It’s interesting how somehow it seems that the choice(?) to pursue video games as a preteen now affects nearly all media I consume. I’m like 90% on boy internet and I don’t really want to be here at all? I’m on boy youtube, boy twitch, definitely would have been on boy twitter/instagram/tiktok if I had those…
It takes such a conscious effort to even encounter media outside that realm and I never opted for it to be like that. I want to have a broader media palette or at least have the option to watch something different sometimes but the algorithms just won’t let you??? Plus it’s such a big investment to really get into something completely different that it just seems like such a hurdle.
I’ve been trying my best though, so hopefully youtube will catch up to my actual interests at some point.
I would hope we don’t slot neatly into boy or girl internet (altho some of our communities may be more boy/girl), but I can understand the frustration. Do you have any friends who are deeply into girl internet who can help you understand how they interact with the internet? Seeing what sites they go to and how they navigate info on those sites can help you to find yourself spending more time on girl internet than boy internet. I think platforms are a huge part of it, but you do need to train these algorithms to send you the content you like on these platforms (especially if we’re talking something like tiktok or ig reels).
A lot of what’s discussed in this article is about platform saturation and how people were interacting with various platforms. For example, even within the larger platforms like Reddit which are primarily a slice of boy internet, there’s absolutely girl internet spaces within it - such as fashion and makeup subs (the same is true in the other direction as well- boy spaces on girl internet, a reflection of the messiness of these kinds of categorization). So if you want to stick to the platforms you’re already using, you might want to ask questions on the platform to find the same answers as above if you don’t have friends who are deeply in girl internet.
It’s interesting how somehow it seems that the choice(?) to pursue video games as a preteen now affects nearly all media I consume. I’m like 90% on boy internet and I don’t really want to be here at all? I’m on boy youtube, boy twitch, definitely would have been on boy twitter/instagram/tiktok if I had those…
It takes such a conscious effort to even encounter media outside that realm and I never opted for it to be like that. I want to have a broader media palette or at least have the option to watch something different sometimes but the algorithms just won’t let you??? Plus it’s such a big investment to really get into something completely different that it just seems like such a hurdle.
I’ve been trying my best though, so hopefully youtube will catch up to my actual interests at some point.
I would hope we don’t slot neatly into boy or girl internet (altho some of our communities may be more boy/girl), but I can understand the frustration. Do you have any friends who are deeply into girl internet who can help you understand how they interact with the internet? Seeing what sites they go to and how they navigate info on those sites can help you to find yourself spending more time on girl internet than boy internet. I think platforms are a huge part of it, but you do need to train these algorithms to send you the content you like on these platforms (especially if we’re talking something like tiktok or ig reels).
A lot of what’s discussed in this article is about platform saturation and how people were interacting with various platforms. For example, even within the larger platforms like Reddit which are primarily a slice of boy internet, there’s absolutely girl internet spaces within it - such as fashion and makeup subs (the same is true in the other direction as well- boy spaces on girl internet, a reflection of the messiness of these kinds of categorization). So if you want to stick to the platforms you’re already using, you might want to ask questions on the platform to find the same answers as above if you don’t have friends who are deeply in girl internet.