately. Not unlike real life, people were complimentary and kind. Many people deleted their mean comments — one person was so embarrassed for threatening to smash my typewriter that he apologized to me, and then went through and started trying to make other haters apologize.”<p>This is deeply familiar to me and is amazing to see in action. I regularly reply to people on Reddit and HN who are crapping on a product I’ve made and witness both the person’s position on the product and the thread’s overall tone change almost instantly. For whatever reason, it works less well on Twitter.
This article was excellent! I feel sorry that the author had to go through all that. It's made me realize and regret some of the times I personally have negatively snap-judged a person on the Interwebz based on just one context-devoid picture with too many upvotes.<p>Tribalism is a heck of a drug. Easy to get involved in, satisfies our primal instincts, and is frequently horribly destructive. I hope one day I can have enough discipline to not criticize every stranger on Twitter.
Past threads:<p><i>I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6412708" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6412708</a> - Sept 2013 (378 comments)<p><i>I Am an Object of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9997902" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9997902</a> - Aug 2015 (3 comments)
Ohboyohboyohboy, it seems I dodged bullet with an idea that I had 5-6 years ago that was very similar to this guy's: My idea was to sit beside a sign that said something along the lines of "Celebrate yourself Through Poetry" in the morning in downtown Chicago in front of a large office building. People going in would commission a poem in the morning, I would finish it and write it in calligraphy on a nice piece of paper by 4pm for a fixed cost, say $20. They would either buy or not buy the poem after I show it to them. A poor person's Francois Villon, if you will.<p>I've never mentioned this to anyone other than my wife (who used to work in that building) and she laughed her head off. Now that I write it, I feel like I <i>might</i> do this in the future. What do you think, would you buy such a thing for $20-$30 a piece? OTOH, I've gotta admit: I think most of the customers would be young women, so that would make me seem <i>more</i> of an object of ridicule / creep than this guy. Still ...<p>EDIT: OK, now that I've read my entry I feel like I have to admit something that makes the above proposition more insane or interesting, depending on your POV: I cannot write poetry, like <i>not at all</i>! My proposed strategy was to lean in to my NLP skills and get software help to find interesting ideas, rhymes, etc. Sort of auto poem creation with human tweaking.
Well-written article. I believe I actually saw that image a long time ago.<p>This kind of context-free Reddit post often leads to cascading levels of verbal abuse. All that these kinds of post do, and all it is intended to do, is to incite a hail of abusive comments with a lot of self-righteous sanctimony thrown in.<p>This was the raison d'etre of now-banned subs like r/fatpeoplehate. People had their photos posted without their permission, for no other reason than for posters to abuse them for all their perceived personality failings (lack of willpower, laziness, entitlement) --- all on the basis of one photo, of a person they've never met.
Title says 2013. Wasn’t it only in recent years that people were brining typewriters to Starbucks. Maybe it was never considered cool, but it wasn’t treated like this person. Funny how time changes things.<p>It’s like the “nerds” that were treated so badly in the 80s for being into Starwars and dressing up in their favorite characters. Now Starwars is cool and dressing up garnishes respect based on how elaborate and how much work went into it.<p>I guess none of the above is surprising. It happens with everything. Inventors, entrepreneurs, and other people that are later respected as pioneers.
I remember seeing this in person when walking around the highline around this time. I was with my SO and we thought it was cute, hipster-y, and fun.<p>What's interesting to me is that we had some of the same sentiments that were expressed so negatively on reddit, but in a very positive light? Crazy how the anonymity and lack of context can easily influence folks to be so negative.
I remember reading this back in the day. I remember being shocked and dismayed at the way he was treated.<p>I mean the idea is a bit insane but the guy needed to eat and he’s a writer. I still think the idea of using a typewriter to become a writing busker was pretty clever in the end.<p>I wonder how he’s doing today.
