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I'm not sure where I first picked up on this craze myself. Maybe it was when I was grimly scrolling through the profiles of my old classmates at some dreadful hour; maybe it was when I found myself looking on the Facebook pages of people who'd recently been convicted of violent crimes; maybe it was on Sarah "the most normal person on Earth" Harding's Twitter. Or maybe they're just absolutely everywhere, unavoidable if you spend even ten minutes a day on social media.This shareable negativity is a phenomenon that is yet to be named. It's not a content format used by the big new media publishers. It's not something obviously monetized. But it is something pervasive and instantly recognizable, with most of the images in this pandemic of self-seriousness sharing one thing: portentous quotes attributed to no one; words of wisdom that come from nowhere; mottos that nobody has ever stood by.READ ON THUMP: Digging for Creators: When the Search for a Track ID Becomes a Life Changing Mission
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Of course, you could see all this as a bit of fun—catharsis, a way of lashing out at the people who fuck us over in our everyday lives. However, the kind of language you see here doesn't just manifest itself in these silly little pictures, but in the way some of us now talk to each other online. I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen distant acquaintances and old school friends post statuses like "some days you find out who ur real friends are," "nice to know who's there for you and who's not!" and the occasional more flagrant "dirty little bitch."READ On VICE Sports: The Prolific Upsetting History of Humans Boxing Kangaroos
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