Hacker News Reader

Comment by kaycebasques | Hacker News Reader

What's most interesting to me is how emo so many of the messages are. There's nothing overt in the website instructions prompting people to be angsty. gostsamo says the website was popular at the start of the pandemic which I guess could explain the angst. But I wonder if there's something deeper going on here. Because doesn't this feel like the sentiment of the earlier web? Is there something in the website design and the anonymity that prompts people to be more angsty? Or is the world just overwhelmingly angsty and we never have an outlet for those emotions?

View on HN

> I’ll be gone soon, and that’s okay. > Until then, let me know how you’re doing. > It’s been a rough few months. > Feeling down?

I think the website is quite emo

The name reminded me of a domain I registered as a teenager, everythingwilldestroyitself.net

I was pretty angsty at the time.

Yeah on second read I don't know what the hell I was talking about. The website copy is super emo and is totally prompting everyone to be angsty.

I want this exact same experience but without the angsty prompting.

You don't seem to understand the meaning of the words "angst" or "emo", at least not going by the couple of messages I clicked through on the site.

"It’s been rough. I’m trying to help my husband work through his mental illness. I love him but some days I feel like he takes it out on me a bit with his moods. I know it will get better when he starts counseling next week but right now it is tough. My job is very stressful and I go back next week after two weeks of medical leave to remove an organ and benign tumor. Hoping for sunnier days ahead."

Of course I wouldn't describe major challenges like the one you quoted as angst or emo. The "respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize" reaction to my message would have been to assume that the majority of messages that I saw did indeed fit the generally understood definitions of angst/emo. Obviously the difference here is that the messages that we see are randomized so of course I saw different messages than you did. And for the record I read messages for about 30 minutes today.

Anonymity allow people to put down the mask they wear everyday.

Sometimes it's sadness, sometimes it's anger.

Could it be an inherent bias of the sample of people visiting the website ?

I wouldn't find it hard to believe that high internet usage could correlate with depression.

Maybe because a sedentary lifestyle can hurt mental health, and the more internet one uses, the more it tends to be a sedentary person?

Don't all anonymous post platforms work out this way? The messages are very reminiscent of the PostSecret era

I would love for someone to listen to me.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com