Response
Ryan Broderick essay "We must bulldoze what's left of the nerdy white man's internet"
is a confusing rant by a internet commentator against other internet users and commentators.
It is hard for me to pull all my thoughts together in way that sounds reasoned, because Broadrick makes broad statements, isolates a few incidents then re-projects them back onto whole groups of people.
He begins with his musing about an adolescent T.V. show from 13 years ago about nerdy gifted kids and
associates them with the "teenage boys who created the first mainstream Internet Culture." He then goes on to further define these teenagers internet culture as "...the frothing manic id of thousand teenage boys...".
Broderick then jumps six years forward to an internet that has reached a gender parity...online while "men still spend more time plugged in"... one is not connected to the other.
He further confuses the issues with the various Platforms (?) on the internet and its diverse users. Somehow he is trying to make the point that the evolution of the internet as it progressed and grew from the way people used them. Internet based college accounts grew into broader based sites. Blackberry mobile users for another group. He seems to make his arguments as if there was something wrong. Different people with different needs and different means of access would seem like it should be a good thing, yet somehow Broadrick makes it appear that different is wrong.
Then with maddening convolutions of statistics (27 million people gathered? Where? Across the world of 7 billion?) 6 million for Game of thrones? In a country of over 300 million, its not a lot.
Then there 68% of females on Instgram... ok, whats the significance? 68% of all females in the world? Or 68% of the 50.4% of the population in America? Or on smart phones? Is there a significance that 32% are not on Instagram? Really useless information, but it appears good.
He has an beef with "Gamergate" which is understandable and reasonable people will conclude it was about harassment.
One of the issues that Broadrick does not mention at all is the money being geneated by all these sites. Its as if the internet is a land of purity and innocence, when in reality it is finance driven as all businesses. (After all isn't that how Broadrick earns a living working internet commentary?
Nerds, nerdy white men, monosphere, seems Broadrick wishes to be in a virtual "safe space".
But, as Broadrick comments attest to the internet can be just as cut throat, competitive, petty as the real world. Maybe I should take a selfie with my puppy make me feel better.
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