What if 2020 is just the universe's extra time in the ball pit?

[rogueslayer452]

++ Sarah Z, one of my favorite video essayists, recently uploaded a video recounting and discussing the disaster that was Dashcon, the first and last Tumblr-based convention that happened back in 2014. Most will probably only know it from the infamous ball pit meme that circulated about, but there's a lot more that goes into it than just that. I already know most of what was mentioned, but seeing it all laid out in full detail of the event (before, during, and the aftermath), it's really more depressing than it is funny. This obviously wasn't the first or the last poorly planned convention to exist, but speaking as someone who was aware of this while it was going down it's just an interesting look at what went wrong and why this did, ultimately, change the way fandom on Tumblr operated. Because Sarah does briefly go into that, which I have to agree that the atmosphere did fundamentally change, whether it was from the convention itself or the way people reacted to the convention, it definitely made the harmless fun aspects of certain fandoms a little less fun. But that's a discussion for a whole other time.

Overall, while there have been people who covered this topic before I really liked Sarah's take on it, not only with a lot of research but also since others have unfortunately ended up, inadvertently or no, making fun of the young people who attended the convention, which is uncalled for. We can acknowledge the horrible dumpster fire that Dashcon was without turning to mock the teenagers who went. Which I find happens a lot whenever something deemed "cringey" happens and people want to feel better about themselves by mocking young people, usually teenage girls. So I'm happy that Sarah didn't do that and addressed the issue.

++ I don't particularly care for award shows, since we all know it's just a popularity contest anyway and the things that rightfully deserve to be recognized often are snubbed. With that being said, that doesn't mean that I'm not happy whenever something I like is nominated. With the Emmys recently announcing their nominations, I'm glad that The Mandalorian has been nominated multiple times (however the lack of recognition for Pedro Pascal is just blasphemous, imho), and I'm happy that Euphoria got some love as well, most notably Zendaya for best lead actress, because she absolutely deserves it.

Comments

Re: Okay, I watched

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

But even the stuff I set up with other people, it was more of a combination of ages, and I wasn't one of the people in charge. So it wouldn't surprise me at all of Megg and Cain chose someone younger than them to run things on purpose, because she might be less inclined to immediately question what was going on.

Precisely. And, as you mentioned previously, younger people tend to look up to those who are older then they are, so having these grown adults take advantage of someone who is younger and less experienced is just downright awful and deplorable.

And I absolutely believe that she would've been messed up for a long time after, because how could you not be? It must've been such a traumatizing experience, putting your trust in these people only for them to turn around and betray you in such a way, and have all this blame placed upon you and it must've taken a long time for things to be cleared up. I truly hope that she is doing better, because nobody deserves to go through something like that.