It’s getting a little angry in Web land.
Out there in the cyber-universe, Web citizens are railing about everything from Wal-Mart to wretched bosses to America Online.
The radio ad for a recently launched site, www.angryman.com, taps into this torrent of ill temper with an angry middle-aged guy growling about life’s little annoyances:
“Is life getting you a bit down? … You think your shrink is making out his grocery list during your sessions? …
“That car alarm going off at 3 a.m. buggin’ ya? How about 6 bucks for beer at the game? Buck fifty to pull your money out of the ATM? The neighbor’s dog’s letting loose on your well-manicured lawn? Tell it all to angryman.com.”
In the old days, a hard day at the office or a marital spat might be followed by a blazing round of canasta or mah-jongg. Some guys headed for Schlitz and a sympathetic barkeep at the corner tavern, or spent an evening knocking down tenpins at the local lane.
Today, those outlets are still around, but the general level of rage in American society seems to have risen exponentially. A recent front-page story in USA Today calls it a “deadly epidemic,” what with air rage, road rage, grocery-store rage and deadly altercations at youth sports events. Experts blame it on “an increasing sense of self-importance, the widespread feeling that things should happen my way,” USA Today says.
Psychologist Robert R. Butterworth says expressing emotion on the Internet might be helpful for some people.
“Sometimes people who are angry and isolated don’t feel very empowered. When they get on the Web and can talk to people, that can change the equation.
“In the old days, people used to go to a therapist. … Managed care has killed that golden egg.”
So it’s no wonder that the rise of Internet communication and increasing hot-headedness are becoming partners in the 21st century. There’s a Web site for people who disapprove of Home Depot’s environmental policies (www.homedepotsucks.com), for weary waitresses (www.bitterwaitress.com) and for people who think school is a drag (www.schoolsucks.com)
And if you want to “cyber-punch” a contemptible politician or celebrity, there are sites offering the ability to put on the Internet gloves and smack away at Tony Blair or the Bills (Clinton or Gates). (For example: www.decentdesigns.com/punch and www.urban75.com/Punch/index.html).
Salon.com, known perhaps more for its writing than its message boards, has discussion areas where the chitchat is white-hot. In one section of the forums on business and work life, for example, an employee vents about her boss nixing her annual raise.
“That month, his wife and two children left for a two-month vacation in France. That month, he bought a new $30,000 car. That month, he had a jeweler make custom rings for he and his wife, for their anniversary. Yet he claimed he couldn’t afford to give me the $2 an hour raise I had earned. Amazing.”
Another choice rant: “Some friends and I were discussing our work histories recently, and we realized that if our jobs were relationships, they’d be described as abusive and codependent.”
Into this furious fray stomps www.angryman.com, a site whose motto is “Don’t Get Mad, Get Angry.” Unlike some other sites, which often have a single focus and the word “sucks” in the Web address, angryman.com surveys issues in American public and private life. Polls are one focus of the site, along with a “lounge” where visitors can sound off.
Mike Arnold, director of marketing for angryman, said angryman.com was the idea of two brothers from Bangladesh, Russell and Titu Sarder, who have a computer school and technology company, Netcom Information Systems, in Long Island City, N.Y.
“About a year ago, these guys were venting over a baseball game and were frustrated that there was no place to go to vent. They decided to put this together. But it’s done in a fun way, not a mean-spirited way,” Arnold said.
The site was launched in May, followed by radio publicity, billboards in Times Square in New York and banner airplane advertising over Long Island Sound. On the Friday before July Fourth, the site received 649,000 hits, Arnold said.
The main feature of the site is the daily poll, 10 to 12 new ones every day, written in a snappy, amusing style by the staff, many of them former journalists.
“I sit down with them every morning, and we’ll go through the news of the day and pick a hot topic, something that is emotionally based,” Arnold said. A recent poll, for example, asked about New York’s subways (60 percent said that for all its problems, the system is the best in America, and 40 percent called it “a freak show”).
The site also features news and Angryman Radio, which provides access to talk radio stations throughout the country, and a message board, along with polling services available to businesses.
“We do want people to vent and express themselves,” said Arnold, who added that recent poll suggestions from the public have included: “Are tattoos/piercings on women sexy?” and “Are we getting dumber?” The polls provide a kind of instant validation for people who are ticked off about trends or what they read or hear on the news, Arnold says.
“The interesting thing is that the Internet is inherently a democratic medium where everyone’s given a printing press,” said Eric Hellwig, founding editor of Business 2.0 magazine and now executive director of its associated Web site, business2.com, in San Francisco.
“Anytime you get a big number of people together, they will use the opportunity to complain and seek out similarly upset people,” Hellwig said. “No one likes to be angry alone. So in whatever form the network communication was taking, in bulletin boards, or Usenet or chat rooms, it’s been a healthy way for people to vent.”
Elliot Auerbacher of Englewood, N.J., one of the partners in rockersucks.com, is a prime example of how anger gives rise to enterprise. He started his Web site after an incident during the Braves-Mets playoffs last year.
In warm-ups before the games, Braves closer John Rocker would fake a toss to the crowd, then throw it back to a teammate, “smiling wickedly,” according to the Sports Illustrated article that helped launch the Rocker controversy (and which also includes comments from the Web site).
During the playoff game, Auerbacher said, “he turned around and whipped the ball as hard as he could into the netting. When you see a ball coming at you at 95 miles an hour, you jump back out of the way.”
After Rocker hurled the ball, fans started hurling epithets.
“We started the Web site as a statement to John Rocker that we thought it was really nasty,” Auerbacher said.
But the site reflects all sides of the Rocker controversy, as indicated by the Webmaster’s statement, “We disagree with the statements made by John Rocker, but we will defend his rights to his opinions.”
The site includes an index of articles about Rocker, message boards, general baseball news and Rocker merchandise (both pro and con). Since it was launched last October, the site has drawn close to 5 million hits.
Although he doesn’t consider rockersucks.com a “venting” site — about 40 percent of the people who register comments dislike Rocker, and 60 percent are for him — he says that one time a couple of vehement Rocker fans aimed their venom directly at him, and he was forced to get the FBI involved.
“That stopped it right away. It’s scary,” he said.
Then there are sites designed to provoke anger.
Adam Fisher, an associate editor at Wired magazine, mentions one site, www.portalofevil.com, that has a section called fatchicksinpartyhats.com.
“This is actually a very active site,” Fisher says. “They take [photographs of] people from other people’s Web pages and post them with sarcastic captions. Then they try to generate some kind of angry response.”
Steve Jones, a professor and Internet expert at the University of Chicago, says anti-corporate sites such as www.walmartsucks.com have been around for a while. Some attract an initial flurry of activity and then fade. The success and longevity of these “venting” sites depends on their intended purpose.
“If it’s to provide a place to vent frustrations, it’s very effective,” he said. “If it’s to persuade people of your opinion of a particular company’s product, it’s potentially effective but … in general not very. You get some interesting discussions, but it’s preaching to the choir.”
And often, when companies register their domain names, they try to head off rogue sites in advance by registering the real name and the real name plus “sucks.com.”
“It’s getting to the point where it’s to be expected,” Hellwig said. “The instant something related to the Internet hits the news, you could type in that name and find ‘sucks.”‘
The George W. Bush campaign has tried to head off this possibility by acquiring “Bush sucks” sites. Type in “www.bushsucks.com,” for example, and you’ll be linked to the official site of the Bush for President campaign.
Some companies have used these “suck” sites to their advantage, monitoring consumer complaints and trying to correct them, Hellwig said.
“You might as well pay attention to it,” he said.
