Wow, really makes you think. I'm glad there's still a webcomic out there for intelligent readers

Wow, really makes you think. I'm glad there's still a webcomic out there for intelligent readers.

Other urls found in this thread:

goatkcd.com/random/
explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1601:_Isolation
twitter.com/AnonBabble

I just want you to know I'm glad your thread failed

>the complains are the same, so that means the effects the technology have will be too!

This has got to be a fallacy.

What if it's been more than two centuries? What if there's something he forgot to mention further off the left side of the page?

its the "COME ON IT'S 2016" fallacy

The pony tail and lazy boy existed in the mid 19th century?

Thing is, the smartphone is the only one of those that can actually replace (partially) actual social interaction. Also >IT'S CURRENT_YEAR PEOPLE I MEAN, LIKE, COME ON, LIKE, UGH I JUST CAN'T, I LITERALLY CAN'T.

Men stopped wearing ponytails in the early 19th century and women didn't start wearing them until like the mid-20th century

so no

1, 2, 3, and 5 never happened. No one complained about books or magazines. And people weren't complaining about isolation from Walkmans, they were complaining that idiots weren't watching the world around them and walking into fucking traffic. Plus 4 is a shit argument, even moreso since studies have shown a massive increase in obesity since the rise of TV. 6 isn't even the complaint being made. People are complaining that millennials won't stay OFF their phones for longer than 15 minutes. No one is complaining that they aren't being engaged by annoying millennials, most are happy with that outcome.

I see XKCD has given up on trying to seem intelligent, and is now just resorting to strawman arguments. Sad.

early 20th*

>No one complained about books or magazines.
They did though
>obesity since the rise of TV
no. the rise in obesity came with the internet (and, y'know, ritalin). people were ACTIVE while watching tv, but you have to sit in place to type.

>I see XKCD has given up on trying to seem intelligent, and is now just resorting to strawman arguments.

XKCD was always a circlejerk of fedora-tipping STEM faggots.

This is not a hobby. This is not anything close to what a hobby is. This ruins the credibility and potential humor of re-using the "My hobby" label on this. Why couldn't it just be label just be "Something I did as a prank:"?

Technically the first panel should be Plato bitching about how literacy will destroy humanity's capability to remember things.

It doesn't even make sense. Do they know how pokemon go works?

>he sees the Pokemon on the ground first, THEN checks his phone

...huh. That is pretty stupid.

Frankly while smartphones have more morphed than destroyed social communication, they've absolutely fucked any chance I had of making relationships with normies as a total autist.

Just when I got the hang of "It's small talk, people don't really care that you asked how their day was but it relaxes them that you're not a serial killer for standing in the room saying nothing for half an hour and provides hooks to other conversation" people started posting how their day went on Twitter and feel miffed that I didn't follow that and instead asked them. Nobody cares how your day was. I care about avoiding awkward silences.

Which is to say nothing of the effect it's had on the culture of autism hives online. There is nowhere I can be at peace, but it's too late for me to go out and befriend normies too because they're all online as well.

Not to mention that the arguments being presented are NOT fungible. "Nobody looks at the world anymore!" and "Television is destroying family communication!" are two different arguments. One is about experience and the other communication.

Is this supposed to be a joke because it's so convoluted all I feel is second hand embarassment for randy for writing something like this

I have a friend in japan who messes with people who play pokemon go by switching up her bike gears when in parks, peddling real fast and looking at her phone when she notices someone playing the game and then zooming past them.

I'm not surprised Randy doesn't understand that to properly fuck with pokemon go players you can't build stupid toys or put his oh so very important higher education to use, you need basic understanding of human psychology and a piece of transportation that also serves as a prop for your prank so you can avoid interaction with your quarry.

If nothing else over the years Randy has displayed complete and utter contempt for other human viewpoints in his comic and all I can think is that the dude was really crap at small talk and normal social interaction since he seems more interested in selling himself as intelligent and interesting than telling a joke.

Oh yes they did.

Since the thread is up, I'm just gonna post the two XKCD comics I find particularly aggravating,.

>Actual person: Hey, some loser kid left their pokemon toy laying around. Mine now!

...

>I'm too much of a bitch to confront someone who shit talks my friends when they're not around
>alternatively I'm not comfortable enough with myself to admit that like everyone else I have a petty side and shit talking people who aren't around is normal social interaction even if it is kind of a shitty thing to do

can normal people do this
can you just randomly join a conversation

wouldn't that just weird people out

I've actually wondered this.

I had a beer a month ago and it tasted horrible. I don't get why it's so popular. I just figured it was either just me, or if everyone is just "taught" to like beer because that's what society says you should do.

Really makes you think.

>I have never experimented with drinking alcoholic beverages and have no knowledge of the rather expansive history of beer and human civilization
>I probably don't know any useful tricks like making cheap wine taste better with the application of a little fruit juice

It's fine, they're VERY quirky.

Like any addictive substance, you have to drink it for a while until it becomes indispensable

>or if everyone is just "taught" to like beer because that's what society says you should do.

I'm personally of the opinion that this is the case, but I'm not a humongous faggot about it. Also, some brews are better than others.

