Y'know, I have partially been in a deep-dive into videos outing horrible people, from zoophiles in the furry community, videos about a group pretending to be a 15 year-old furry and showing how many pedophiles DM'd them, how horrible communities like #VRChat can get, the sheer amount of bigots in the anime community, and just generally witnessing the outing of truly, truly disgusting individuals.

And I started to wonder and look at the timestamps of these documentaries: most of them besides like, Kero the Wolf (GOD) are post-Covid. How it seemed like these outing [insert horrible person/group] videos came out lot more frequently in 2020 and beyond. It really makes me think of how #Covid legitimately could've played a role in the downwards spiral we have seen with online communities. Of course, you could say it was simply a result of this kind of content gaining traction, and I'm not going to disagree on that entirely. But just think about it: with so many people being cooped up inside, rightfully fearful for their lives turned to the internet to fulfill their social needs, how many people have been left socially stunted because of overexposure to the internet and not enough outside world person-to-person interaction?

How many people have turned to really fucked up sh!t to fulfill those intimacy and social needs? How many desperate individuals have been manipulated and groomed because they'd do anything to receive even a smidgen of attention and affection? How many people have developed porn addictions because they're so chronically online, to where they fall down the pipeline where they seek the same initial high with increasingly taboo material until they end up hurting someone? How many pedos/zoos have gained a platform to reach more victims because of how many more people being chronically online? How many minors have become desensitized to explicit material, especially more uncommon fetishes because they've seen so much of it online, which then makes them more likely to be the targets of grooming and exploitation, or worse, become bad actors themselves?

We know it is SUPER common for groups like furries and weebs to be socially-awkward and mentally unstable, and we also know those communities are more likely than the general population to house bad actors. Whether its because those communities are *too* tolerant/forgiving, are adjacent to terrible things, have those very bad actors in places of power, or any number of factors. Not to mention the layer of anonymity encourages people to act more boldly than they would in physical spaces, which includes being abusive.

NOTE: Obligatory mention that not all weebs/furries are like this, nor are all of them bad actors. I am just using these groups as two examples because they are popular examples, and mean absolutely no ill will towards them. I want those communities to recognize these issues they have and improve on them, not only for themselves, but for all future members of these communities.

Truly, how much has Covid fucked us as a population? How much worse has it gotten because of Covid specifically? Will it continue to worsen? Humans as a whole are social creatures, they *need* actual physical interaction for healthy brain development. Loneliness can literally kill people, it can drive people to do insane things just for attention with the recent scourge of clout-chasers as a sign of that. And of course, there's way more factors to this than just Covid, but I sure as hell don't think it helped.

I hope someday, a study is conducted on this topic. Not just on the social development of children, but the social development of online communities and any potential shifts that could have occurred pre and post-Covid. It's a depressing, but fascinating subject. Anyway, I have just been dying to get this off my chest because I have been thinking about it for over a week straight.

Also, I just want to appreciate the people who dedicate time to reporting pedophiles, zoophiles, and groomers to the police, or if the pigs don't do anything, outing these scumbags publicly so people can stay away from them. People like LagoVirt, Jax, Lanza, and more whose names I probably forgot (sorry). Thank you for looking out for people and spreading the word!

#LongPost #Covid #Observations #MiniEssay #OnlineCommunities #Essay #Social #SocialMedia