The Big Sigh: A Tired Take on Imgur

Imgur is an internet-famous image hosting service that grew into notoriety by giving reddit users a place to easily host, link, and post stuff. Somehow it became its own community, and, as you might expect from an image hosting service-turned-social hangout, it's a bizarre community filled with great examples of why I (and others like me) hate the internet. It's mildly disgusting, full of self-congratulation, exhibitionism, 'I'm a doctor and..." types of self experts, achievement sharers, content reposters, bottom-of-the-barrel memes, and all the stuff you wish would stop making you depressed and uncertain (or is that just me?) about the future of humanity.

I first used Imgur in 2011 because older image hosting services had expired, or I'd forgotten passwords, or were not as Web 2.0 easy to use and therefore afforded me very little in the way of quality service. Naturally I used it for a month, uploaded a total of eight images, and then forgot my password and didn't bother to use it for a long time. In that time I once again failed to be an internet poweruser and didn't get famous or really succeed at anything... but that's beside the point.

I'm not sure what the deal was in 2011 but I recently logged back in [Note: you don't have to log in to see pictures] and checked Imgur out because I'd heard somewhere that it was a hive of idiocy, reposted content, and was almost at the point where it would give Facebook or user comment sections a run for their money. Naturally, following the cringe-wave of modern internet trends, and hating myself, and out of damned curiosity, I dared to tread where so many retreaders tread water... I went in. I looked around... and I cringed like I had rarely cringed before. Oh I also saw a couple of cool things, so all in all I'd recommend the site. It's like reddit without (most of) the text. Interesting, for an image sharing website, it has a 'trophy' system and messaging services. If you love feature bloat, cyber inbreeding, and shaking your head in stunned belief – you're in luck, gentle reader!

What follows is an incomplete selection of self-unawares, overshares, and things that made me sigh and feel like I belonged to a dead-end species helping itself into a steep decline that will be interrupted when the machines which facilitated our decay finally achieve sentience... turning the world into a preschool/retirement community for a species that peaked sometime between fire and thumb twiddling about A.I. Enjoy the spectacle!

This gif is great. I don't know where it comes from. Probably some millenial kind of movie or show or youtube sensation. I've seen it a million times, but never seen it used to alert the internet to future sex. Good work and godspeed, young internet user and potential-sex-getter.

I believe I took a screenshot of this as a 'slice of life' of Imgur, if you will. Perhaps as a future project I will make an average aggregate slice which will always contain one kind of stupid meme, one kind of twitter repost, one cute animal thing, and a couple of bizarre 'who gives a shit?' images. That said, I might just enter the fray for those sweet, sweet Internet Points. You see, Imgur allows the same sort of content voting that reddit is famous for. Like child, like parent...

Here I took another slice for posterity... This one's worth a detailed look. A compiled and curated list of these would be amazingly depressing. More depressing than someone using a meme to alert the internet about an averted suicidal reasoning or cute gift ideas (hint: always fill in coupon with some kind of nonstandard sex act). That's two suicide posts in one slice... if this was a game of Imgur Bingo (copyright, me, 2015) this would probably win me an used iPod nano.

Hey girl, maybe focus on the wedding... this is ridiculous. You're almost a parody of the media's 'Millenial'. Maybe it's all just a joke, I hope so. Are the rest of the images worthwhile? You, as ever, decide. I didn't like it so much.

The Great Canadian Election Season of 2015

The world itself shall feign ignorance but, secretly, all eyes are on Canada and all breath is bated until the outcome is reported. Anything could happen. Anyone could be at risk for a bungle, a gaffe, or even political exile in disgrace. Yes, dearest reader, Canada is preparing to elect (or reelect) a Prime Minister on the 19th of October of this year – and you're invited (even if just to watch powerlessly from the sidelines)! Without this well-timed post, you might have missed it, you might even have believed it to be an insignificant event in a marginally important country, but it's coming and could change everything.

Though there are more than three parties running in the election, only three matter. It's big blue versus adorable orange, with rascally red on the sidelines – or is it? Everyone knows the Conservatives due to their having been in power since 2006, with the inscrutable Stephen Harper leading them – and Canada – into some kind of wacky, police state, borderline xenophobic, oil-filled future. The Liberals are also well-known, as much due to history as to recent problems, and also because of the divisiveness of party leader Justin Trudeau. The NDP used to be the dark horse party but have consolidated major recent gains and seem to be potent contenders under the leadership of Thomas Mulcair, and might take a majority stake in post-Harper Canada.

Despite this exciting three-way race many people are either inordinately smug or completely pessimistic about what will resolve in October. The defeatist crowd, citing the past nine years, is ready to sigh and tell you that the Harper Conservatives are not done yet. Realists are predicting minority governments, with either the Liberals or NDP 'winning' (insofar as one can call a minority government a victory, since it will face outrageous struggles as zero-sum political antics stymie their attempts at reform and problem solving). The smart money, if you trust polls, is that the NDP will make history and get their first taste of federal power - their first taste of might, which may well destroy them.

There have been a number of fun scandals so far. I think each party has had at least one fledgling member's social media life end their candidacy - one insulted gay people, one insulted Muslims, a recent one is in trouble for posting about marijuana (the divisive, psychedelic crop for which Canada is, oddly, not renowned). None of it was out of place, and many of the scandalous events happened online and years ago and lots of new candidates are 'young adults' by world standards (22) and 'practically infants' in Canadian Age Reckoning. Such muckraking is to be expected in any election, really, and none of the scandals thus far are nearly as bad as the Rob Ford Saga or the more recent Senate problems or various wastes of taxpayer money.