People will deny it, but anything you have to 'acquire' a taste for actually doesn't taste good.

Just because you have convinced yourself you are refined for enjoying such things, doesn't mean you are.

I agree with the point it's making only beer I can drink is bud, and that's because I can't really taste anything at all. I don't like the way he makes it.

I think most beer's probably horrible, at least until you're in your 30s or so (your tastes may change or whatever. apparently the same is true for wine)

However beer seems to make me less hung-over than mixed drinks and also seems slightly more socially acceptable in a casual "I need alcohol to relax and talk to you, but I want to appear casual instead of borderline dependent" way, so it does have some advantages over less awful tasting things.

what kind? If it's mass marketed beer it usually tastes like crap. More expensive ones taste better, homebrewed ones taste the best. The primary point of beer in the modern sense is getting drunk.

Historically drinking water was unsafe but the alcohol content of beer kept harmful substances from thriving in it and the relatively low alcohol content made it possible to drink without becoming intoxicated too quickly.

I like coffee and tea, I drink the former black and take the latter with honey. Plenty of people drink tea without sugar. Why does the notion of people acquiring a taste for beer puzzle you so much?

Might as well ask if anyone actually enjoys Dark Souls because you can't git gud

Mix of both. Going out and chugging my first beers tasted pretty terrible, and made me queasy. I used to drink ciders in between, which I can't stand nowadays.

Anyhow, tastes change - it grows on you, and proper beers can be pretty great.

he's right
anybody who drinks alcohol for the taste or in general should be stoned in public

But we don't live in the Republic of Indians, we live in America.

Those savages lost, no one complains that most of Europe doesn't speak Roman. They lost the land, they have no right to complain.

>it grows on you

translation: if you ingest enough of it, you'll learn to love the taste of shit in your mouth

Yea, but, White People, amirite?

social context varies. If I'm at work and people are on break I can walk up to guys sipping their coffee or whatever and say 'what's up' and we can chat for the next five minutes but it's a very relaxed atmosphere.

context is important.

you've only had one beer?

That's a very hard line you're drawing there, for no real reason.

I mean, I hated cheese as a kid, now I think it's fine. There are things I hate that I got used to and now love, acquired tastes and all that. I frankly don't care if beer is one of them, why are you so autistic about this one specific thing?

It's a shame people approach this on a national level.

Further steps should be taken to cement English as an *international* language, if we're going to do so at all. It's already the language of aviation and large parts of business, for example.

even as I type this I have my doubts whether I really want this since it would be another advantage on my part against people who'll work far cheaper removed. "Speaks English" is about all I have going for me.

Large amounts of complained about every single thing that ever happened in human history.

"UNGA BUNGA ROCKSTOP" isn't just a meme, you know.

What the fuck? Have a can of shitty Keystone or BudLite and then have a Shiner Bock and tell me they taste the same.

Of course shitty beer tastes the same, Bud and Coors and all that garbage is watered down to be cheap so fratboys can buy it in bulk.

Is he legitimately autistic?
People like things you don't holy shit!

>Guys what are jokes?

Stop drinking swill
Stuff like corona, Budweiser,miller,papst,etc is terrible and people only drink it because it's cheap, experiment with some microbrews or ask a bartender/brewmaster to recommend you something.

Alcholic beverages are an acquired taste because they don't really taste like anything else but they do go great with certain foods.

>People will deny it, but anything you have to 'acquire' a taste for actually doesn't taste good.
I guess everything that isn't candy doesn't taste good then.
Everything is an acquired taste.

a foreign concept to Randy Pitchford

The creator of XKCD is generally optimistic about the future. This makes him morally suspect and untrustworthy as far as I'm concerned.

Hardly anyone speaks cherokee and historically it was only ever spoken in a specific part of the country, you may as well say the national language of everywhere in the west should be latin since the romans used to rule there.

I didn't like vegetables as a kid, but that doesn't mean that every adult who enjoys a salad is living a lie.

goatkcd.com/random/

it's weird how often these actually REALLY work

Thanks for reminding me user, I still have some Shiner in the fridge.

Plato complained about people writing shit down, people complained about books being mass produced, people complained that books were too elitist during the early modernist period and then complained that books were being catered to the lowest common denominator ('best seller' used to be a derogatory term).

Just because something seems stupid to you doesn't mean that hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, people weren't just as retarded as they are now.

I know we all hate XKCD but bash this one, I dare you.

ITT: Sup Forums tries to out circlejerk Sup Forums, both still unable to be as circlejerky as /asp/

I don't really know what you're trying to prove by calling hating on a bad comic a circlejerk

>used
I've got news for you.

he has moments of genuine insight fairly regularly

makes the fact that they're usually so stupid even worse, though, in a way

best sellers only advertise their best-selling status because they have no other merits

Deny, deny my friend, makes the circlejerk jerk round.

I think he means that it's like going to Sup Forums and make a thread about le ess jay dobyoos or about le trump or shillary, it's obvious what kind of response you will get. Preaching to the choir.

Why?

