Reasons I’m Terrified to Speak to Men: A Study on the Incel Community

Absztrakt (kivonat)

With the emergence of web 2.0 and social media, unlikely communities have begun to find platforms to raise their voice and connect with each other. One of the communities that was birthed on social media is the incel community. Incel is a portmanteau of the words involuntary celibate. The term is used to self-describe a group of mainly white heterosexual males without sexual lives who tend to cite women as the root of this problem. Incel community solely exists on social media and online spheres. This community is not one where non-virtual meetings are common. The echo chamber effect is defined as when an online group of people with harmonious ideologies mixing together and creating a tunnel vision. These echo chambers create communities where individuals are unable to perceive the real world besides their understanding. This paper seeks to define what incels are and the philosophies they have (red pill, blue pill, black pill); illuminate the language they use which is incomprehensible to an individual that is not familiar with the community, and determine the role of social media in the survival and continuity of the community. Could they exist without social media or being anonymous identities online is what allows them to exist? The way this research will be conducted is that posts and comments from the discussion board of the website incels.is, the primary incel forum which rose after Reddit shut down the main incel forum due to its violation of policies, will be analyzed with the method of qualitative content analysis and literature on the subject will be reviewed. This thesis aims to research the incel community and the effect of social media echo chambers on the psyche of the members of the said community.