the psychology and politics of talking about CELEBRITY DEATH on the internet (and ilx)

Wasn't there also a 'In every RIP thread ever'-thread on ILE? Or did I make that up?

here's a good rule of thumb for RIP threads, or threads for tragic events, or whatever: no one on ilx gives a shit about what your facebook friends or your aunt or your cousin has to say about anything. save it for ppl you know irl.

wtf??

am i wrong? are there tons of posters that are just dying to know what stupid shit someone they don't know said on facebook? my bad

Was that aimed at anyone in particular Jordan?

i was interested to hear about that kind of thing.

I mean considering the title of this thread is "the psychology and politics of talking about CELEBRITY DEATH on the internet" I think talking about ppls annoying FB reactions is kind of on topic, but what would I know.

it was aimed at whoever feels the need to post about their facebook friends or their crypto racist inlaws or some shit they found on youropenbook

"Madonna croaked after choking on a filched Cheeto."

???
I'm trying to picture the actuarial table that describes this scenario, and the appropriate premium to insure against such an outcome and I can't imagine it would be more than $5.

it was aimed at whoever feels the need to post about their facebook friends or their crypto racist inlaws or some shit they found on youropenbook

i don't think this happened on the winehouse thread?

It happens everywhere else all day.

well i'm not talking specifically about the winehouse thread -- my posts are in reference to this: • What causes the phenomenon of reposting and repeating the horrible things people say that outrage (or "outrage") you?

tho this rarely happens w/ celebrity deaths specifically, tho i think it's a tiresome discussion either way. i guess i'm tangentially talking about posts like "can you believe the terrible things that people are saying about the tsunami in japan????"

because the internet is terrible, we know it. we don't need pointed out every time something tragic happens.

what abt racism in reaction to kanye v. swift, did u find that "culturally interesting" or the same deal?

I think the only celebrity death I would mourn would be Patrick Stewart.

jordan s otm. i don't have facebook because i don't care what my friends have to say. you think i care what your dumb friends have to say?

why would you be reading a message board if you apparently don't care about what anyone in the world has to say

c/d - mentioning not having FB as a badge of honor

think it's one thing to engage in a conversation about something with people you sort of know, and another thing to go hunting for the opinions of fuckwits. same reason i never listen to radio phone-ins or read youtube comments.

^^ this

ilx: best of both worlds

i don't care what my friends have to say.

Glad your're not one of my friends then.

lol kerm

nah there are generally too many opinions in the world imo

that's just what you think

i guess it's the difference between qualified opinion and not, like when somebody on the radio asks randomers who are presumably sat at home unemployed what they think government fiscal policy shd be

and y'know i get that lots of people have strong feelings about the foreigns coming over here and raping our jobs and i don't think the BBC shd be offering them a platform to inarticulately grunt and hoot for 3 minutes

yeah but that's kind of an interesting shifting debate in itself, the 'do you govern them as they need or as they want' kind of thing, and besides HYS type opinion is kinda the epitome of harmless venting anyway.

xp censorship CENSHORSHIP

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/092009/1252075516_Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers.gif

don't mind it on HYS just resent it when they broadcast stuff to the nation

if joe soap can't understand the expert analysis, or gets bored by it, or disagrees with it, or just doesn't want to hear it, what then? No coverage for Joe?

dunno what i'm asking here, obviously- are people entitled to hear rubbish if they believe in it or something

oh i dunno censorship is bad but willful fucking ignorance is bad too as long as i don't have to take part i guess, we're all fucked anyhow

here's a good rule of thumb for RIP threads, or threads for tragic events, or whatever: no one on ilx gives a shit about what your facebook friends or your aunt or your cousin has to say about anything. save it for ppl you know irl.

― J0rdan S., Sunday, July 24, 2011 8:07 PM (1 hour ago)

yeah this is completely otm - on every thread about a high-profile event of some sort people feel this need to post the incorrect opinion some dipshit on his faceook or twitter feed posted a minute ago and how wrong they are. no. noe. gives. a. shit.

one* obv

ilx would be soo much better if people took their metabitching to facebook...

something something google+

kevin k. is stealth publishing his ilx rulebook one stern excerpt at a time.

People form attachments. To one another. To pets. To inanimate objects. To some celebrities. This is how people operate.

it's cruel and insensitive for anyone to belittle my love for zinging celebrity worship and fan culture.. Especially at a time like this!

to.....inanimate celebrities...?

i think it's kind of weird that a celebrity's death occasions much comment at all. what is there to say? does professing grief to the internet = modern prayer?

so i guess i can understand whiney's original question without inevitably extending it to dissing dead children in the service of internet beef

am kind of dumbfounded that some ppl here would so roughly categorize aw as "a celebrity"--like, didn't we all sign up for this godforsaken site in the first place because we feel deeply connected to music (and in most cases, to the musicians that make the music we like?).

i mean it's not like, i dunno, if ryan reynolds got hit by a car and everyone was super bummed out about it. i feel like when a musician dies young, even if you don't care for that particular musician, ilx is the one place where you would instinctively give ppl room to express their sadness.

this godforsaken site

<3

Alex Chilton RIP 2010

lol

like, didn't we all sign up for this godforsaken site in the first place because we feel deeply connected to music (and in most cases, to the musicians that make the music we like?).

pretty sure many of us did, but then the lure of taking personal frustrations out on strangers via being a huge dick became too seductive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh8zcbC_Dcw

RIP threads - classic or dud?
Starting RIP threads: C/D
Being numbed by all these R.I.P. threads

Alex Chilton RIP 2010

― buzza, Sunday, July 24, 2011 11:26 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol at least cank's posts had some absurdist flair as opposed to the aspie "let me express skepticism in the emotional reactions of others" posting that folks indulge in the rest of the time.

some of us never signed up for ilm fwiw

What causes the weird dick-measuring contests over Facebook where people compete to see how sad they are over the loss of someone they never met?

This, I think, is absolutely salient and the subconscious self expression that really holds the key to the entire question.

Because I don't think I've *ever* seen people competing to express grief or sadness or loss over someone's death.

What I *have*, however, seen a huge amount of - on ILX and social media and IRL and elsewhere - is alterna-oriented dudes having dick-waving competitions about who can appear to be caring ~LESS~ about "Celebrity Cultury" or "Celebrities" in general or individual human beings that they take to be personnifications of "Celebrity."

It's really easy, if you don't actually care about a person, or a phenomenon, to register a shrug and just, you know, not say anything. It actually takes quite some amount of effort to go on a thread to crow about exactly how little you care about this celebrity in particular, or celebrities in general and tell other people that their responses or emotional reactions are, you know, ~shallow~ or something.

Because alterna-oriented indie dudes have so much ~better~ and ~important~ things to express outrage and indignation and ~BEING OFFENDED~ about. Like, IDK, annoying chicks who take their iPads out at indie rock gigs?