Have you noticed how main stream culture has changed since the internet began to dominate the world? I mean, now you’ve got all kinds of stuff at you fingertips, or the click of a mouse, that didn’t even exist before and some things that have been revamped for the new media type. Flash videos, anime fansubs, online multiplayer games (PC and console), tri-weekly web comics, databases, essays (to steal), junk mail, instant messaging, mp3’s, lots and lots of porn and many other things of cyber birth have shaped modern culture and influence the younger generations to no end.

I suppose I’ll start with Flash, as that’s the first thing I mentioned. Go to Newgrounds. Then Albino Blacksheep and eBaum’s World. I think you’ll get a reasonable of what the Macromedia Flash culture is all about. I myself am somewhat a connoisseur of Flash, but I will freely admit that it’s a double edged sword, as almost everything else on the net is. People are creative, you learn that right away. Good Flash animation is not hard to spot and very easy to enjoy, thank God that NG has the obituaries for crappy flash videos every day, as there’s also some real crap out there. If you scribble a flash video in a few minutes and it has no point to it, don’t submit it. Get this straight though, the group that did Mario Twins, Schfifty Five, Bang Bang Bang and so on, while they do scribble art, it’s their style. Besides, they almost universal in their work, and theirs is actually good, unlike a lot of what you see rejected form NG. Anyway, this new format of media is fairly unique to cyberspace and an excellent form of artistic expression and creative gamming but it’s not without its drawbacks. You do get the occasional few Flash trends that start good but just get annoying after a while. All your Base, The End of the World, Dating Sims, etc, all good concepts but overused to the point where they’re not quite so cool anymore. That might just be me, but whatever. I had something else I was gonna’ say but the though seems to have escaped me so I’ll move on.

Funsubs, you know what they are? Normally, based on my usual readers, I wouldn’t need to define the term but I will anyway just for the sake of it. In case you’re unaware, a fansub is a Japanese animated show that is converted into a computer video file, translated, subtitled, timed and encoded (and probably a few other things too) to be shared among fans of the particular series. Most anime series come from mangas which are Japanese graphic novels, as they’re book sized, not a thin as comic books, and are somewhat different from the original. In the case of Inu Yasha, the story is identical with only minor differences but in the case of Chrno Crusade, much is modified in the transition. Most purists would say that if you’ve seen the anime but haven’t read the manga you don’t deserve to live and so on, they’re really almost like cultists when you get down to it. The new access to anime has created an influence on our culture that’s almost as big as the “black rapper ghetto” one that won’t go away, it’s just target to a different demographic is all. Let me give you an idea of the stereotypical anime cultist. They tend to draw anime, watch it, read mangas, go on anime forums all day and night, talk about it to everyone despite if they actually care, eat instant noodles and sushi to try to be Japanese, long for the day they could understand the language, pray that they could ever visit the country themselves, stockpile action figures, DVDs and other anime junk, use Japanese words that are badly pronounced and have nothing to do with the situation and are just plain people on the fringe of psychotic obsession, always regretting the fact that they were not born Japanese. And conventions, don’t ever go to anime-cons, I don’t think they’re good for human sanity, not sure, I’ve proudly never been myself. That must sound a little heavy, no? It’s not all true for every cultist, but you can always see some of these elements in every hardcore fan.

A critical point you have to understand at this moment is that I’m not trying to bash anime here, it’s a perfectly good artistic medium, it’s the cultist-level fans that I’m not fond of. I myself enjoy some of the more refined series (Chrno Crusade, Madlax, Gundam Wing, Escaflowne, etc) but I did have my own little crazy thing with Rockman Exe for a while. Anime is good when it’s more action-based and serious (or cool sci-fi like Rockman Exe Axess) but series like Inu Yasha and so forth tend to run far too long and create far too many fan cultists. I’m tired of trying to waste time on quiz sites only to see shit like “What would Sesshomaru think of you after sitting next you on a bench?!? Part 7”, and all these crappy other anime “girls only” quizzes. Here’s an idea, these people don’t exist, they’re characters in fiction, so I guess you’ll never know if Vash could be Goku in reality because they’re not real! I’m getting sick of these people, you know. They’re almost as bad as stupid little white kids who think they’re so black and ghetto just because they wear their caps backwards, their jeans at their knees, do crappy little hand gestures, speak in gangster street dialects, listen to rap so loud you can feel the bass while they drive by and think they’re just the coolest thing alive. Listen kid, if you’re like the ones where I live, you’re no black, you can’t rhyme or sing, you drive a BMW or some other nice car, look like a complete and utter jackass with your pants falling down and have the intelligence of a lamppost. You’re not ghetto and you’re not a black rapper, stop pretending. Same mentality goes for you anime cultists. You’re not Japanese and stop shoving your interests with unpronounceable 4-episode series in everyone’s face because no one fucking cares. That crystal clear? Good.

