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The Internet is Serious Business
This used to be a popular catchphrase 10+ years ago. We used to use it frequently to mock Internet drama queens, those with bloated egos, and online lolcows in general, while reminding ourselves (trolls, mostly, or 4chan regulars) to stay lighthearted and carefree about the stuff we do online. The phrase is sarcastic, if you haven't already figured it out.
I haven't encountered this phrase frequently—or, really, at all—in recent years, and that disappoints me. Maybe it is because of its age, and everybody just got tired of repeating a joke until it became unfunny (I really hope that is the reason). I fear it might also be because everyone, including the old Internet pranksters, started taking online communication seriously, or perhaps it is because mainstream society is now panicking over cyberbullying
, online harassment
, and trolling
(the last term being thrown around so loosely nowadays that it has lost almost all meaning) that now, suddenly, the Internet has actually become serious business in the eyes of most.
So I step in here, to bring back this old catchphrase by making it the motto of this site, and to try to remind everybody that, at the end of the day, words on a computer screen matter very little.
See also the Encyclopedia Dramatica article on this phrase.