I haven't been particularly active on any social media for a while. It wasn't an intentional decision on my part as much as finding my social community using those tools less and less.
But I remember the early days of MySpace and Facebook with a certain nostalgia, and I'm pained to see the current state of all these tools. Such a thorough report as this gives me a little hope that perhaps an acceptable middle ground can be found for Internet communities at large scales.
I don't think I'll be hopping back in any time soon, but perhaps the research and positive advancements in social media aren't over yet.
Although I have very little experience with British humor, I find it interesting to compare British fiction I read as a child/teenager that became popular hits in the US (Harry Potter, Alex Rider). From this article's perspective, those protagonists are the epitome of American heroes (autonomy, mastery, purpose). No wonder they garnered such acclaim in the US. Curious if these stories are the exception rather than the rule in British YA fiction? Is the comparison unfair, since these stories were not written with the comedic genre in mind?
At least in the case of Harry Potter specifically, there's actually a few things that contributed to its success outside of it having a traditionally successful Real American Hero™.
First off, we need to remember that it was cribbing from a lot of other "kid goes to magic boarding school" books out there. The difference in sales success is down to the fact that JKR got a better US publisher. Scholastic has an unfair advantage in the young adult and graded reader markets called the "Scholastic Book Fair". Basically, it's a travelling bookstore event set up in US schools where they sell kids books. If you wanted to start a YA phenomenon in the US, especially back in the 2000s, that was the perfect way to do it.
For similar reasons, Bone outsold a good chunk of other western comics purely because of the fact that Scholastic was the only company willing to touch it.
Another factor is that its obvious Britishisms come across as fantastical to American audiences. I mean, who in America even knows what a boarding school is? This is the same reason why Naruto did so well in America, even though most of the things that seem unique about its world are just fantastic versions of bog-standard ninja tropes.
[0] This is the same reason why Naruto arguably did better in America than in its native Japan.
What i find in dr who is that, at least at the beginning of every episode he doesn't even attempt to control what's happening even when his life is threatened. He's perfectly happy to let events unfold before stepping in.
And he hates using guns. He walks into danger with zero ability to defend himself besides some weird tool with painful limitations. In a way he's the most un American hero possible.
> And he hates using guns. He walks into danger with zero ability to defend himself besides some weird tool with painful limitations. In a way he's the most un American hero possible.
I mean, that description works almost as well for MacGyver as for The Doctor, so I am not sure it is the most un-American hero possible.
1.21 gigawatts? Do you have any idea how much energy that is? The only power source capable triggering that kind of energy is a bolt of lightning. It would have to be a real wall-shaker, big enough to stop a clock!
(I mean this as purely a bit of comic relief. Texas is in dire straits right now, and I wish the people and infrastructure all the best in this time.)
Although the "scoped" chat feature is only an ancillary addition to the larger idea, it is something I've felt is much-needed in the experience of not just Minecraft, but multiplayer games in general. Imagine how much more intense a capture-the-flag style strategy game would be if you could only hear your teammates' voices when your in-game character was within in-game shouting distance. Going further, one could explore the capabilities of surround-sound headsets that could "project" your teammates' voices into your ears from the direction they are standing relative to you in-game.
We are all so excited about the recent progress in visual virtual reality, but the untapped potential in our auditory VR experience (especially in a social sense) is worth reckoning.
But I remember the early days of MySpace and Facebook with a certain nostalgia, and I'm pained to see the current state of all these tools. Such a thorough report as this gives me a little hope that perhaps an acceptable middle ground can be found for Internet communities at large scales.
I don't think I'll be hopping back in any time soon, but perhaps the research and positive advancements in social media aren't over yet.
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