In this thread, I want to hear about YOUR experiences with irony poisoning that has been plaguing the modern internet for more than the past decade or so.
Whether you are:
- Someone who actively participates,
- Someone who reluctantly goes along,
- Someone critical of it,
- Or someone who has been personally affected by it.
What is irony poisoning?
Irony poisoning is what happens when people use so much sarcasm, jokes, and meta humor that they can't express real thoughts or feelings without fear of being mocked. Over time, they start to self-sabotage any attempt at sincerity because they’re afraid of looking weak or out of place.
Irony poisoning creates toxic environments where anyone who tries to be genuine gets attacked, mocked, or pushed out. This constant layer of irony makes it hard for people to trust anything, leading to confusion, loneliness, and sometimes even real-life harm.
it can show up anywhere, including in extreme social and political movements. It's often used to manipulate people because constant joking and detachment makes it easier to push extreme ideas without being questioned.
While it's important to think before speaking and not share every random thought online, the way irony is overused today has created a dangerous culture where sincerity is almost impossible.
Why /www/ and not /yu/?
Because irony poisoning is not just a personal experience but a major cultural force that has reshaped internet communities and online behavior over the last decade. It is a part of internet history now, not just individual struggles.
Ways to cure irony poisoning:
- Avoid Reddit, ResetEra, Tumblr, Twitter, BlueSky, or any online platform that has a userbase that are prone and vulnerable to radical sociopolitical brainrot.
- Stop consuming media made in the 2010s or newer and instead read, watch, and listen to older media (mid 2000s and older).
-- Another hint: if the movie, game, TV show, book, or audio drama is written by millenial manchildren or younger, stop immediately and consume something else.
--- If the writing is steeped in "self-aware", meta-level ironic jokes, it is not good for you if you're poisoned in irony.
- Take a prolonged break from the internet
- Start hanging out with either older people (who are not creepy, extremely lonely freaks), or people who are not internet-addicted or are capable of showing sincere, neutral feelings.
I recently watched this video and thought it explained the effects of irony poisoning really well:
https://youtu.be/DuTwM6jB9JY?t=91 [Play]
>My brain had been so molded over time by so much postmodern wink-wink nudge-nudge storytelling that it could just not recognize sincerity. (around 3:08)
>When I was eventually met with sincerity from a major studio blockbuster, I thought this must be some sort of trick. I'm not going to offer up my heart to this trilogy because... well, I've been hurt so many times in the past. (around 10:14–10:26)
>When every film feels the need to shy away from earnest emotions or genuine stakes, a lot of problems tend to arise, problems which films with a more sincere approach would just never run into. (around 4:29–4:39)
>A movie acknowledging that it's a movie is usually referred to as breaking the fourth wall, yet I would argue that a better term would be strengthening the fourth wall. The more frequently this wall is acknowledged, the more sturdy and opaque the barrier between audience and film becomes. (around 9:32–9:42)
>The more we come to expect this ironic style of storytelling, the less we are going to want to emotionally invest in films in the first place, because what's the point if every movie is just going to make fun of itself, and make fun of you for ever thinking that it might take something seriously? (around 9:47–9:56)
Console:
X
CLEAR CONSOLE
/www/ - Internet History & Culture
Edit
>>370
Just because your brain has rotten and cannot perceive sincerity doesn't mean that is also the case for anyone born after 1980
>>371
...What?
>>372
Not him, but perhaps he is implying that there are media made after the 2000's that aren't effected by post-irony, or at least that's what i assume.
>>373
NTA, but I think that's what the second points of the cures section elaborates on. The warning signs that it is media affected with the post irony meta.
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Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins was a game that, at first, I thought was just utterly stupid after the first trailer. But as many people came to realize, it was actually 2000s PS2 style of earnest. That is not surprising when you consider the team of people from Square involved with the development, but it was all the same very much a good example of sincerity in this irony-poisoned world.
Beyond Jack and his game, I find that this irony-poisoning is particularly bad in the West, but in the East you saw it as comic-relief instead, where in a serious work such as Trigun or Rurouni Kenshi, the characters would become deformed and have some sort of very animated explosion of emotion for comedic effect. It's still present today, usually some perverted accidental instance of someone touching a boob or the like.
This sort of comedic crutch is actually my biggest issue with Berserk's use of Puck the fairy, as I feel he is at this point far too comical in a way that completely clashes with everything else.
Bringing it back to Square Enix, FFXIV suffers tremendously from attempts at counter-balancing the serious with the silly, most of all in Endwalker where a world ending threat gets juxtaposed with the silly little rabbit people and their oh so "adorable" antics that completely break the pacing of an emotionally heavy situation. It seems authors are just afraid of letting anyone actually feel sad for more than 10 minutes.
>>377
The difference between Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy, and most of the media we have made here recently, is that both Team Ninja and Square Enix made a concerted effort to keep the game sincere in its ironic, meta themes in relation to the first Final Fantasy. There was a punch, dedication, and attitude that other post-ironic media here in the west lack.
It's like when you confess to a girl in high school, and then you say half-way or close to the end of the conversation, "JUST KIDDING". That's how I feel when it comes to most western media made now.
>>370
>Avoid Reddit, ResetEra, Tumblr, Twitter, BlueSky, or any online platform that has a userbase that are prone and vulnerable to radical sociopolitical brainrot.
It's odd that you mention all of these sites but not 4chan and other imageboards, which can be regarded as the spearheading pioneers of such behavior due to how their format promotes separating one's self from their message. 4chan's social dynamics in particular actively encourages being as in inflammatory and outrageous in one's comments as possible in order to get attention, then repeating said comments over and over again until it becomes stale and you go to the next ones. Do you really believe people posting "Is coffee good for you?" are being sincere and vulnerable compared to the karma farming your find on Reddit?
This dynamic is so apparent that I often find myself confused when people claim 4chan users are more "honest". Just because you're rude and blunt doesn't mean you're telling the truth.
>>379
I think too, most people are like, reading ED or knowyourmeme and then they think: "So this is how i'm supposed to behave here?" You see it too with imageboards that adopt a "nostalga facade" where they adopt old 4chan lingo and assume it wasn't as bad back then because they read an article on Yotsuba Society. But they didn't realise the guy who made yotsuba society, Jkid was doing the typical Namefag shit where he was trying to be a super cool internet personality and fetishise the old internet without realising all the actual damage he was doing.
I understand the nature of anonymous posting means there aren't any rules, i can go and make a post on 22Chan right now that doesn't break the rules, but nudges at some grey area and pisses everyone off, but should i really? I might get a quick dopamine hit but what of substance am i gaining in the long run?
>>379
I think the major problem is that, if you were to lurk 4chan now, especially boards like /g/, /v/, and sometimes /a/ (during summer), you would have a very difficult time to discern between the platforms listed in the OP and current 4chan. Now, if you were talking about old 4chan, yes, it can be debated they were the catalyst, but the major highlights of old 4chan were often goofy and did not take itself too seriously as a major sphere of influence.