Webupon

It seems to me that a few things need to be addressed in this day and age of online activity. In this article I plan on discussing how, in ever corner of the internet, there is a distinct clique much like a High School cafeteria. It’s quite amusing, once you think about it.

You have your “preps”, which are the popular girls and boys. These kind do not need to be active in sports, but more than likely are and hence their popularity. Their leader is generally dating the lead Quarterback for the football team. They can also always be found in groups of 2 to 3 others, maybe more. Generally, this stereotype is female. On the internet, I like to classify these sorts as “Chatters” and “Regular Bloggers”. You can find them in Yahoo, MSN, or AIM chat rooms, usually on web cams, voice chat, or both. They can also be found on websites like LiveJournal and Xanga. They never really have much substance or depth to what they chat/write about, but everyone seems to love them.

Then, you have your “jocks”. This stereotype has been around for generations and do not require much of an introduction. They are the sport-guru’s who live for, say, football or basketball. Their leader is usually the main Quarterback on the football team. They are usually male and very dense when it comes to anything outside of looking good, having a “hot” girlfriend, and the big game on Friday. I generalize these types as the kind that play “shoot “em up” games like Metal of Honor Allied Assault, Halo, etc… They”re focused on the game and don’t know much more about the internet except for their games, Myspace, and email. I find that these types are arrogant and don’t hold any bit of good conversation unless you know about their types of games, in which case they will tell you how “awesome” they are at it.

“Nerds” are another stereotype that has been around for a while. They’re commonly thought of as skinny and have bad acne, but that isn’t always the case. Nerds are generally thought of as being good in one specific area such as computers, or to another extreme, role playing games/card games like Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, etc… They aren’t good conversationalist’s in-real-life, and they, too travel in packs. There leader isn’t any one person on any one given day. I relate these to people who play MMORPG’s. An MMORPG is a Massive Multi player Online Role Playing Game. Good examples would be Ever quest, NeverWinterNights, Final Fantasy XI, and World of Warcraft. Online, these types only fit in with others of their kind. Like the “jocks” of the internet, they only like to talk about their games and how great they are, how high of level they are, etc…

The ever-loved “posers” have their place on the internet too! Poser is a mildly new stereotype in High Schools. They are the ones who wish they were the “preps” and “jocks” and try, most of time too hard, to get into the other cliques. They dress like the above mentioned stereotypes and act like them, but they aren’t exactly them. There is no leader and they are found with at least 3 others of their kind. The best way to categorize them online is the internet junkies that can be found on Myspace whenever they have a spare moment, playing free games on new grounds, or playing Sim games (though not online). Sometimes they can offer a good conversation, but I never find myself in a conversation with them that goes beyond “sup”. They’re a nice bunch, who thinks that online friends accumulated on messengers and Myspace mean quantity over quality to reach online respect.

There are plenty of other corners on the internet. You have forum junkies, MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Game) players, eMailers, spammers, “strictly business” people, etc… And these all fall into my favorite category “Social Butterflies”. In High School, these people were “cool” with everyone. No one had any problems with them and they could talk to anyone in any of the stereotypes without being judged as being in that clique. The same holds true on the internet. They can chat, play any type of game, browse, etc… Without being judged or booted into the “loners” corner of the internet. These are the best kinds, I believe. Friendly people, with substance and a general interest in others and by general interest, I mean farther than “wut r u warin”.