This Post Was Written by
Zachary Connell, Hunter College
The
linguistic aspect of this culture is how the people on this first level have
labeled their reason to hate the game now instead of like it. It stems from the
“fandom” of the game, and how the game became popular with the “normies”. Both
of these words have been used the describe the large number of people who,
according to the first level users, have taken their trend and ruined it by
spreading it to other websites like Facebook, DeviantArt, and Tumblr. The
biggest moment that turned Undertale from a popular “meme” to the laughing
stock of the internet was just one video posted by Matthew Patrick (AKA MatPat)
on his YouTube channel “The Game Theorists”. The video explains how on a trip
to see the Pope, he used his meeting to give him a video game: Undertale. While
there was not much towards the game because of this, it is symbolic for the
game’s spread outside of this first level, and into the public, and eventually,
a new trend was born, this one making fun of Undertale rather than celebrating
it.
Zachary Connell, Hunter College
Over
time, throughout our world, there have always been trends and jokes that were
once extremely popular, and loved by all, but have slowly faded away into
obscurity, replaced by the next hot topic. Within that other world titled “The
Internet”, however, a new system has emerged. Once something popular has been
around for too long, it does not just disappear like it used to, the opinion of
it changes. Instead of going away, it just becomes a victim of hate, instead of
a bringer of joy. But when, why, and how does this change take place?
To
give you an example of what I mean, take the video game Minecraft, which came
out in 2010. While I cannot speak for everyone, I certainly played a lot of
Minecraft in Middle School, and I know for a fact a large number of children
still are playing the game to this day. On the Internet, the popularity for
Minecraft had been gone for awhile, but just recently Minecraft has resurfaced,
but not because people are playing the game, but because they are making fun of
it, and those who do play it. This resurgence in popularity has stemmed largely
from poking fun at the game’s younger audience in an ironic way. When the game
was still originally popular, it was popular to create parodies of popular
songs that have to do with Minecraft. YouTubers like “MineCraft Awesome
Parodys” and “GalaxyGoats” have reignited the popularity by making
intentionally horrible Minecraft parodies of popular songs, to poke fun at the
younger audience that still plays the game, and combined, have over 450
thousand subscribers:
Undertale,
another video game, has been another once hot topic to be the subject of
ridicule on the net. Unlike Minecraft, whose popularity came about before the
internet had gone full throttle, Undertale came out in late 2015, and once was
extremely popular on every level of the internet. What are the “levels” of the
internet? Well, recently there seem to be at least two distinct levels of pop
culture on the internet. The first level consists of websites like Reddit,
4Chan, and some YouTube channels, where most internet trends seem to begin. The
second level is… everything else. Undertale was once enjoyed by the users on
these “first level” websites, and they brought the small, indie game into the
limelight. Once the popularity spread outside the small internet community on
the first level, they claimed that the “fandom” had ruined the game, and
started a new trend about hating the game instead of liking it.
The
newest and largest case of internet code switching yet has taken Undertale out
of the line of fire, however. Just recently TV Series Rick and Morty has almost
out of nowhere to become the latest trend to be hated by these communities on
the first level. The internet’s mockery of Rick and Morty, like Undertale,
stems from the “fandom” it has created. The internet begun a massive campaign
to make fun of both the show and its fans after the show’s fans caused a riot
at a McDonald's on October 9th because they wanted a sauce that was mentioned
in the show. This has caused a much larger scale backlash against the show and
its fans that has become much more than a trend in the first level.
This leads to the potential problem with all of this hate. While jokes here and there are
fine, sites like Reddit are growing every day, and this culture is spreading
very fast. I believe that all of this only comes from a lack of ability to
accept things you do not like. The only reason that people are hating on
anything is because they cannot accept what other people might want to do with
something that they believe is theirs. I think that to fix the problems the
internet has, a good first step would be the try and bridge the growing gap
between these two metaphorical “levels” of the internet, and let people like
what they want to like without having to face hate for it.
Questions:
Is this level of negativity bad for the
future of the internet?
Should trends be a game of “finders
keepers” where the groups who make them keep them?
Is hating on things other people like a
good thing, even if those people never see it?
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