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This is in alignment with an idea I have been coming around to. The nostalgia for the old Internet wasn’t about a particular aesthetic. And there are a lot of

This is in alignment with an idea I have been coming around to. The nostalgia for the old Internet wasn’t about a particular aesthetic. And there are a lot of rose tinted glasses forgetting about flaky slow connections, useless search engines, pop-up hell, etc. The part of the early web we long for is intrinsic motivation. Being there was its own reward. Over time, not just on the web, but in all parts of our society, extrinsic motivation has latched on to everything. We used to play video games just because. Now people play them to get currencies to get rewards. We used to make software just because. Now we make it to put in an app store to get rich. We used to share videos for fun. Now we try to get rich on YouTube and Twitch. We used to answer questions on IRC because. Now we answer questions on Stack Overflow, Reddit, or even here, to get karma points. We used to chat just because. Now we share just to get likes and retweets and subscribes. What we long for is to go back to a time when people were intrinsically motivated. Places like that still exist, but you will have a hard time finding links to them on any platform where users are extrinsically motivated.

CursedSilicon 1y ago
I'm glad someone understands where I was coming from with my uh. "rant" (for lack of a better descriptor) Something that's worth adding is that we've moved to such a much more predatory "crab bucket" mentality around it all. You can't genuinely enjoy something anymore. That's "cringe" (or something). You have to wrap anything you like in fifty layers of irony as a protective shield so that your peers don't tear you down about it Not to mention if you're any kind of deviation from the norm (queer, PoC etc) you will be challenged for the simple reality of...existing These spaces still exist (Fediverse is a big one) but even then it feels less like a place that one can be ones authentic self 100% of the time and more a place to "be weird, but be ready to defend your homeland at any time" from the nigh infinite hordes of awful people who want to tear it all down
- squigz 1y ago
  None of what you write lines up with my experience with the younger generations. Maybe this all has to do more with the type of people you interact with than any kind of generational cultural gaps - especially considering much of what you're talking about has existed in some groups for many generations.
  - CursedSilicon 1y ago
    I mean. As I said elsewhere in the thread. I came at this as someone who grew up as a queer person in the 90's and 2000's My experiences are decidedly different. Or as one proactive commenter keeps trying to foist upon me "too niche" With full knowledge of the hornets nest I'm now kicking in drawing this parallel. I'd say that there's a LOT of LGBT kids today who feel just as alienated as I did back then
    - squigz 1y ago
      I'm very much in the same niche boat you are. Gay, autistic, and blind :)
    - soco 1y ago
      One of those niches is Tumblr, which I still find very different in culture from any other social networks I ever been. Or at least my niche on Tumblr is like that. Yes I do see "output-only" communities also there, but there's still enough room for the "real thing".

CursedSilicon 1y ago

I'm glad someone understands where I was coming from with my uh. "rant" (for lack of a better descriptor) Something that's worth adding is that we've moved to such a much more predatory "crab bucket" mentality around it all. You can't genuinely enjoy something anymore. That's "cringe" (or something). You have to wrap anything you like in fifty layers of irony as a protective shield so that your peers don't tear you down about it Not to mention if you're any kind of deviation from the norm (queer, PoC etc) you will be challenged for the simple reality of...existing These spaces still exist (Fediverse is a big one) but even then it feels less like a place that one can be ones authentic self 100% of the time and more a place to "be weird, but be ready to defend your homeland at any time" from the nigh infinite hordes of awful people who want to tear it all down

squigz 1y ago
None of what you write lines up with my experience with the younger generations. Maybe this all has to do more with the type of people you interact with than any kind of generational cultural gaps - especially considering much of what you're talking about has existed in some groups for many generations.
- CursedSilicon 1y ago
  I mean. As I said elsewhere in the thread. I came at this as someone who grew up as a queer person in the 90's and 2000's My experiences are decidedly different. Or as one proactive commenter keeps trying to foist upon me "too niche" With full knowledge of the hornets nest I'm now kicking in drawing this parallel. I'd say that there's a LOT of LGBT kids today who feel just as alienated as I did back then
  - squigz 1y ago
    I'm very much in the same niche boat you are. Gay, autistic, and blind :)
  - soco 1y ago
    One of those niches is Tumblr, which I still find very different in culture from any other social networks I ever been. Or at least my niche on Tumblr is like that. Yes I do see "output-only" communities also there, but there's still enough room for the "real thing".