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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/nyregion/MTA-targets-mansp...

This has been a strange year. Some people that pointed out "victim culture" were demonized for it earlier this year. It's strange to see that the idea has caught on.

The 'victimhood' culture was only a very small minority of people found online that praised each other for things like being neurodivergent and handed out encouragement for not seeking medical help. It was crazy to see ideas like 'manspreading' being taken seriously outside of those (not so small after all) communities. Have they already overstayed their welcome?

The terrible part is that some legitimate complaints are being mistaken for the usual whine.

I agree with much of the article. I think social media really damaged my view on Millennials. I learned that when it came to social media people didn’t want discuss their ideas. They don’t want a connection. They want to shout out their beliefs and get a pat on the back. Criticism, even the least caustic, is generally rolled into trolling. Don’t get me wrong there’s actual trolling and real hate. I think there are people who can’t really discern between them well enough.

He’s right about shoddy work presented as a final product. I’ve seen terrible ‘art’ pawned off as brilliance. I see people making themselves into authorities without any exceptional works. There are people that want to be gatekeepers/authorities to ideas and properties without ever paying their dues. I remember growing up and thinking “How fortunate are we to live in a time in which credentials could become meaningless?” Information is free. You can learn to do anything. The problem is that there are people that bypass the learning phase and somehow gain an army of support based on very little knowledge of a subject (the food babe).

The thing that bothers me the most is that these people are surprised that they are being criticized so much. They are wildly popular; they say something that contradicts reality (often dangerously); they think that should go unpunished. Honestly I’m not sure if it’s really a trait of this generation or if it’s so apparent because social media is a huge part of our lives.

Yeh, I know my case is anecdotal. I would have loved it if the situation was reversed. A student shouldn't have to stick up for faculty.

For me this wasn't just one class this was many classes and many students. So I think that the entitlement speak is of valid concern.

I do have to say that I did get into a bit of a war with the head of the CS department. He told me to cheat on a group project in order to make him and the department look good by doing all the work myself. I did give him some choice words and yes it was that much harder for me to graduate(this was my senior project). That was the only time I ever saw the lack of morality/respect first hand among faculty.

Really, it sounds to me as though the main problem might be that these kids are coddled before they reach university and maybe have unrealistic expectations of themselves.

I think they may not have a fair assessment of their own abilities because of prior hand holding.

I haven't seen the emotional catastrophe element that this article talks about. But, I did witness the abuse of the faculty.

I saw the entitlement my generation is often accused of first hand. Many students were hostile, rude and lazy. I gained a reputation for sticking up for professors and calling my fellow students out on their behavior. In part I do blame the staff. Though maybe they couldn't gain control because their hands were tied by policy.

I think I understand what he's talking about. I do remember seeing people becoming aggressive while playing games like pong, dig dug and pinball.

Come to think of it I've seen the same kind of aggression in other play as well(Basketball, Tennis, etc).

I have to wonder if the aggression that is mentioned isn't due to violence in those games and due more to frustration?

Within context the comic in question was titled 'Mr. Robot, My Girlfriend and me'. In this case is this really a stereotype? I mean I watch a lot of geeky TV too and this sort of thing happens to me when I'm watching those shows with my girlfriend.

Also, this isn't done with the intention of malice. Shouldn't that be of some consideration?

If this is an issue then, Shouldn't we also talk about how the humor isn't just aimed at her but at the male characters in the story? Aren't the male characters (overused) stereotypical geeks? I mean on the edge of their seats over a DDOS attack? After all It's not like the Borg or weeping angels attacked.

I always thought that great art/comedy reflected real world experiences and that it was just fine for any artist express that. Is that not the case? Yes The artist can and should be critiqued but he and other creators are under no obligation to change their art or be guilted into changing their vision to suit others (subjective) tastes.

Isn't this really about branding yourself on twitter? If you talk more about diversity and gain a following based on that wouldn't your followers pay more attention that? Also we have no idea of how much overlap there is between those who are mostly interested in Technology and those that seek out Tweets about Social Justice and in/equality.

Are these two groups the same people? If not, what do her followers gain from her technical expertise?

They may have the same number followers but I doubt they have the same followers. I think the mistake here is the idea that Twitter is a single minded person and not a large collection of different people with various backgrounds and classes.

To recap:

Men tweet more often and more often about Tech. Men seem to have their tweets on tech re-tweeted more often than their tweets on diversity.

Women Tweet less often and more often about Social/Diversity issues. Women are engaged more about Social/Diversity topics.

How much do followers/re-tweeters of these two groups overlap?

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I wonder if what this really says is that people prefer to talk about subjects they are comfortable with and enjoy sharing their thoughts with people who share a predominant interest in those subjects.

(If there is very little or no overlap) I wonder if the majority of tech followers feel they have little to say or add to the talk of diversity and maybe even feel as though it isn't their place to be involved. I wonder if the Diversity followers have very little interest or knowledge about technology to engage with the author (and others) on tech topics.

Also I’m not sure this says much about the industry. How sure are we that the random people chosen by the author are representative of the industry? How would this be measured? I’m not sure this tells me anything.

