[sellouteater]

my chezzy essay for school

Sonic Life and the New Culture of a Forum
The Internet can be as boring as you would like it. For way too long, I was satisfied with the repetitive garbage that was so accessible and user-friendly. I had slow dialup Internet connection in my room. The pages I went to were similar to the shows on the television. They were mediocre, biased, and designed to make money. Until the day I accidentally stumbled upon the forum that changed my life.
I remember paying an everyday visit to Google. I innocently typed in Sonic Youth and pressed the enter button. Where it brought me was anywhere but innocent. The page I ended up on was the band Sonic Youth’s website. The site had several options at the top of the page, and the background for the links was an early picture of the band. The page layout was put together tastefully to match the band’s artistic image. Next to Kim Gordon’s nose was a link that was entitled "gossip." Right away it grabbed my attention, and I did what any other human being would do. I pressed down my finger and heard the click of the mouse.
"Mixtapes Vol 3" was the first thread in a long list of topics. I found myself in a golden blue forum. The list of topics went from the top to the bottom of the page. There was a variety of topics, but I didn’t bother to read over them. I went straight to the register button. After I had filled out the information, I looked around until I found the spot to post your own thread. I titled it "Sonic Youth are Awesome." After typing in a little tidbit about how I love Sonic Youth, I clicked on "post". I left my computer, looking forward to the replies to my post.
The next afternoon I decided to check out my post to see if anyone had replied. To my surprise the page showed that I had received twelve comments. Giddily, I opened the page to see the replies. The first response read, "Your miserable excuse of a post is an embarrassment to all of us. I would suggest you crawl back in your hole and die, thanks in advance." Instantly I was shocked, confused, and some other emotion that might not have been discovered until that exact moment. What was wrong with my post? All I said was that I like Sonic Youth. Wasn’t this a Sonic Youth fan forum? The other replies were similar to the first one. It seemed everyone agreed that I was a naïve idiot lost on the wrong side of the internet tracks. Despite all the insults there was something mystical about the forum. I couldn’t put my finger on what, but I knew I would be back again.
Once again I was eagerly typing in the address, but this time I wasn’t going on to see what people had say about me, but to try to decipher this new and unusual place. After searching for few minutes, I found a thread that I could understand well enough. To this day I can still remember it’s title, "Reassessing Zen Arcade". Basically, it was all about the way the album Zen Arcade sounds after listening to it over and over. After reading every last reply I had enough courage to add my own two cents. With shaky hands, I typed in a well thought out and organized contribution. "Zen Arcade’s sound becomes more organized in your mind after you begin to remember when the changes are coming. And it seems to me that they only get better from there. Listening to it more than once is a must". I waited with my fingers crossed for another reply. There were no insults or threats just a reply of agreement from another member. From that moment on I knew I could figure this place out.
Three years and over one thousand post later, I’m still trying to adapt to this ever changing subversive culture. The Sonic Youth fan forum showed me a whole different set of opinions. It showed that there is still an untamed frontier right in my own living room. I learned the jargon and proper etiquette. Most people don’t expect to learn much from an online forum and either did I. I was dead wrong.