Online games can be pretty cool or they can kill you. Personally, owning a Gamecube without an internet link-up, I’ve only ever play one big online game, Ragnarok Online. I must say, it was so much fun and very creative, but it wasn’t with its problems. It can draw you attention away from important things, take up computer memory, crash in-game, laaaaaag, get old and tiresome and there’s also a whole fringe of lunatics to be found. Overall though, I’m glad I played it, it was a really good game, it just had too many server shutdowns. I’m not too sure about X-Box Live and the PS2 equivalent, but I have to sit though a calculus class and listen to stupid anecdotes about Socom and how being a sniper is so cool. I get really sick of it but thankfully I’ll be graduating this month so I won’t care anymore. To any of you who may still be criticizing my Gamecube I say this: I play one player games only. Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness and Zelda games all rock. I’m not buying a frickin’ PS2 that I’ll never have time to use in university. It’s a good system but think about it, it would be a waste of my money. I got my Cube for a gift and bought my favourite games for it, what’s wrong with that? And I’m not going online with anything because I have only one player games and I don’t care about online competition. Online games are fun but addiction and Everquest will make you commit suicide. Don’t pay to play. That’s really all there is to it. If you’re interested, try a pirated server of Ragnarok and see if you like the community idea. It’s kinda’ cool to walk through Prontera city and see thousands of people (you won’t see that many on a pirated one though), it’s just another sight. Online games are okay, but they can distort people who are weak and bendy.

One of the more serious ramifications of most all internet sub-cultures is their choices in language and grammar. It’s some much like normal 3D society as everything is flat, it’s not quite as fuckin’ easy to fuckin’ use fuck as your every fuckin’ second fuckin’ word, don’t you think? No, the changes here are in the form of contracted contractions and abbreviated abbreviations. I know at one point or another we all use the universal ‘lol’, often when the phrase in question isn’t that funny, at least not enough to actually make you laugh out loud. Personally, I only ever use it for the purpose of speed or in times of low energy (well, lower energy, as I am a low energy being) but I try my best to avoid doing so at all. To those of you who use it in great abundance or have ever actually said ‘lol’ aloud, there is time remaining for you to be saved, but you must have strength of will, as such a habit may take time to break. This is just the beginning, I’m sure you’ve also come across ‘j/k’, ‘w/e’, ‘n/p’, ‘n/m’, ‘lmao’, ‘stfu’, ‘ttyl’, ‘omg’ and many more. As well, there is ‘brb’ and ‘g2g’ which, while they don’t really annoy me, are things that I try to avoid typing too. The funny thing is that these little shortcuts actually do more harm than good. Computers let us communicate doing less work and allowing us to make ourselves dumber and help cheapen our literary conversations.

Just by reading this, you know that text is flat. It’s static and two dimensional, unchanging and without a tone or voice, despite what any dumbass English teacher may ever tell you. These truncations that we use, while somewhat useful and semi-universal, are forming a layer of rust upon the idea of refined conversation and intellectual arguments. Before you would argue you belief in as articulate a manor as possible, but today it seems you can get away with typing shit like: “I M teh rite 1 U lose u suxxorz!!!1!111!!1!”. I’m not as big on forums as a few of my friends, but I have seen flaming wars consisting of very crappy and low brow phrases and it just makes me sad that people can descend to such a level. People bitch and moan in the worst typing I’ve ever but never actually seem to get back to the topic after a while. This probably isn’t the case everywhere, but just go check the message boards on Game FAQs and you might get the idea. It’s this kind of fucking junk that’s making my generation more childish online and helping to make them a bit more deranged in person. It’s kinda’ sad, but it’s true, at least as I can see it.

By this point I’d expect the universal counter-comment of “Who the fuck cares?!?” from many a dumbass. Likely following would be “Why the fuck do you care?” before I could answer the original question even partially. You know what? I don’t really care that much, I just notice and write. As with the ideas of (un)common sense, if you don’t like it, then stop reading.

