{"id":23147,"date":"2014-05-23T09:28:22","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T14:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=23147"},"modified":"2014-05-23T17:50:28","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T22:50:28","slug":"the-age-of-instant-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=23147","title":{"rendered":"The Age of Instant Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week Peter Hall at Movies.com put up the article Geeks Are Entering the Age of Instant Backlash and It’s Getting Really Tiresome<\/a>, talking about how comic book fans reacted negatively to the announcement of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Maybe movie journalism works differently than videogame journalism, but from where I stand we’ve been in the age of instant backlash for about a decade or so. Hall says:<\/p>\n

[…]Internet immediately lost its mind and pounced on the title like a bunch of ghouls feasting on a newborn. And as I watched the vitriol flow across social media, all I could do is sit back and wonder why everyone is so angry all of the time these days.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s a certain irony in accusing people of “feasting on newborns” when talking about how they over-react. At any rate, this probably has more to do with where you hang out on the internet than with anything going on in geekdom. In my experience the backlash was basically a bunch of eye-rolling and head-shaking. I witnessed no anger, much less newborn-feasting.<\/p>\n

Here was my reaction:<\/p>\n

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How much confidence does WB have in the new Superman? So little that they gave him second billing in his own sequel: http:\/\/t.co\/PbkHmN5Y9K<\/a><\/p>\n

— Shamus Young (@shamusyoung) May 21, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n