Long overdue - written with a smirk. 
Three types.
1. A millennial walks into a hobbyist club (/or an online web forum - you decide), announces "Hey my sh*t is broke", smiles and waits for someone to do something about it.
Key components: Has no idea how to help the situation in any way. Has no deeper understanding about the issue (hasnt even googled it). Never is part of the solution. But has an extreme sense of self worth and an unfaltering believe that they are at the exact right point in time - and will be helped any minute now. Surely. Thanks.
Also - might "nice-bomb" others for as long as he/she thinks, they are on the verge of getting something for free. Also, might do it if they think that you are more famous than them. And be it even on a "youtube famous" level. Is in awe of celebrity, not intellect.
2. Grew up in an environment, where the web already was commercialized to the bahookies, takes pictures of food, likes fake smiles, brands and safe spaces - because a barbie dreamworld default of social interaction is just the upper limit of life complexity he/she needs to gloss over the fact, that people demanding those defaults never are especially bright or socially engaged.
Labels any negative emotion/situation with the term "toxic", to signal to peers how much they will distance themselves from all stuff that isnt fake smiles, brands and free services - like soo much, they even will not think about those things in actual terms - pulling a reverse Voldemort and self censoring even the thought and all possible subsequent discussions on how to tackle actual issues.
An expert in character assassination, because thats the way everyone wins like 93% of their arguments online - thanks to everscrolling feeds, where arguments simply are gone in three, two, one... but the emotional notion sticks.
Wants a safe PC speech online environment, but will participate in any shitstorm at a moments notice.
3. Disconnectedly only doing their job, ("more conservative than their parents") - like censoring posts in a webforum under a general "offtopic label" excuse, while prolonging structures where people voluntarily are participating to get abused by a larger subset of peers - for the benefit of people only providing a loose structure (virtual reputation systems - look how many likes/votes/posts/clicks!) to profit from. Then being very engaged in social issues, that never ever would matter in their own lives - kind of "playing social activist" without having to change or do anything, really.
Also - as soon as someone plays the "maybe we should do something about it" card like - "raising awareness" or actually contemplate behaviors that might not be as destructive for a larger part of a specific community - censor, ban and defame them. So that no one gets any ideas - that things could actually be any different.
//
This is pretty much the "cliche" image of millennial I've come to carry around with me.
I would be interested in discarding it though, so heres a first attempt at also seeing the other perspective.
Lead in question into a discussion would be: Have you ever experienced an internet community, where most people werent in it for the "service request", a youtube subscription rank, a trendy social goal, or to "virtue signal optimize" their social media profile?
But you don't have to take the bait, you could write about entirely different perspectives and experiences as well. I promise I'll read them. I'm actually interested in how others see/react to this proclaimed image.
Also - as the initial topic is enough provocation for an entire threat, I vouch to stop all provocation in here from this point onward. As I'd actually be interested in a somewhat PC held discussion about those themes.
Three types.
1. A millennial walks into a hobbyist club (/or an online web forum - you decide), announces "Hey my sh*t is broke", smiles and waits for someone to do something about it.
Key components: Has no idea how to help the situation in any way. Has no deeper understanding about the issue (hasnt even googled it). Never is part of the solution. But has an extreme sense of self worth and an unfaltering believe that they are at the exact right point in time - and will be helped any minute now. Surely. Thanks.
Also - might "nice-bomb" others for as long as he/she thinks, they are on the verge of getting something for free. Also, might do it if they think that you are more famous than them. And be it even on a "youtube famous" level.
Is in awe of celebrity, not intellect.2. Grew up in an environment, where the web already was commercialized to the bahookies, takes pictures of food, likes fake smiles, brands and safe spaces - because a barbie dreamworld default of social interaction is just the upper limit of life complexity he/she needs to gloss over the fact, that people demanding those defaults never are especially bright or socially engaged.
Labels any negative emotion/situation with the term "toxic", to signal to peers how much they will distance themselves from all stuff that isnt fake smiles, brands and free services - like soo much, they even will not think about those things in actual terms - pulling a reverse Voldemort and self censoring even the thought and all possible subsequent discussions on how to tackle actual issues.
An expert in character assassination, because thats the way everyone wins like 93% of their arguments online - thanks to everscrolling feeds, where arguments simply are gone in three, two, one... but the emotional notion sticks.
Wants a safe PC speech online environment, but will participate in any shitstorm at a moments notice.
3. Disconnectedly only doing their job, ("more conservative than their parents") - like censoring posts in a webforum under a general "offtopic label" excuse, while prolonging structures where people voluntarily are participating to get abused by a larger subset of peers - for the benefit of people only providing a loose structure (virtual reputation systems - look how many likes/votes/posts/clicks!) to profit from. Then being very engaged in social issues, that never ever would matter in their own lives - kind of "playing social activist" without having to change or do anything, really.
Also - as soon as someone plays the "maybe we should do something about it" card like - "raising awareness" or actually contemplate behaviors that might not be as destructive for a larger part of a specific community - censor, ban and defame them. So that no one gets any ideas - that things could actually be any different.
//
This is pretty much the "cliche" image of millennial I've come to carry around with me.
I would be interested in discarding it though, so heres a first attempt at also seeing the other perspective.
Lead in question into a discussion would be: Have you ever experienced an internet community, where most people werent in it for the "service request", a youtube subscription rank, a trendy social goal, or to "virtue signal optimize" their social media profile?
But you don't have to take the bait, you could write about entirely different perspectives and experiences as well. I promise I'll read them. I'm actually interested in how others see/react to this proclaimed image.
Also - as the initial topic is enough provocation for an entire threat, I vouch to stop all provocation in here from this point onward. As I'd actually be interested in a somewhat PC held discussion about those themes.
