Great article on the rise of the weird online fanbase

NoLogo said:
One of the main problems with social media for me is that we haven't learned to ignore the opinions of idiots yet. These platforms make it possible that everyone's opinion can get seen, but we somehow forgot that we don't really have to read it.

That's why I don't read trends on Twitter, the topic will be 99% some nonsense outrage, and I sure as hell don't read anything about United after a game. In some sense the same goes for the caf, I may have a look into a moan thread but if there is too much nonsense I'll ignore it 90% of the time.

People really need to learn not to get angry about reading nonsense on the internet, life is too short for that. I feel much more relaxed since I realized I can ignore stupid stuff on the internet as well. :D

Feel free to assume this advice is nonsense, what the hell do I know.
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People were probably always interested in information acquisition, but the algorithms and the platforms pick the most inflammatory, polarizing or instant grab content to elevate.

Normal nice stuff just seem to drown out due to low engagement allure. People just agree with nice content in silence without engaging. Social media is not all too healthy for the human brain. Few studies say the brain is not adapted to handle all that input.

A 10 minute youtube is TL: DR (DW?) Now a 10 second TikTok is the soon to be new standard.
Were slowly turning into the movie idiocracy :lol:
 
There is a certain kind of person for whom football is just a socially acceptable outlet to channel their emotions, many of which are negative. So if nothing bad is happening, they have to make it up.

In my experience with online Real Madrid fans, there's a large amount who loathe the most successful players/managers the club has. They need drama and chaos and god forbid someone does their job well and takes it away from them.
 
E-mal said:
Pretty sure the cafe is not only for positive vibes but also for critical analysis.
I'm happy when we win and throw a few banter against opposition fans, but ultimately one cannot just overlook the lapses in how we play.
May be it's the expectations, may be being the 4th best team in the league and a yoyo European team should be satisfying enough for true loyal fan of Manchester United.
Oh well, what do I know.
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Always hyperbole. Maybe not expecting to swat away every team (especially a man down) might help. Maybe acknowledging that football, and any sport with many moving parts, can be unpredictable.

"We havnt stifled teams from the first whistle this season, always giving them a sniff"

It's September... The season has barely started. Here's the thing, we are probably different people and will not see it the same way. But given the choice between optimism and pessimism, I know what my disposition is and I'm cool with that.
 
They are a great source of entertainment, I remember in old football forums, we had fans who hated their manager and team, always moaning and bitching :lol: , I think with internet being accessible to almost everyone today, means we are seeing more of them:lol:
 
I agree that these types of dickheads have been around forever, but their dickishness has been supercharged by social media.

Football Manager and FIFA also play their part, giving them a false sense of knowledge of the game.
 
Ultimately talking like everything can be improved upon on a forum is different to going to a stadium and supporting the team you are watching right in front of your eyes.

It's why the stadium supporters are better than this forum shit. We have no influence on the outcome of our club - just a few money on shirts bought.

It's why the people who hardly go to the stadium act the coldest unnecessarily.
 
I'll read that later because I'm interested in stuff like this but my reaction is to think the internet has cultivated an environment where people have learned to harness the power of emotional reactions - largely because it increases the likelihood of receiving replies and notifications (the dings).

Fandoms are most prone because they comprise of people who spend the longest periods of time online.
 
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Reading the United forum makes you depressed for the next game. In fact, I'm made to feel worse about the club by our own supposed fans rather than rival fans who just banter you.
 
sugar_kane said:
I agree that these types of dickheads have been around forever, but their dickishness has been supercharged by social media.

Football Manager and FIFA also play their part, giving them a false sense of knowledge of the game.
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Yeah, the people who spent two years criticising Mourinho on here, thinking they knew better, were a real bore.
 
11101 said:
I think some of those fans with no connection to the club or the area feel like they need to 'prove' how much of a fan they are
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Said the same thing in a different thread, and things quickly got a bit heated. But I'll say it again: Geography matters. Doesn't mean it's silly to be following a football club you have no geographical connection with, as not all of us are privileged to have world class super clubs - and leagues - at our doorsteps. But know thy place, and don't go online just to shout down actual match going fans with toxic vitriol.

