So my first idea, about anthrax and the dollar bills, I've scrapped that. As it turns out, that's really time-consuming and hard to record. Plus, it's gotten pretty cold over the last few days, and I don't want to wait, shivering, for someone to pick up one of my obnoxious messages. I want to work with something that I can control a little better, and doesn't require enduring any kind of bad weather if I can help it.
This weekend, people at the game were being assholes. There's something about game time and being fairly anonymous in the stadium crowd that has that specific effect on some people. That got me thinking.
The way people are emboldened by anonymity seems like a good starting point for another idea for this project. Have you ever read an online news story with a comment section at the bottom? Gone to a message board to try to find some piece of information, and instead found pages of inconsequential tit-for-tat? It doesn't take much to instigate a cyber-quarrel, and people usually aren't as reserved as they would be otherwise.
I think there is also some inherent comedic value in seeing a discussion escalate to the point of a shouting match once all the logic has been bled from it. I don't have any immediate examples to post here for the draft, but there are online forums for virtually every topic. Most of them have no bearing at all on the tangible world, but posters still find enough meaning to bicker.
This project's success probably depends on both the content of the forums I use and my own ability to focus participants on arguing with each other. I have this cutting tool on my computer that can capture screenshots, so I'll be able to show forum avatars and signatures to give some visual representation of what's going on. Some people really take forums and online message boards seriously, and they display really elaborate artwork on their postings to identify their profiles/usernames.
I'm considering the role of instigator wherever necessary. And since it's a graded assignment, the unabridged opinions of some of these online rabble-rousers may finally count for something.
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3 comments:
sounds good but sounds like it will take some time, are you sure you would have enough time to do this?
have you started this somewhere already?
This sounds like an interesting project, but I agree that it might also be time consuming. One thing you could is to open 4 or 5 (or however many you want) chats, say something controversial, and then not look at your computer again for a while. You could record what everyone said or compile it. You could write something controversial on your away message and see if anyone responds. Or maybe create a fake facebook, create a controversial group or event and record how people respond to that.
Zach: OK, good topic. Be a troll, push people a bit, you decide the limit. Gather the results, present them, plus your reflection on it. Here's two links of interest, to articles on the general phenomena of trolling: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin and http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-02/mf_goons?currentPage=all
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