Baiting and Debating
I have visited quite a few blogs and live journal accounts lately.
Apart from a few exceptions actually...everyone’s life seems to suck! Have any of you noticed how so many people seem to glamorise unhappiness? “My life is so sad” “Nobody understands me” “I have no one to talk to”. Explain something to me...is it considered cool to be slightly messed up??
People could be justified in cribbing about their problems. After all, it’s their blog right? Why should other people’s opinions matter? But isn’t constant cribbing a reinforcement of unhappiness? There is just something very irritating about having to read a website filled with posts about how sad life is. Yes, cribbing is a natural outlet to frustration (I’ve indulged in it myself!). But when it is done all the time...isn’t sympathy of the readers often turned into annoyance?
Those who don’t rip apart their own lives, seem to be ripping apart other people’s lives. Usually employing baseless sarcasm, any personality alien to one’s own is torn to shreds, without actually making a point. To an extent, I will admit it can be entertaining, but such posts only seem to establish that the writer considers himself/herself superior to those who don’t think the way they do.
I am glad that I know people who are capable of participating in an abstract debate through their writing. I think I’d go nuts if I didn’t know these blogs. I’d much rather have discussions than indulge in individual cribbing...what say you?
Apart from a few exceptions actually...everyone’s life seems to suck! Have any of you noticed how so many people seem to glamorise unhappiness? “My life is so sad” “Nobody understands me” “I have no one to talk to”. Explain something to me...is it considered cool to be slightly messed up??
People could be justified in cribbing about their problems. After all, it’s their blog right? Why should other people’s opinions matter? But isn’t constant cribbing a reinforcement of unhappiness? There is just something very irritating about having to read a website filled with posts about how sad life is. Yes, cribbing is a natural outlet to frustration (I’ve indulged in it myself!). But when it is done all the time...isn’t sympathy of the readers often turned into annoyance?
Those who don’t rip apart their own lives, seem to be ripping apart other people’s lives. Usually employing baseless sarcasm, any personality alien to one’s own is torn to shreds, without actually making a point. To an extent, I will admit it can be entertaining, but such posts only seem to establish that the writer considers himself/herself superior to those who don’t think the way they do.
I am glad that I know people who are capable of participating in an abstract debate through their writing. I think I’d go nuts if I didn’t know these blogs. I’d much rather have discussions than indulge in individual cribbing...what say you?
posted by 
@ 10:25 am
8 Comments:
At 10:50 pm, February 17, 2005,
Anonymous said…
Agreed! We all need to crib a bit at times...i would shrivel up and die if i had to be goody-goody all the time...but cribbing all the time just gives an impression that ur an ungrateful wretch and fishing for compliments and looking for sympathy! And i know who u mean when u said some people think theyr all that and their opinion is superior and the only one that matters! Ok thats it...im very hungry and right now couldnt really careless about whos cribbing and who isnt. But everyone....just SMILE!! Life isnt all that bad! I think!
-dravid fan 4 ever...
At 4:58 am, February 18, 2005,
D. said…
Ehh...It might just be my paranoia, but I do believe that ' Usually employing baseless sarcasm, any personality alien to one’s own is torn to shreds, without actually making a point. ' sounds suspiciously like a reference to my blog. (I'm quite aware of your opinion on the pointlessness of my snarks.) Therefore, anything I say on the topic of 'baseless sarcasm' will be viewed as pot-calling-the-kettle-black, so I think I won't bother.
However, re. the cribbing - a friend of mine recently read an incredibly poor Legolas-romance story. She took it upon herself to leave some polite criticism for the author (and by polite I do mean that, and not sarcastically polite). The response she got was:
'how do you know you cant tame animales in 1 minuet i am a herptoligist and an entimoligist and have tamed animals in one minuet and less. and its very mean that you dont like dragons because i am a year of the dragon and i think it is insuling and makes you like saruman and smaug. and i cant write well because i am depressed because my pet goldfish died recently'
Now, ignoring all the waffle (Taming animals in a minuet? What, she dances for them or something?), look at the bit in bold.