>because our countrymen wrested control of the land from natives hundreds of years ago, we shouldn't designate our nation's current most spoken language as the national standard for our country in the modern day
>language is the gateway to culture, and not learning the language if you live here tends to limit you to remaining in isolated communities based around your origin nation, where others will speak your language and congregate for community and support
>this makes integrating with the exiating citizens difficult, reducing your economic opportunities, makes it harder to deal with educational, medical or legal systems if they don't have an interpreter or accomodations, and remaining "outsiders" to the rest of the nation

Yeah, lets fuck the current immigrants over so we can mock other whites for something the current generation had no part or say in!

Back to with your shitty meme

It just further reinforces that the author is an autistic spaz who sucks at relating to people if he actually thinks most people think this way.

>people were ACTIVE while watching tv
Does that explain why the term "couch potato" was coined in 2002?

We've been on a downward track for 15 years. Things are clearly getting harder, and I find the values of modern man absurd, hypocritical and self-contradictory.

Then I see XKCD comics about how things are fine. Everything is fine. People are fine. Society is fine, and if you're not on-board with the direction civilization is headed, well then there's the door.

He's basically the "This is fine" dog.

even the "This is fine" dog isn't the "This is fine" dog anymore

explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1601:_Isolation

Look at this sheeple.

>the COOL people sit on the ground, wear berets, and talk about quirky things like giant squids

I know, it's the ultimate irony. Even the symbol of casual obliviousness has broken character. Meanwhile... XKCD continues to tout the "EVERYTHING IS FINE! DO NOT WORRY!" line.

I mean, here's the ALT text for THIS comic.

"People aren't going to change, for better or for worse. Technology's going to be so cool. All in all, the future will be okay! Except climate; we fucked that one up."

Well, those kind of people exist. I wouldn't say they're cool, but they do exist.

This is some next level 'tism.

Have you even watched a TV? Sit down to a few episodes of The Simpsons and educate yourself.

some beers do taste better than others but in general they're still all kinda gross

i get weird looks for saying i only drink beer to get inebriated but i don't drink it for the taste

>kids in this thread don't like beer

As you get older, you start to like diifferent tastes. I didn't used to like balsamic vinegar dressing or dijon mustard, but now I do. And I can barely drink a whole soda can now.

i am optimistic but for some reason i just get mad at him

There's nothing wrong with optimism really.
Human technology will probably reach amazing places sooner than any of us think.
The XKCD guy just has an obnoxious tone

Is it because of the implication that anyone whose views are not in sync with the majority is a social leper who is to be expelled from polite society where they may wander the desert wastes yelling at clouds?

beer tastes bad but we're still gonna drink it

>There's nothing wrong with optimism really.
>Human technology will probably reach amazing places sooner than any of us think.

What does that have to do with anything? We have the technology to solve all of our problems right now. Like, right now.

Clearly the roots of the problem lie deeper.

>What does that have to do with anything? We have the technology to solve all of our problems right now. Like, right now.
No we really don't
We have the technology to fix most, not even all, basic needs for the average human
But we don't have the technology to fix all problems

Unless we run out of oil without properly preparing an alternative. Then we're all fucked.

I dunno, he's not terribly far off from the truth. Technological process is linear, but societal progress is generally cyclical, more or less. Acting like everything is getting worse is kind of silly, but acting like society doesn't periodically have declining phases is equally retarded.

I prefer Pax Dickinson's version of this.

I'd say he comes across as disingenuous. Just kind of a snarky dick for someone with nothing but progress and hope in mind

it's fun reading about 60s america and 30s germany rn

this strip always reminds me of this

actually this comic ruined the phrase "showing you the door" for me

>le hitler maymay

>le "conquest is the same as immigration" meme

to be fair isn't it in a sense? Are obnoxious enabling liberals and nonassimilating immigrants protected by the same "fuck you I won" mentality as conquistadors?

I'd say we're more at a 1968 point than we are 1933. The country is highly divided, we've seen a massive uptick in political and racial tension, and there's even been outbursts of violence. The progressive base of the left has radicalized and become even more demanding of an establishment that doesn't want to cater to it. Meanwhile, the right is causing a massive political realignment by appealing to traditionally democratic groups via capitalizing on their discontent with the current state of the nation. Likewise, the antagonistic relationship between the right and the American press has reached a fever point, with press outlets acting as de facto PR people for the left.

If you're getting upset user, I'd like to remind you that Nixon was a much better president than history makes him out to be:

>Brought forth detente and cold war deescalation
>Put an end to the Vietnam war
>Founded the EPA
>Pulled off the Miracle of Chile

MEMES IN 2016 LUL

>in 2002

Half of me hopes that was meant to be the joke, the other half is cynical enough to risk ruining the joke by questioning it.

I hate this comic and the message it preaches so I'm going to trivialize it by saying "Really makes you think" despite the fact that it actually brings up a good point, even if it isnt exactly original.

the right is devouring its own tail before our eyes

It's because people who believe in "Progress" can't imagine that someone might have a rational disagreement with them. As far as they're concerned, there are only progressives and reactionaries.

And if you're not a one of them (i.e. a progressive) well then you must be a retrograde reactionary.