Let me preface by saying, I would love to hear counter points and am fully open to the fact that I could be wrong and totally out of touch. I just want to have some dialogue around something thatās been bothering me in the fediverse.
More and more often I keep hearing people refer to ānormiesā. I think by referring to other people as ānormiesā, whether you intend to or not, you inadvertently gatekeep and create an exclusive environment rather than an inclusive one in the fediverse.
If I was not that familiar with the fediverse and decided to check it out and the first thing I read was a comment about ānormiesā, I would quite honestly be very put off. It totally has a negative connotation and doesnāt even encapsulate any one group. I just read a comment about someone grouping a racist uncle and funny friend into the same category of normie because they arenāt up to date on the fediverse or super tech savvy or whatever.
I donāt want to see any Meta bs in the fediverse. I barely want to see half of the stuff from Reddit in the fediverse. I donāt want to see the same echo chamber I do everywhere else.
I do want to see more users and more perspectives and a larger user base though. I want to see kindness and compassion. I want to talk to people about topics they are interested in. I want to have relevant discussions without it dissolving into some commentary on some unrelated hot topic thing.
I think calling people normies creates a more toxic, exclusive place which I personally came here to avoid.
Just my two cents! I know for most people using the term it isnāt meant to be malicious, but I think it comes off that way.
Love to hear all of your thoughts.
Pretending there isnāt any condescension toward the ānormiesā when using the term is blatantly exhibiting the exact behavior the OP referenced. Itās not how inclusivity works in a community at all. It alienates anyone that isnāt already a part of it.
Why? Because I donāt expect a person whoās not entrenched in a specific hobby to understand the ins-and-outs of that hobby?
Itās not condescension. Itās setting reasonable expectations.
No of course itās reasonable that they wouldnāt understand the ins and outs. The op and commenter youāre replying to are talking about the connotation of the word, not the fact that a hobbyist understands their hobby.
Take the term Trekkie for example ā people who are into star trek can become Trekkies which symbolizes that theyāve joined a community. That term can be used to mean that two people both belong to a community (i.e., āweāre Trekkiesā) or it can be used to refer negatively to people in that community by those who arenāt in it (i.e., āTrekkies smell badā).
There are (at least) two things happening here that people are picking up on. One is that context matters, and the way that the term normie is often used is not a positive one. Iāve personally never seen anyone refer to themself proudly as a normie, have you? And the other is that weāre referring to normies, a group we ostensibly donāt belong to, as a homogeneous blob which is obviously not accurate.
I doubt anyoneās feelings are especially hurt if theyāre called a normie, but that doesnāt mean it isnāt a dismissive and usually negatively valenced term used to refer to a massive and diverse group of people.
To me, normie just signifies a person outside a given niche hobby.
Iām into having a Plex server in my basement. People not into that are normies in a conversation about having a Plex server. I donāt expect them to know how to setup QuickSync hardware encoding in a Plex Docker container.
I donāt like anime. To people who like anime, Iām the normie. I think Trunks is just a really cool Mastodon client. I only vaguely know itās also a Dragonball character. If you expect me to know more than this, youāre going to be disappointed.
Thereās no judgment involved.
I agree the way youāre using it doesnāt sound negative. But I donāt think thatās a representative use of this term. Take a look at the top few entries on urban dictionary, they donāt seem very judgement free to meā¦
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Normie
The point of this post is that even if you donāt mean it in the way that urban dictionary describes it, thatās how some people will interpret it.
I mean, read even just half the comments on just one page of comments here and you should see that itās extremely common to not use the word in the manner youāre stating. Weāre not talking about that nor is the poster.