i've come to realize that there's a huge chunk of internet users who never participate in online discussions or communities. they just consume content, never leaving a comment or creating an account. what's going through their minds? are they just lurkers, or is there something more to it? do they feel like they don't have anything valuable to add, or are they just afraid of being judged? i'm curious to know more about this but i think the answer is that it's just that normal people use the internet now and it's all retarded

They have jobs and are quite too busy to be finding people online to chat with. They likely have human friends too.

When waters run deep, if not carefull you drown...

I prefer lurkers over terminally online retards who use social media to shove their shitty opinions to everyone else's faces

I prefer to lurk, don't want to say anything I would regret later.

That's weird. Aren't you Anonymous?

>you're anonymous, how do you regret something
That happens to be the joke.

80/20 rule applies pretty much everywhere online. 80% are lurkers. 20% are posters. 80% of posters post noise, 20% signal.

I realized this long ago looking at Youtube's view/rate ratio. Millions of view with only a few thousand likes/dislikes and comments is basically the norm.

>view/interaction rate
Less inclined to create an account when they try to mug me for most of my personal information.

Even on social media this is true. Many people want to consume content effortlessly in a way that doesn't require participation. Previous forms of consumption were not two-way like the Internet; how many people watch TV without shooting their own films, or casually look at artwork they pass without making any of their own? It is the default to passively consume because any given person has limited bandwidth and is likely busy doing other things.

Also, even with the Internet being massive, it is just half the equation. Most people spend more of their time IRL, and discuss things they saw online IRL the way they might discuss what they saw on TV.

Most of the time I realize I don't really have anything of enough depth/value to add to a meaningful conversation (at least in forums with users I don't know).
Also if I were to comment on youtube then my comment would be deleted for no reason whatsoever so there's that.

There is nothing to say most of the time because the thinking man already knows everything I have to say and there is no point in speaking to the non-thinking man