Message Board Culture

The internet is an amazing thing!! I can't put enough exclamation points on it to do it justice. There are so many facets to the internet and being online. I have been consistently online for almost 11 years now, and it has change my life in innumerable ways. Additionally, it has changed the world in incredible ways. And as with all new inventions and developments, there are strange and quirky phenomena that are unique to that invention.

One of those things is the internet message board and the resulting message board culture. I won't begin to get into the history and beginnings of the internet message board. Mostly because I don't know its history and am not really interested in researching it. I am vaguely aware of some sort of computer bulletin boards when I was younger, but whatever.

I go to a few different message boards. The main reason...or the one I would like you to believe...is for news. There are people online who have little to do in life and so they spend their time scavenging for news that relates to their interests. Then they try to one up each other by being the first to post it. I like to take advantage of that to get the news.

So in my years of "observing" the posters in their natural environment i have noticed a few things. First, everything that happens in the world is RIDICULOUS. It doesn't really matter what the theme of the board is, or what side of the topic they are on. They are pretty darned mad about it. A person with less internet experience might be fooled into thinking that these people are very unhappy in their personal lives and have no other means of relieving themselves.

Another thing that Stephanie and I both have noticed is that after awhile, they begin to divide themselves into distinct groups. Stephanie pointed out to me recently that this occurs on Celebrity Baby Blog. As I understand it, there is a big divide between the fans of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt and those of Suri Cruise. In fact they even refer to themselves as Team Shiloh and Team Suri. (actually, the moderators at that site have since made them stop doing that.)

This seems to occur everywhere, but I like the Baby Bloggers organization the best. On the Star Wars board we have Team Prequels and Team Originals. On the Gamecock Messageboard its about Quarterback...Team Mitchell and Team Smelley. But the newest one to develop is on the Sopranos messageboard. Where the discussion is all about the ambiguous season finale, and whether Tony lives or dies. That argument is amongst the self named Lifers and Deadheads.

The truth is...its all a big freaking distraction from real life, and a cheap means of feeling smart or important. In all of these cases, it is based on deconstruction of whatever it is they are talking about. And it is just that. Deconstruction. It doesn't build anything. Which means its worthless.

-T