That's right, folks. She's upset because her goldfish died, and so she vents her sadness by writing crap-fic. Isn't that cribbing at its very worst?
At 9:28 am, February 18, 2005,
Meghna said…
Thanks RR...
Deepthi - Though I will admit that I am not a big fan of your sarcasm, I was never vehemently against it. I just thought that it was your idea of entertainment, and left it at a difference in style. I am referring to those blogs that write about nothing else. At least you do make decent contribution to a discussion once in a while.
Not that I am siding with Ms. I’m-depressed-because-my-goldfish-died, but why exactly did this friend of yours consider it necessary to give her criticism to a perfect stranger??? And you know what...stop it with your Legolas-fan-bashing! Will you just leave them alone? Let them bask in their bimbo-ness na? What is it to you?!
At 10:28 pm, February 18, 2005,
Anonymous said…
hey! just cause i like legolas dosent make me a bimbo! so now what its bimbo to think an actor or character in a movie is cute or a good actor!? and hello...im sure she loved her goldfish a lot...i have 2 dogs and i love them loads and i would be devastated if they died (one of mine has and its like a family member has died...its the worst feeling in the world) so i wouldnt call that cribbing...shes just sad and misses her goldfish...dont be so mean u ppl! even if u do call that cribbing...i think this is a valid (atleast as valid a reason as it gets) to 'crib'.
-dravid fan 4 ever...
At 4:43 am, February 19, 2005,
D. said…
Meghna - Don't ask me why. I wouldn't know either.
As for Legolas-fan bashing - hey, if you can bash sarcastic people, I can certainly bash idiots. At least idiots are worth bashing (though needless sarcasm in a totally seerious discussion is, I'll admit, a bit irritating).
Oh, yes, and I like that 'once in a while' statement! So, this implies that about once in a hundred years or so, I decide to stop being 'superior' and actually contribute serious matter to a debate, whereas the rest of the time I stare at the wall and drool, is that it? I can't say what your intentions for saying that were, but it sounds pretty offensive.
Rati (Well, I hardly know any other Dravid fans, so I assume this is you) - I'm not saying all Legolas fans are idiots! Personally I prefer other characters, but each to their own. It's just when people are obsessed with Legolas to the point of calling themselves 'LegolasBride' and writing horrible self-inserting fanfiction about Middle-Earth that it becomes a bit too bimboish and idiotic for my taste.
I'm quite aware that it's sad when a pet dies. (I had a cat once myself, though I'm not sure if it was me who owned the cat or the cat who owned me.) However, is that really an excuse for not using a spell-checker, or anything?
Ah well. I'm certainly not convincing anyone. I'll stay out of this now, and leave it to the people who actually have a moral right to rip others apart. Because you've made it clear that I don't.
At 7:52 am, February 19, 2005,
Meghna said…
Rati, good point! I can imagine how hard losing a pet must be. I don't personally know, but I remember how down you were when you lost yours. It is definately a justified reason to feel down.
Deepthi, I have no idea how you just took that out of context. The once in a while was reffering to teh rarit of a heated debate, not your contributions to them. I didn't intend on being offensive. I can't understand how you would think I did. I have no further justfication to that statement. As for you fan-bashing, I really think it is unjustified and unnecessary.
This has become so personal. To begin with, I wasn't trying to express opinion! Just than analyze why people like to crib...I didn't want this to become an open style-ripper-upper!
At 10:41 pm, February 23, 2005,
Anonymous said…
um..im sorry but who cares about spelling and grammar when their pet has just died?!
-dravid fan 4 ever...
At 8:54 am, February 26, 2005,
Anonymous said…
...hm....haven't you moaned on here before?! So what makes you think you are really 'down' and the others aren't?! Plus, maybe they just come on here to let all their frustration out...so it just seems a lot because its all put 2gether, ever thought that?! I no thats what my blogs are; all my frustration being put into one place!!!! so its not as if i go around moaning and depressed the whole time!!!!!
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