Fads

[Seil]

So I dun know if anyone's logged on FB recently, but if you have, you've probably been greeted with nostalgia. Apparently:

Change your facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. By Tuesday there should be no humanfaces on facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is to support "Stop Violence Against Children"

To which my brother argues:

How does changing your profile picture to a cartoon character fight child abuse in any way, shape or form? These Facebook things are getting borderline moronic.

And at least one person had this as a status:

IMPORTANT:the whole changing your profile picture to your favourite cartoon chatacter thing was actually created by a group of pedophiles, because if children see pictures of cartoons they will add them, it was currently on the programme Internet frauds and will apparently be on tv some ...time tonight, put this as your status to warn people and change your
profile pictures back!!!!!

So far I've seen Gargoyles, Dexter's Laboratory, CatDog, Cardcaptors, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Sailor Moon, The Lion King, Jem, The Fox And The Hound, The "Stay Alert, Stay Safe" rabbits, Power Rangers, Calvin and Hobbes, Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z, Winnie The Pooh, Biker Mice From Mars and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Oh, and that girl rabbit from Space Jam.

While it's an interesting idea, and a trip down memory lane, I agree with my brother that it's not really doing that much to combat child abuse. It's more along the lines of those spam mails you get that "Bill Gates Will Donate $100 to ___________ Every Time You Forward This!!!!!11!" Come to think of it, there's also the same mentality to "liking" or "friending" different charitable organizations on FB without actually, y'know, donating to them or anything.

I thought it was as neat as it was stupid, but then I thought about fads in general. We go along to a lot of things - like here on NPF, we had the Sexy Dead People thread, Meister got mad at the EdxRoy manlove avatar thread, POS had changed the Geth to kittens, Yodadog is a running joke.

There's a nice bit about this done by Cracked (http://www.cracked.com/article/85_6-bullshit-facts-about-psychology-that-everyone-believes/):

Studies show cult members are just as intelligent, if not more so, than the general public. And around 95 percent of cult members are perfectly sane (when they join up, anyway), with no history at all of real psychological problems. They're not stupid, and they're not crazy.

Of course this only serves to make cults even scarier. How in the hell do these groups get people--who are every bit as sane and smart as your best friend--to join up?

OK, ask yourself this: Why do rebellious biker types all immediately go out and start dressing and talking exactly like other biker types?

As social animals we are hard-wired to want to belong to a group. It's a need as basic and real as hunger or sex. When we get cut off from our group--say we lose a job, or move to a new city, or break up with our girlfriend--we go a little crazy. Cults are very, very good at finding people in that exact moment of weakness, and saying exactly the right things. Those pamphlets that sound so corny and transparent to you, read like a glorious breath of fresh air to somebody caught in one of those rough spots.

So sure, when we're in our normal, stable state of affairs we like to imagine ourselves coolly shooting down all of the charismatic cult leader's stupid-ass claims with the power of pure critical thinking. But remember that the next time you're drunk dialing your ex-girlfriend in the middle of the night, or stalking her new boyfriend, sneaking into the parking lot where he works and pooping on the hood of his car.

If you can't remember ever doing something dumb and embarrassing because you were feeling lonely and rejected, well, either you're very young, or you were just too drunk at the time to retain the memory.

And once these people are in the cult they realize that, no, not all cult members wind up as part of some bizarre suicide ceremony. Most lead normal, successful lives.

I don't know if it's true on this forum, because nearly every single one of us listens to some indie music, fondly remember retro cartoons and old movies/movie stars, does some form of art and share similar political beliefs in the vein of hard-right-wingers are hard-right-weiners. So maybe there's a correlation? Or am I just wrong and stupid, as usual?

[Magus]

I have a hard time believing that people who join cults are normal. It seems like they must have something in their personality that makes them easy to fool and be able to be brainwashed into giving up all their money and property and wearing a robe and living in a commune and follow some guy named Vissarion who says he's Jesus Christ (for a certain level of cultishness, I mean).

As for us on the forum having similar interests, I don't think any of us changed to suit the forum, we went to the forum because we liked that kind of stuff in the first place.

But yeah there is a large amount of faddishness in our culture in general, especially in fashion. I see people wearing the dumbest freakin' things (like crocs, for instance), and the average 19.99 item sold on TV is based entirely on people's gullibility towards fads (the Snuggie being successful, for instance, basically would justify anyone thinking the American public is mentally deficient). Plus we often want to look like movie stars of the past and present, so we might buy a leather jacket to look like a leather jacket guy or sunglasses to look like a sunglasses guy, or combine both to look like a leather jacket/sunglasses guy, even though on the inside we are more like the guy who wears some short-sleeved dress shirt and tie and works in a cubicle for 8 hours a day slowly waiting to die.