Sincerely,
A plastic supporter
 
One recent trend I've noticed:

We win a game: online fan base puts it down to individual brilliance rather than anything good done by the coaches or team set up.

We lose a game due to individual mistakes: OLE OUT! Out of his depth, another manager would do better. Almost nothing said about the individuals.

Almost makes me think there is a hidden agenda
 
horsechoker said:
Reading the United forum makes you depressed for the next game. In fact, I'm made to feel worse about the club by our own supposed fans rather than rival fans who just banter you.
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100%. The people who are supposed to literally support the club do anything but.
 
Why do people keep bringing up Mourinho? He's gone, move on :confused:
 
Mercurial said:
People were probably always interested in information acquisition, but the algorithms and the platforms pick the most inflammatory, polarizing or instant grab content to elevate.

Normal nice stuff just seem to drown out due to low engagement allure. People just agree with nice content in silence without engaging. Social media is not all too healthy for the human brain. Few studies say the brain is not adapted to handle all that input.

A 10 minute youtube is TL: DR (DW?) Now a 10 second TikTok is the soon to be new standard.
Were slowly turning into the movie idiocracy :lol:
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Good post!
 
The feck does it matter if you're a match going fan or not. Okay if you live in the area and you can pay for the tickets and choose not to, maybe you're not a big fan, but United is huge internationally and wouldn't be nearly as successful without all the worldwide fans. Be thankful for the international fans. The gatekeeping is so incredibly cringe.
 
So to summarize the article. It's about a 30 something years old man who fails to understand that a minority of teenagers and generally young people are immature?
 
Kanu said:
The feck does it matter if you're a match going fan or not. Okay if you live in the area and you can pay for the tickets and choose not to, maybe you're not a big fan, but United is huge internationally and wouldn't be nearly as successful without all the worldwide fans. Be thankful for the international fans. The gatekeeping is so incredibly cringe.
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There seems to be a disconnect between the club as part of the community and culture and people who just see it as something that should produce title-winning squads and nothing else.

I'm sure there are local fans who are just as ridiculous while there are level-headed fans as far as the Far-East and South America
 
JPRouve said:
So to summarize the article. It's about a 30 something years old man who fails to understand that a minority of teenagers and generally young people are immature?
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Are they young though? To easy to write it off as kids being kids...
 
NoLogo said:
One of the main problems with social media for me is that we haven't learned to ignore the opinions of idiots yet. These platforms make it possible that everyone's opinion can get seen, but we somehow forgot that we don't really have to read it.

That's why I don't read trends on Twitter, the topic will be 99% some nonsense outrage, and I sure as hell don't read anything about United after a game. In some sense the same goes for the caf, I may have a look into a moan thread but if there is too much nonsense I'll ignore it 90% of the time.

People really need to learn not to get angry about reading nonsense on the internet, life is too short for that. I feel much more relaxed since I realized I can ignore stupid stuff on the internet as well. :D

Feel free to assume this advice is nonsense, what the hell do I know.
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I really need to give this a try. One of my pet peeves at the moment are the handful of "experts" on The Athletic match day discussion forum, who feel the need to respond to every comment and deliver their opinions as if we're all sitting around waiting to hear what they think about the game and/ or my opinion of the game. Shame really, because I initially liked reading other people's opinions on social media, but all social media seems, to a greater or lesser extent, somewhere on the path to being a cesspit. Or maybe I'm just getting too old.........
 
afrocentricity said:
Are they young though? To easy to write it off as kids being kids...
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Well, he determined that the people he was talking about are teenagers or in their early 20s. And you can definitely write it off, they are not doing anything worth your time or immoral. They are being immature, nothing else.
 
Most people in their early 20s are immature little dickheads so they might as well be lumped in with teenagers
 
Compton22 said:
One recent trend I've noticed:

We win a game: online fan base puts it down to individual brilliance rather than anything good done by the coaches or team set up.

We lose a game due to individual mistakes: OLE OUT! Out of his depth, another manager would do better. Almost nothing said about the individuals.

