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This is not a generational shift. The iron dome of irony is a tried and true coping technique for the brutality of teenage culture where the rule of cool rules with an iron fist and being uncool means social death. And what is cool shifts at a moment's notice, yet uncool is forever. So normies learn to armour themselves by treating everything ironically to pre-empt any whiff of uncool. Because at the very least, it's never uncool to make fun of something. This carries forward into one's 20s when some begin to rediscover the coolness of being authentic, sincere, and genuine regardless of what others think. So then you have the reaction of radical acceptance, not yucking others' yum, respect for others' interests, etc. GenX had their equivalent, even Boomers. It's part of growing up. And of course not everyone gets there.

what killed the internet is information overload. in many way no one can have a private or closed space. twitter for example you are bombarded with everyone's thought on everything and before long you have a lot of information about things you dont care about, and no way to engage properly with just one of those things. you can be vulnerable on the internet, but in a mostly public and algorithmic internet, its gonna be exposed to so many people who will hate that.

Yep, not a single post of irony on the Internet before zoomers.

This reminds me of what David Foster Wallace wrote: "The next real literary "rebels" in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of anti-rebels, born oglers who dare somehow to back away from ironic watching, who have the childish gall actually to endorse and instantiate single-entendre principles. Who treat of plain old untrendy human troubles and emotions in U.S. life with reverence and conviction. Who eschew self-consciousness and hip fatigue. These anti-rebels would be outdated, of course, before they even started. Dead on the page. Too sincere. Clearly repressed. Backward, quaint, naive, anachronistic. Maybe that'll be the point. Maybe that's why they'll be the next real rebels. Real rebels, as far as I can see, risk disapproval. The old postmodern insurgents risked the gasp and squeal: shock, disgust, outrage, censorship, accusations of socialism, anarchism, nihilism. Today's risks are different. The new rebels might be artists willing to risk the yawn, the rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the parody of gifted ironists, the "Oh how banal". To risk accusations of sentimentality, melodrama. Of overcredulity. Of softness. Of willingness to be suckered by a world of lurkers and starers who fear gaze and ridicule above imprisonment without law. Who knows."

I feel like I saw people saying this back in 2007 (with different terminology, ofc). Kids just like in-jokes and being ironic. It's not ruining the Internet, big business is what's ruining the Internet.

Right. When we were all laughing at the people who would have genuine reactions to things people would say to them on the internet because "the internet is serious business lmao," that was totally fine and a different thing. It's those damn zoomers that fucked it all up. Right.

The internet is suffering from commodification not irony. on top of all the ads people are happy to commodify themselves as if they don’t put in enough time doing that at work already

I agree with this post with 4 layers of ironic sarcasm.

i am cringe but i am free

Oof that's ironic

I mean that concept is a thing that does exist, but the internet is doing fine. Its inevitably gonna get better again at some point, both technology wise and socially.

Peoples creativity online is still VERY alive. Like omg some people on TikTok are doing some very interesting stuff out there.

Greed is the issue, not normal people (though they till suck sometimes)

A lot of people confuse my arrogance for irony.