EDIT: Like working with kids there seems to be this thing where they all buy the same brand of (expensive) clothing, which has moved from Nike and Levi Strauss when I was a kid into Aeropostale and Hollister nowadays. Kids being gullible easily fall for this but then again lots of adults probably fall into it without realizing they are acting that way.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

I thought we were a random bunch of jerks united only in our shared passion for web comics and mocking one anothers (lack of) sexual habits?

In all seriousness, every group of humans ends up forming their own in-jokes and references based on their common experiences and interests. This is not (http://xkcd.com/794/) a new phenomena. (http://www.econlib.org/library/Mackay/macEx13.html)

Plus, you have to remember a lot of this is done subconsciously and in stages. Take joining a cult, for instance. A person might tell themselves that they'll sit through one meeting and be done with it, yet in many cases it pings their subconscious desire to want to belong in just the right way, and before you know it you've blown your retirement fund on donations and moved out to a commune in the Arizona desert. Sort of like saying you'll only play one hour of WoW or Minecraft tonight and the next time you glance at the clock, it's 3 A.M. If something makes us feel good in just the right way, we'll keep committing to it, even if we don't consciously think about it.

[Geminex]

I thought we were a random bunch of jerks united only in our shared passion for web comics and mocking one anothers (lack of) sexual habits?
And homestuck. NEVER forget homestuck. I mean, you said webcomics, but it deserves a special mention.

But yeah, this seems less 'combat child abuse' and more 'nostalgia' with a great big scoop of 'short-lived fad' on the side. I mean, this is facebook. What do you expect?

As for fads in general... I think the article sums it up pretty well. There's a feeling of belonging most, if not all humans, crave instinctively. We want to be part of the group, the tribe. Nowadays, there are many tribes to chose from. Some of them are cults, and sometimes a cult offers what an individual needs/craves.

[Nikose Tyris]

It's called Slacktivism. It lets you feel good about yourself while you never get off your couch/chair to actually accomplish anything.

Jose introduced me to this one:
Change your profile picture to a nice, juicy steak in honor of starving kids in africa.

Which I like much more.


also to answer this:

I don't know if it's true on this forum, because nearly every single one of us listens to some indie music, fondly remember retro cartoons and old movies/movie stars, does some form of art and share similar political beliefs in the vein of hard-right-wingers are hard-right-weiners. So maybe there's a correlation? Or am I just wrong and stupid, as usual?

I've got a wide variety but I'm pretty much thoroughly annoyed at indie and chiptune stuff, The only cartoons I really "Fondly remember" are Animaniacs, Freakazoid and TMNT (And only then because I've got them on DVD), and I have 0 artistic talent.

My political beliefs are actually remarkably centrist, and I have as much of a hate-on for the hard-left as I do for the Hard-Right. [Centrist in a realist view; I'm far more communistic in a fantasy view.]

There's a correlation in groups, but NPF isn't one solid group; if you wanted to, you could find small groups within that suffer from groupthink.

Actually, one of the things that I like most about NPF is that you don't see massive amounts of groupthink. Two or three people might try and give excess back-pattery, but we've got a devil's advocate or ten in almost every thread. Everyone gets an opinion, and as long as it's not contrary to one or two specific people's opinions, you're perfectly welcome to have it and share it.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

You're all fascist dickwads but my local cell has assigned me to clean this place up!
Also sometimes someone says some funny shit.

[Azisien]

Wow when is your next evaluation, you are doing a terrible job.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

But I still get paid the same! Hahahhahahaa!

[Geminex]

Yes! A terrible job indeed! I have not embraced the glorious doctrine of communism at all! I relish my continued existence as a materialistic capitalist pig-dog. Now, let us continue worsening the world with our vile ways, what say you, comrades? I mean, fellow imperialists?

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I should probably stop this butttttttttttt I'm on my break.

[Geminex]

What happened to 'from each according to his ability'?
Are breaks even allowed? I thought you had to get so drunk that your ability diminished sufficiently for you to rest with a clear conscience.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

My ability is the ability to take fantastic breaks. And I have a desperate need for them.

[Nique]

Wha... screw you what's going on in this thread!? Is this about Facebook or cults or whatfuu??