“Special Interests” and Negativity

Easily one of the best parts of my atypical brain is its ability to dive deeply into subjects I find interesting. Throughout my life these subjects have been quite varied, with music, movies, art, history, and games all sucking me in at some point in my life.

With the internet it's always been quite easy for me to find stuff to read or watch about what I like. This allowed me to have a pretty in-depth knowledge about a lot of things.

Then, something changed. A change that started happening subtly but that's now pretty hard to ignore. People used to gather online in communities centered about things they liked. They'd be similarly excited about similar things, and discussing those things would usually be a joy.

Now it seems like people only go out of their way if it's to talk about things they hate. Communities centered around something remotely popular are gonna be filled with people complaining and pointing out every single flaw about it.

Why is that? I'm not sure. Maybe because people are so angry all the time? Digital drugs (a.k.a. social media) monetize your anger, so we're naturally more angry if we don't actively fight against it.

It's just something I realized and that made me stop and think about how I approach my interests now. If something brings me joy and I want to keep things that way, then it's just better to avoid online communities about that interest altogether. It just sucks that enjoying something with others is getting increasingly hard.