Everybody Hurts

This afternoon I borrowed out the book Everybody Hurts - An Essential Guide to Emo Culture by Leslie Simon (the managing editor at Alternative Press) and Trevor Kelley (a leading contributor to AP).

From my initial skimming through of the earlier chapters, this book looks like an entertaining and insightful read, with particular emphasis about what Emo means to teenagers in today's society.

One chapter of great interest to my assignment is focussed on the Internet - an accessible place where Emos can hang out if they feel exiled out in the suburbs, according to the authors.

Of the activities Emos enjoy online, posting journal entries on their blogs, logging onto online community websites, checking out their own and other people's profiles, viewing the "Suicide Girls" for adult entertainment and conversing on instant messengers are listed.

The section on a History of Emo Online Communities describes the progression of five main sites that emos visit - Friendster, Myspace, Flickr, Buzznet and FriendsOrEnemies.

These sites provide various means of entertainment and are ways to communicate not only with their peers, but their favourite bands also.

Listening to music on Myspace, promoting themselves through constructing online profiles, sharing photos and reading exclusive journals by promient bands from the scene are all possible.

The authors believe that blogs have been embraced in a huge way by Emos over the past five years.

Livejournal.com is where "everyday emotional purging is not only encouraged, but also embraced." Everything from insignificant details about their lives to deeply personal ones are recorded. Livejournal appears to the more popular site on which Emos blog (compared to Myspace, Blogspot and Xanga), and had enormous social networking capabilties.

An interesting point made by the authors when discussing AOL Instant Messenger is that "Much like the number of friends you accumulate on Myspace, Emo followers are often judged by the size of their Buddy Lists. Your Buddy List could be a collection of message board friends, Myspace friends, or Livejournal friends; in other words, they are virtual friends that you have not, nor ever will have a face-to-face conversation with."

First of all, it implies that socialising and being seen as having lots of friends is something highly valued by Emos. Secondly, it raises the question of whether relationships formed online are meaningless or not.

The T-Mobile Sidekick is a hand-held device which combines a phone, web browser, camera and email server, which Emos apparently addicted to, because it is "an outlet for well-nurtured neuroses like obsessive-compulsivenes, insecurity and paranoia."

According to the authors, Sidekicks are so important in the lives of Emos because they allow the user to be constantly available, and are a means of telling others how they are feeling and doing almost instantaneously. These devices, much like the other websites and blogging platforms mentioned, appear to be popular among members of this subculture because they are easy and accessible ways to express themselves and keep in contact socially with other subcultural members.