It seem that to supplement the letters lost in the intensive word compression of instant messaging, e-mails and forum postings, new words and expressions have emerged from the depths of sloth and mediocrity. I’ve already used a common one, ‘SUXX0RZ!!!’, or something of the like. It’s not funny, just stupid and disappointing. Another common one I’ve seen is ‘owned’ or rather, as I’ve seen it with leet infusion, ‘PW0N3D!!1!one!!11!!”.
While the characters of the term many change from user to user, the general sentiment remains the same. I think it’s just as it sounds, with the normal word being an arrogant declaration of victory or dominance over another and the modified form of the same meaning but used primary by fuckheads. Frankly, users of this infantile trash have succeeded in level themselves onto the same intellectual plane as 6-year-olds. It’s not a witty or even partially credible joke, just a pathetic one. All you wired-in and depraved little 14-year-olds can keep on truckin’ with this trend of crapwords, I’m just gonna’ back away slowly and stop caring.

Webcomics are also cool, but I’m not going to talk too much about them, just reference one in particular. http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1 This is a comic strip by Jeph Jacques about Marten, his anthro-PC Pintsize and is friend Faye. I’ve started you off on the very first strip in hopes that you’ll read all the way to 135, the current guest strip. It’s a rather interesting story about a few friends who belong to an ‘indie’ sub-culture which seems to be anti-emo. I loved this when I first laid eyes on it as I do so hate emo music and all the crap that does with it. Depressed does not equal cool. Period. Also, as you can see with clarity in the second panel, Marten sports a shit with the world TEH upon it. This, I believe, beings the sub-layer in pseudo-intellectual humour that’s scattered throughout this comic. If you don’t like the look of it too much, relax, his style changes. Let me give you an example of what a common strip looks like, as the current 135 is a guest strip: http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=127 I just get the idea that this comic helps to define so many things. To me “Teh” is an intellectual and satirical temp that comments on how rush and careless internet society is. It’s one of the most common typos in the world but it seems to have its own meaning a proper context. If it’s just randomly penciled into the title of a Flash or journal it can be almost meaningless but if used to express one’s feelings about the degradation of online society it can fit perfectly. I’m not sure, it’s just a feeling I get sometimes. I know you can argue that like the one chains, it’s nothing more than a pathetic joke, but they reading that comic through. It won’t take you too long, it’ll give you more than a few laughs and you might just get what I’m trying to say. “Teh” is a refined term that has many philosophical ideas that can be easily attached to it. Think I’m crazy or just stupid? I’m not, I just think about some things in a very unusual way. Think about it. “Teh” is cool and not for the smile of net culture to use.

Another commonly seen thing is the idea of exclamation chains. I’ve already used an example with other terms of the dimwit and there are four kinds that I’ve seen. First, there’s an over exclamation which is just a line of perfect punctuation, i.e. “(word)!!!!!” Second, you may see the occasional typo from releasing the shirt button too early, “(word)!!!!!11”, which is understandable but still, people who do this should learn to find an ‘edit’ command so they can clean up the titles of their flash videos, blog pages and DA journals. As you continue, the typos become intentional and the exclamation becomes one of anti-intellectualism rather than passion over a statement. When you see digits all throughout the middle of the chain, then you know it’s not a simple error made in one’s haste, “(word)!!1!!1!!111!1!!!”, which is a pathetic elementary student’s type of humour. Finally you come to a very arguable point, whether using the word ‘one’ in the chain is actually a sophisticated satire. I’m going to argue that it’s not as I can’t see it any other way. You’re making a very bad joke of idiots who are barely able to breathe and are further the chain idea yourself, not a great idea if you’re reasonably intelligent. It’s just that when I see “(word)!1one!!1!!!one1!11!1!!!!”, I can’t help but think that it’s was born from layers upon layers of some kind of…onion (I can’t think of anything better, sorry)…of stupidity. The attempt painfully grinds the gears of progress and leaves these people thinking they’re witty for something so simple and pointless.

Now I know I could pick on people for every common typo and uncaptialized letter ‘i’ but I’m not going to. I know that people have varying levels of typing skill and that’s understandable. I know I could further analyze that and its relation to computers making us dimmer, but I’m almost out of steam. I’ll just say one last thing: E-mail that’s not junk can be useful and don’t spend too much of your life on MSN or other instant messaging services, it’s not the only way to kill the boredom or talk to others. If you don’t know about leet, all the better to you. I don’t have the energy to talk about it now, I might edit this later. That’s all for now.