The most guilty part of my enjoyment comes from from the fact that the whole site exudes locker room--criticism is harsh and sometimes unwarranted, insults turn into inside jokes, which turn into memes that border on pure genius, back slapping is at a minimum, but for the most part they recognize excellence.
However, something I've seen more and more in the relatively short time I've lurked on the site are a certain kind of post like one that recently appeared in the beginners forum. The appropriately christened "wannagetripped" started an equally well-named thread, "Need Help Getting Ripped" with this message:
I am sure there are posts like this one. I don't have a lot of time to sift through posts to find what I am looking for so I hope someone can help me. I just currently joined a gym and I am looking to get as close to the attached photo as possible. You can see my current photo on my homepage. I know it will obviously take a long time. Any nutrition and exercise tips and pointers will be greatly appreciated! Feel free to PM me also! Thanks in advance!!
When other members scolded "wannagetripped" for not using the search function to find answers to his question that are compiled throughout the site, he responeded:
I love people who sit in chat rooms and on forums and talk shit on people. Those people have no lives. And most of those guys are over weight losers with no g/f's, wives or friends to hang out with. I used to be cut to hell when I played football and didnt have a family to support, but with working, and keeping, 4 jobs the past 5 years it kinda takes a toll on your body when you dont have time for exercise. But now I am trying to make time. And maybe im crazy but i thought me posting on here was doing research? I figured a quick easy way to get info is to just make a post. I was just looking for info like ACTrain sent me. Which was very helpful and what I was looking for. I did go through the forums and did learn alot. I also figured I would post and see what other info people might give me looking specifically at my body and the body I want. Guess not. So I know now it was pointless.
The pattern here is so familiar it's painful. Notice the track the reaction post follows. A-he attacks the people who rightfully point out his laziness (on a workout site no less). B-He catalogs his heroic work ethic (which apparently doesn't extend to looking up the information he wants). C-He argues that what he did *was* the work those other people claimed he didn't do. D-He challenges the significance of the whole endeavor.
This, my friends, is the litany of the cheater. Every, and I mean *every* student I've ever caught copying on a paper has followed some version of this same pattern.
A typical exchange might sound like this:
Me: This section of your four page paper that extends from page two to page four is word-for-word from this website that I've called up on my computer.
Student: You've hated me from the beginning of the semester and this is just your way of getting me in trouble.
Me: No, *you* included all this outside work and failed to quote or cite it. I didn't have anything to do with that.
Student: I have two jobs and a daughter. I can't write all that stuff myself.
Me: Unfortunately school is time consuming and I'm afraid the rules are very clear on this.
Student: But you said I had to do research, now you're saying I shouldn't. You keep changing the rules.
Me: But you have to actually write your own paper. You use the outside sources to support what *you* argue.
Student: Fine, fail me. I don't even want to be in college.
Ultimately, the seeming universality of this approach to learning much be significant of some sort of Generation Z quirk that we X and Ys need to better understand. More in the second and third parts of this series . . .
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