I'm glad I saw this. While reading and feeling bad for him, I wondered what I would have done if I saw that reddit pic without context, and then read the mob of comments.<p>Perhaps I would have upvoted some mean comments, or laughed at them, or maybe shared the link with a friend, hoping to invite more ridicule. I wish I could say I'd be some of the people defending it, or even better, someone who doesn't click on such posts.
I remember this. This article convinced me that the word "Hipster" is just another random insult directed at the generic other. A completely useless descriptor.
What a great read.<p>I wish more people were aware of the value of anonymity.<p>Exposing yourself to the world comes with its pros and cons.<p>Attaining celebrity status may make you rich, but at what cost?<p>Maybe many will turn into paying fans, what about the stalkers, the bullies? What about the mentally disturbed with a knife?
I’m not sure I understand why people would violently react to a picture of a typewriter. If these same people saw a young kind with an original game boy would the urge be to punch them. Nor do I see how it’s ironic. The only real irony being that people who are striving for online attention are enraged when perceiving someone else as trying to get attention. It’s seems anytime I hear or read the word “ironic” it’s used in some novel way and is impossible to get a read on what it means in any given context.<p>“Hipster”, “ironic” and “pretentious” seem all to be very slippery words that are really just a judgements of how “normal” or not something is. It smacks of assimilate or die. Which are typically a projection of how little that person values their own life and how easily shaken they are by someone not make if their same choices. It’s no real wonder to me that a hyper-competitive culture would bring about this sort of behavior though.
Years ago, I met a performer at an event who sat there and ground a key for you. The key wasn't for a lock, it was a unique artifact they made just for you. It took about 10-15 mins, and they just sat and spoke with you while they ground the key.<p>It was a soothing experience, and I kept that key around for a very long time.
I remember seeing either the original Reddit post or a reference to it and thinking it was a really neat idea. I collect typewriters and had a slim portable Royal Hermes that would have been perfect for that kind of job, but I wasn't (and still am not) brave enough about my writing to share it in that way.
My friend's roommate dated him and I used to hang out at their place a lot in Brooklyn. Super nice guy! It was in the years after this happened, and he was still typing stories for strangers. I respected that then, and I continue to now.
I was lucky enough to get actual death threats due to stuff I posted online (it involved Saudi Sheiks and was almost 20 years ago you won't find it, it doesn't matter).<p>They (not the Sheik some other random people from the internet) had looked up my address in the Upper East side from DNS records and sent me an email along the lines of 'I know where you live and I'm going to come over and kill you'.. I dunno something like that. I had a small kid at the time. Freaked me the f out.<p>Anyway, I did nothing. Nothing happened. I also got threatened by the fancy lawyer of a rich Sheik. Did nothing to take the content down. Again nothing.<p>Lesson I take from this is to not let threats get to you too much, that the internet's bark can be worse than it's bite. Except, of course, for the poor souls for whom this is not true. YMMV I guess.
I'm making a game around the pretense that people would enjoy watching someone do this online. It's cool that people are into it in person.<p><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1537490/Tentacle_Typer/" rel="nofollow">https://store.steampowered.com/app/1537490/Tentacle_Typer/</a>
I guess it's a label that will be applied if you're doing something you want, just for the hell of it, without making it look cool. the people that are super conscious about themselves and how they present themselves cannot accept it.
>> Someone with the user handle “S2011” summed up the thoughts of the hive mind in 7 words: “Get the fuck out of my city.”<p>Oh, that must be the mayor of NY?
That's a great reminder that the internet is full of cowardly bullies. They don't actually want to understand things, they just want to tear other people down to make themselves feel better.
Typewriter in a public park? How about a backpack with an old school rotary desk phone, an analog to SIP ATA that supports pulse dialing, a battery pack, and an opengear LTE network bridge/router? Set up a folding table somewhere and make and receive phone calls. Or pull the whole rig out on the countertop at a Starbucks and have an important business call.<p><a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/174796261408?hash=item28b2ab4820:g:83EAAOSw87xgtn1F" rel="nofollow">https://www.ebay.com/itm/174796261408?hash=item28b2ab4820:g:...</a>