Almost makes me think there is a hidden agenda
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Ole is our legend, the guy literally won a Champions League, as far as I am concerned all I have for him is love.
But there is a certain level of toxicity in the forum, that even genuine criticism of him(which is if we want to be a top team, he is not the guy) is branded as Ole out Brigade, so now I just do not care, and have made it my mission to troll those smugs.
 
Lord SInister said:
Ole is our legend, the guy literally won a Champions League, as far as I am concerned all I have for him is love.
But there is a certain level of toxicity in the forum, that even genuine criticism of him(which is if we want to be a top team, he is not the guy) is branded as Ole out Brigade, so now I just do not care, and have made it my mission to troll those smugs.
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With respect it's quite easy to see which posters are making a creative observation/criticism of the manager and the ones that are all too willing to jump on any opportunity to tell everybody he's inept and we won't win anything with him.

It's easy to spot as the posters generally ignore every single positive and any proof of progression and use a result like last night where we've lost with 10 men because of two ridiculous individual errors by AWB and Jesse as proof he's no good.

Some get frustrated with non-creative negativity as it goes some way to ruining the positive start we've had and the feel good factor. I understand your point about it all being lumped into the Ole-out brigade, but the same happens on the flip side.
 
RUCK4444 said:
With respect it's quite easy to see which posters are making a creative observation/criticism of the manager and the ones that are all too willing to jump on any opportunity to tell everybody he's inept and we won't win anything with him.

It's easy to spot as the posters generally ignore every single positive and any proof of progression and use a result like last night where we've lost with 10 men because of two ridiculous individual errors by AWB and Jesse as proof he's no good.

Some get frustrated with non-creative negativity as it goes some way to ruining the positive start we've had and the feel good factor. I understand your point about it all being lumped into the Ole-out brigade, but the same happens on the flip side.
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ofcourse it happens in the flip side, because no side is perfect.
Yesterday, yes we lost because of two errors, but as a whole, we gave away nearly 20 shots, lost the midfield and subbed our only players who can make things happen, because we were scared of losing.

Same shit happened in Euro final.

Ole is a beautiful person, the way he changed the spirit and atmosphere in the dressing after toxic years of Mourinho, LVG and Moyes is admirable, but we can see the guy needs to go some serious tactical changes, I say bring better staff for him, so he can do the man management and leave the tactics to experts.
 
afrocentricity said:
Why do people keep bringing up Mourinho? He's gone, move on :confused:
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We're bringing him up because throughout his time here, @Wumminator had been relentlessly negative about him, exhibiting the exact same attitude that he's bullying people for. He opened the 'When does Mourinho's job come under threat?' thread in November 2016. Three months into Mourinho's tenure. Yet he keeps lecturing everyone on how to stand behind the club and the manager.

Don't get me wrong: I agreed with him about Mourinho but the hypocrisy is a bit rich. He was seriously relentless. He posted the 'Everything we feared about Jose Mourinho could be coming to fruition' thread in October 2017 when we were still sitting second in the table, five points behind City. It's not hard to imagine the contempt he'd show to those who'd make a similar thread in a similar situation about Ole.

When Wummy says we should stand behind the manager and support the club, he means that we should stand behind the manager if Wummy himself thinks the manager is the right man for the job.
 
JPRouve said:
Well, he determined that the people he was talking about are teenagers or in their early 20s. And you can definitely write it off, they are not doing anything worth your time or immoral. They are being immature, nothing else.
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I mean the people in here. Young or old none of it is worth my time though agree with you there.

Siorac said:
We're bringing him up because throughout his time here, @Wumminator had been relentlessly negative about him, exhibiting the exact same attitude that he's bullying people for. He opened the 'When does Mourinho's job come under threat?' thread in November 2016. Three months into Mourinho's tenure. Yet he keeps lecturing everyone on how to stand behind the club and the manager.


Don't get me wrong: I agreed with him about Mourinho but the hypocrisy is a bit rich. He was seriously relentless. He posted the 'Everything we feared about Jose Mourinho could be coming to fruition' thread in October 2017 when we were still sitting second in the table, five points behind City. It's not hard to imagine the contempt he'd show to those who'd make a similar thread in a similar situation about Ole.


