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                              -< by home-gihub >-
                            (home-gihub.github.io)

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.-<#] Preamble [#>------------------------------------------------------------.

    Before I say anything, I just want to let you know, if you use ":3",
    don't use your rhetoric, it isn't welcome here.

.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.

.-<#] Intro [#>---------------------------------------------------------------.

    What is :3? Well, :3 is that "cat emoticon", people use it when
    they want [to try to] be cutesy or "whimsical".

    You can see it on Reddit (common), Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube (rare),
    etc. You can see how it can get pretty annoying.

    The specific demographic I see the most using :3 is queer furry teens.
    Not very revealing but useful for avoidance.

.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.

.-<#] Block button [#>--------------------------------------------------------.

    So, I find this :3 annoying, it's everywhere and people won't stop
    saying it. Easy, right? Platforms have a feature for this!

    The block button.

    Sure, the block button "works", you can find a person and never see
    them again! Exactly what I wanted. But...

    ...you have to understand that you CANNOT block a group on the
    internet. You just can't. You can cut off a head and two more will
    appear. And what makes it even worse is that (as I said before),
    the people that use it are on most platforms. You can't just hide on
    another platform, they are the platform.

.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.

.-<#] You're miserable [#>----------------------------------------------------.

    But why would I even find a cutesy cat face annoying? Why would I? It's
    too cute!

    That brings me into my second point, the people that use it. I see them
    everywhere and it isn't funny. Always beating a dead horse with their
    jokes, always shipping, always making OCs.

    It is degrading. I feel like im walking through a pit of feces,
    with an overwhelming ammount of talkative salesmen that always want to
    sell me something, and you cant shut them up since you are too far away;
    not too far that you cant hear them, no. 
    
    But you are too far away for them to hear you.

    "Oh stop being miserable! Just enjoy your life!"

    Life? Life is boring. Go to work/school, do your work, dinner, bed.
    And you know what I use to get away? My computer! And the internet.
    But oh, how dare I not find a joke funny for the billionth time it
    is said. And when the :3 users get called out they reply with the same:

    "It's just a face"

    "Grow up!"

    Or even more infuriating:

    ":3"

.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.

.-<#] Acid [#>----------------------------------------------------------------.

    And do you know what it feels like? What it feels like to have the
    same joke shoved down your throat unwillingly?

    It feels like acid. Like acid slowly dissolving your skin, your muscles,
    everything. You can feel your body withering away with every bubble of it.

    And eventually it goes black.

    There's nothing left. Not you, not even your soul (it left before this!)

.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.

.-<#] Protective measures [#>-------------------------------------------------.

    Well, how do I avoid this ever-engulfing acid?

    You just stop. Stop going on the internet and just have a boring life!
    What, you don't like that?

    "Grow up!"

.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.

.-<#] Footnote [#>------------------------------------------------------------.

    This isn't specific to the ":3", more the demographic.

    Stop shoveling half-porn onto my feed and then saying "it's not nsfw!"
    when there are literally bare booty cheeks on my screen and a singular
    circle covering the anus. Okay?

.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.

.-<#] End [#>-----------------------------------------------------------------.

    Thank you for reading.

    While this "acid" metaphor could be applied to more things, :3 is the
    most common example. Chances are that you have seen it and can relate
    to a degree so I can deploy my point easier.

.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------.

                              -< by home-gihub >-
                            (home-gihub.github.io)