this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
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- Anon is often crazy.
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- Anon frequently shares thoughts that are immature, offensive, or incomprehensible.
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
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Why? Having niche interests is pretty normal.
If you’re part of a .01% portion of a population that divides itself, you’ve likely got something different brewing in your brain than most. And there’s nothing wrong or right about that, but it is worth considering.
In one way or another you aee .01% of population, e.g. someone is from austria, electrician speaks german and english and italian, goes to church and part of the chorus, their partner is from italy, and they like mountain bikes. How many people like this in the world? How exactly using lemmy is less normal then using another less popular forum?
In that example, you’ve already described several thing that are unique or peculiar, albeit more common than using a website fueled by spite for the modern internet. Like I said, there’s nothing wrong or right about it, but it is worth considering.
So you wouldn't consider someone from example a regular person? I think there is nothing exactly special about visiting another forum.
They’re an electrician, trilingual, and active. They’re definitely peculiar, and several guesses can be made about them and their history. None of it seems antagonistic against society or modern trends, but they’re a particular sort. Human heuristics are fun. Unless they’re used for bigotry. They’re often used for bigotry. But not here, currently, or especially by me.
People that are considered 'not normal' almost always have to be excellent in one way or another or be unacceptable in society for some reason, I'm just saying that 'not normal' is reserved for exceptional individuals, my neighbour is probably unique but 'normal'. In case of 4chan and other forums like that, absolute majority of their visitors are 'normal' as well.
I really don’t mean to disparage lemmy when I say this, but the average user is an order of magnitude more tone deaf than anyone I know irl. Frankly, I find myself slipping into it when I spend too much time here. There truly is something odd about the unique mix of lackadaisical and assertive that you find here.
I’ve read explanations floated by others who have also noticed it, and they range from autism to bots to extreme insecurity to age to education. There is something odd about lemmy users as a whole, and likely yourself as well. And once again, there’s nothing wrong with that. But you’re among odd company. If you feel entirely at home, you might be odd, yourself. I’ve made peace with my comfort. I’ve also recently started checking whether lemmy users are brand harbingers, so stay tuned for that.
Niche in this context literally means to be of interest to a small minority. Or to say it in other words, not normal.
I know what the word niche means, it doesn't in any way or other words mean 'not normal'.
I don't know how to paint it more clearly for you. You are talking about interests that are out of the ordinary, not typical for the average population, obscure by definition, you know.. niche. Having obscure interests is relatively common in the grand scheme of things but still not typical of the average person on the street. Which makes it not normal. I would go so far as to call it neurodivergent, since it's most probably the cause of the said interests.
I do prefer abnormality in my life, probably everyone that managed to get themselves on lemmy does, but we are not a representation of the general population, we are but a niche.
You can be unique, while being normal. Sorry, but visiting a forum doesn't make you 'not normal' in any meaningful way.
I guess we're going into the definition of normality. To me this just means average, conventional, within certain limits. I would bet my ass most users of this simple forum are not average people, just based on the friction of the sign-up process alone.
And being unique while being normal is another oximoron from you. Either you are unique or you are average, you can't be both.