When Wummy says we should stand behind the manager and support the club, he means that we should stand behind the manager if Wummy himself thinks the manager is the right man for the job.
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It's in the past though let it go, whether or not the OP is a hypocrite or inconsistent is way down the list of things wrong with the football forum right now. On this occasion and in this thread... he has a point.
 
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Lord SInister said:
ofcourse it happens in the flip side, because no side is perfect.
Yesterday, yes we lost because of two errors, but as a whole, we gave away nearly 20 shots, lost the midfield and subbed our only players who can make things happen, because we were scared of losing.

Same shit happened in Euro final.

Ole is a beautiful person, the way he changed the spirit and atmosphere in the dressing after toxic years of Mourinho, LVG and Moyes is admirable, but we can see the guy needs to go some serious tactical changes, I say bring better staff for him, so he can do the man management and leave the tactics to experts.
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Yeah I’m inclined to agree, I think it can be argued we need better coaches, better coaches are always out there and never a bad thing obviously.

Sir Alex had the same setup with coaches always heavily involved.

Ole is very good man manager, respected and liked by his players, he has good attributes and has done very well turning the team around and rebuilding the squad. I believe he has a good vision for the club moving forwards. We have to ensure the coaches alongside him are adequate for progression to continue from here though, I agree.
 
It's straightforward for me - the vast majority of online fans are 'lesser fans', so to speak, because they have arbitrarily chosen to support United, as opposed to having any real family or local connection to the club.

For many match-going fans, or at least, genuinely engaged fans, we support United because we enjoy the experience of going to games, or the camaraderie of watching matches down the local, or hanging around in the pubs with mates before and after games and to add to all of that, we are surrounded by family, friends and colleagues who support rival teams.

If you then extrapolate that out further, why would an online supporter, who has invested nothing in following the team or who with no family/local ties support United? Well, the obvious answer is because we were bloody good for a long time!

So for me, it's quite easy to then understand why they are typical so whiny and impatient. If your 'only' reason for supporting a football club is because they win, what do you have left when they don't win?

Sorry if that upsets people but the difference in general attitude towards United, Ole and the team is completely different in and around Manchester, as compared to what you get on this forum from a horde of cry-babies
 
I know this is hypocritical coming from a long term user and admin of this very forum but I’ve come to despise a lot of internet users - particularly those who have to give a more controversial opinion or article, blog etc than others simply because they are ‘Likes Chasers’. These people are narcissistic
 
Lord SInister said:
I say bring better staff for him, so he can do the man management and leave the tactics to experts.
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Isn't a manager supposed to be somewhat more than just a morale booster? A manager who isn't good with tactics sounds like a pretty bad manager.
 
Kentonio said:
Isn't a manager supposed to be somewhat more than just a morale booster? A manager who isn't good with tactics sounds like a pretty bad manager.
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Conversely a manager that can't manage people can set a club back years (JM and LVG for example).
 
Siorac said:
We're bringing him up because throughout his time here, @Wumminator had been relentlessly negative about him, exhibiting the exact same attitude that he's bullying people for. He opened the 'When does Mourinho's job come under threat?' thread in November 2016. Three months into Mourinho's tenure. Yet he keeps lecturing everyone on how to stand behind the club and the manager.

Don't get me wrong: I agreed with him about Mourinho but the hypocrisy is a bit rich. He was seriously relentless. He posted the 'Everything we feared about Jose Mourinho could be coming to fruition' thread in October 2017 when we were still sitting second in the table, five points behind City. It's not hard to imagine the contempt he'd show to those who'd make a similar thread in a similar situation about Ole.

When Wummy says we should stand behind the manager and support the club, he means that we should stand behind the manager if Wummy himself thinks the manager is the right man for the job.
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I thought I made the thread about the next Man United manager after Mourinho literally hours after he was appointed? I wouldn’t have waited months surely?
 
Wumminator said:
I thought I made the thread about the next Man United manager after Mourinho literally hours after he was appointed? I wouldn’t have waited months surely?
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You were planning for his departure on May 22 2016. :lol:
 
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