We are a special kind here...
August 22, 2023 4:39 PM
Trying to find an article or blog post from many years ago about how people who spend a lot of time on the internet are a certain type--I can't remember if it was in terms of personality, or behavior, or how they think--but that the people you encounter online should not be taken as reflective of the larger population and these commonalities tend to self-perpetuate.
I'm very fuzzy on the details so bear with me, but I am quite sure I found it either here or on the blue--it would have been at least 5 years ago, maybe even 10.
One example I vaguely remember is something medical. Say you have a pain on your right side and you're the type that has to know exactly what that might mean or you'll ruminate anxiously, so the first thing you do is get on Google. And you'll inevitably stumble on to WebMD and forums for cancer and other diseases, suggesting that this pain in your side is indicative of something serious and not stopping to think that everyone IN those forums is there BECAUSE they have cancer or something like that and at one time had pain in their side, and not neccesarily because a pain in your side means something serious. After so many instances of this, you might find yourself becoming more neurotic/paranoid about health because so much of what you encounter via the web is people who have some kind of health challenge.
That was just one example--there were other aspects of how lots of time on the internet can change how you think, or reinforce the way you already think. I suspect some of them might not hold as true anymore because it used to be a smaller subset of the population with internet access and now virtually anyone with a phone has access to the entirety of the web (I'll withold commentary about whether that is good or bad). But it was fascinating and I think about it all the time--especially when I see questions here to the tune of "Are people just X now?" And I think "Argh, people really are X!" And then remember that the more time I spend around people in real life and not just reading about random terrible stuff on the internet, the less I really think that people are X, if that makes sense.
Does any of this ring a bell? Google is useless. Thanks in advance.
I'm very fuzzy on the details so bear with me, but I am quite sure I found it either here or on the blue--it would have been at least 5 years ago, maybe even 10.
One example I vaguely remember is something medical. Say you have a pain on your right side and you're the type that has to know exactly what that might mean or you'll ruminate anxiously, so the first thing you do is get on Google. And you'll inevitably stumble on to WebMD and forums for cancer and other diseases, suggesting that this pain in your side is indicative of something serious and not stopping to think that everyone IN those forums is there BECAUSE they have cancer or something like that and at one time had pain in their side, and not neccesarily because a pain in your side means something serious. After so many instances of this, you might find yourself becoming more neurotic/paranoid about health because so much of what you encounter via the web is people who have some kind of health challenge.
That was just one example--there were other aspects of how lots of time on the internet can change how you think, or reinforce the way you already think. I suspect some of them might not hold as true anymore because it used to be a smaller subset of the population with internet access and now virtually anyone with a phone has access to the entirety of the web (I'll withold commentary about whether that is good or bad). But it was fascinating and I think about it all the time--especially when I see questions here to the tune of "Are people just X now?" And I think "Argh, people really are X!" And then remember that the more time I spend around people in real life and not just reading about random terrible stuff on the internet, the less I really think that people are X, if that makes sense.
Does any of this ring a bell? Google is useless. Thanks in advance.
By any chance are you talking about confirmation bias? That's a concept I learned about here.
posted by bluedaisy at 6:54 PM on August 22, 2023
posted by bluedaisy at 6:54 PM on August 22, 2023
Could it be the 1% rule, perhaps? The linked Wikipedia article mentions an example about health forums specifically, with a handful of "super-users" posting the vast majority of content (link to referenced paper).
posted by Calysma at 12:41 AM on August 23, 2023
posted by Calysma at 12:41 AM on August 23, 2023
The extremely online are different from you and me, as F. Scott Fitzgerald never wrote. Maybe something in the references will ring a bell?
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:26 AM on August 23, 2023
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:26 AM on August 23, 2023
For the curious: I actually just found it by stumbling on a buried bookmark I’d made. Original site defunct but here it is on the Wayback Machine: How Web Forums Make Neuroticism Viral
posted by lovableiago at 7:09 AM on October 2, 2023
posted by lovableiago at 7:09 AM on October 2, 2023
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posted by Saucy Possum at 5:30 PM on August 22, 2023