"Lurking: How a Person Became a User"

[punishedgnome]

Lurking is for pussies join blindfolded and start making conversations about sandwiches, that's how you show dominance and you win some friends along the way,

Hey fucker! I got a sandwich for ya right here!
*Puts dick on a slice of bread*

 

[s0ren]

The author is absolutely correct when she refers to the depersonalizing effect "microblog" sites like Twitter and Tumblr have on the internet. The format encourages users to appropriate posts made by other people they agree with as part of the constant stream of text and images that's supposed to define their online identity, resulting in large groups of people whose only sense of community comes from posting/saying/thinking the exact same thing as their online friends.

Oh, this was my analysis not her's. She doesn't really explore this idea in any depth. Was just using her idea of the internet as a place and her description of going there as a creative writing prompt to explore these ideas.

I'm not sure I agree with the idea that "posting/saying/thinking the exact same thing as their online friends" is the source of interrupting the "flow" of being online though. I think many 2000s forums can be described that way as well. It might be a small part of it, but seems dubious to me when I imagine the culture of many of the forums I was on.