I agree with you. Cheating was and probably still is very huge on my campus. Honor systems don't work and many of my professors didn't care.

Very few people talk about what it feels like not to cheat and why students do it. So here goes:

I made it through college without cheating. My university actually managed to scare me from doing so with freshmen orientation. I focused on studying and making sure I took advantage of walk-in hours and student teachers. For a while I thought everyone was doing this. Then, as weeks passed in each semester the students got more and more brazen. During my years of school I was outright asked to share my test (sometimes during a test), I was offered payment and I was made to feel ostracized when I didn’t “help”. It sucked.

The worst part came when I would meet other honors students and find out how they got their high scores. I was surprised at how many of them cheated, to what degree they would cheat and how little they knew about their course work. This is when I found that there was no incentive not to cheat. Honors students got scholarships and were often given some very good internship opportunities.

Why would anyone not cheat? No one cares if you do. You’ll have an easier time. It doesn’t hurt your career. It also does wonders for your social life. My final two years I pretended to have low scores on tests so as not to be asked to help cheat. I kept my grades a secret and would often not look at graded papers in class. I stopped talking about any of my classes with anyone that was in my major.

Let's not forget many businesses have a dress code that doesn't allow for shorts and sandals or any summer comfortable clothing for men. The dress code for women is normally conducive to hot weather. Sometimes I feel sorry for upper management in wool suits in 90 degree weather, and then I remember how much they’re paid.

Why don’t we talk about that? It should be a part of the discussion. If we’re all allowed to wear lighter clothing in summer would that raise the temperature in offices??

Actually I think it's very natural. If not femenism and journalistic ethics it would be communism and witchcraft. This is what people do. We form teams. We are 'us' they are 'them'.

What I've noticed from this latest battle is that once it get's off the internet and is talked about in normal venues it just fails. Outside of Twitter and Tumbler no one seems to care either way.

You know I really like your ideas here. Once a while ago I told people to leave twitter for the same reasons. It's pretty much a cesspool and doesn't foster worthwhile communication or in depth discussion. I’ve since looked at all social media through this lens. I know it’s bleak. I won’t deny that.

I was actually reading a comment on Reddit that basically complained that Reddit didn’t foster a sense of community. The main complaint was that there was less emphasis on who was talking rather than what they were saying. I thought, well isn’t that backwards? Don’t want we want the free flow of ideas without being tainted by comments like ‘that guy is believes this or that, so his contributions are irrelevant’?

I think you’re right. Let it burn. Just walk away.

Still I sort of wish there was someone studying the cultures that grow in these places. I find the inside jokes and relationships (even on Reddit) between the users, mods, and admins to be very interesting. I think that kind of study could help us understand how we communicate on social media. We could use a Jane Goodall of internet social media communities.

Well let's deconstruct my comment:

1: I don't get why they would bar him from campus.

   -Unless the councilor thought that he was also a danger to others.

I’m saying that I agree but that maybe they (erroneously) saw something more than depression or something different from your situation. Given that what exactly is the issue?

I don't understand that part either. I wonder if the councilor saw a potential to not only harm himself but others and that's why it was included. I can understand the school not wanting to be the next stage for another tragedy similar to Virginia Tech.

And had they not dismissed him and he continued on and something to that effect were to happen would we not see stories about friends and families of victims asking about why they would have allowed an obviously deeply disturbed person to remain on campus?

Maybe the counselor thought (erroneously?) this particular problem was too big to handle?

I recently worked for a company that expected employees to stay well pass 5pm. I was personally working 13 or 14 hours a day and having to occasionally volunteer my time on weekends. My salary in comparison to hours worked went down significantly.

Anyway, I did what most of the men described in the article did. I learned how to work without working. It was easy to copy the kind of workaholic appearance expressed by many of my peers.

The strange thing was that most everyone was pretending. Everyone was just lying. It was like there was some secret unwritten rule that we should pretend instead of talking about the obvious elephant in the room. Which was that we were asked too much of us and that needed to change.

When I was first starting out (way before I took that job) I was told that the idea is to "manage perception" and that appears to be true of a few places.

Does this really seem like the best way to handle these things? Would the author still praise this as clever if this bot swarm was pointed in the opposite direction?

I think the real answer is to leave twitter. If twitter is unsafe then it's the product that's unsafe and if that's the case vote with your clicks and leave for something else. I wouldn't eat ketchup if it harassed me.

Sure, speak out about the harassment and get the authorities involved if you feel threatened but don't praise that same behavior once directed elsewhere. This isn’t what winning looks like.

I don't get it. Call them out. I hated dealing with the cheating at my school. I hated that their GPA got them the same considerations as mine.

The worst part was the lazy faculty that did nothing. I built a bit of a reputation around publically reprimanding students in class when they acted like brats. This was not my job and it alienated me from much of the of the student body.

Unfortunately I had to do it because my class would have never moved forward. So I guess it's not just my school? Professors have lost control all over and simple things like cheating have some kind of grey area?

FYI: Mostly Americans at my school.