I think he's talking about the individual memes that come up weekly. "Draw X character in this shirt" that kind of thing. It always existed, but I've never really recalled it being this frequent when I used Weasyl.
Once again, the frequency isn't really something new. You could always see what was popular any one particular week / month by looking for trends on the front page. Of which there were often many.
Part of the reason this likely seems different now is that a lot of the internet is far more interconnected, so whereas before each Furry site was something of a vacuum (often at least semi-enforced at that: FA wanting to be distinct from SF wanting to be distinct from IB wanting to...) now there's a lot more bleedover between online communities leading to something popular on one site inevitably trickling over to another. Before it was fairly easy to miss whatever was trending, now it's easier to stumble upon it.
There's also, admittedly, a discussion to be had about how while the Furry Community has
expanded, the rest of the internet has significantly
contracted, which also leads to a change in perception.
I don't think that's really furry exclusive or necessarily the worst shit ever though.
For a laugh, keep an eye out for memes that have been cross-posted so many times that you can see them return to the originating site a 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th time. You know the drill: Tumblr post screenshot in Twitter cropped for Instagram posted back on Tumblr only to be shared again on-
The internet churns quite rapidly and prolifically.
As for the
other Social Media stuff: I don't believe it was an attempt to silence anyone so much as comment on how... I mean, just look at this thread's history? Or other - similar - threads' history? The thread tends to go quiet for anywhere from a week to months, only for somebody to jump in and go "Gee Twitter sure sucks", and the pattern to rinse repeat. Sometimes it's even the same person coming back into a thread (again, weeks / months later) to reiterate "Twitter sure sucks". Which after a point leads one (as I presume Tyra was getting at) to wonder if the problem is not so much the site
itself as an inability to know one's limits, how to best curate their online experiences, and generally withdraw their self from a toxic loop.
A matter I'm admittedly
pretty terrible at myself (having taken something like four years to extract myself from a website I actively
knew was making me angry, and which
even now I'm considering going back to because of Discord NFT drama despite knowing that it'll probably just rip open old scars for the sake of socialization convenience), but none the less
very much worth bringing up as it's a
vital skill to have when navigating the modern internet.
There's reading between the line that could be had, but I don't believe Tyra is making any such effort / looking to a stir the pot instead of exactly the above. Some people
really need to realize that looking at certain sites without taking certain precautions is like grabbing a hot skillet bare-handed over and over again, and thus should either start wearing oven mitts or learn to stop using said skillet and adapt to something else.