Microblog Memes

The day's work turning up in the morning post and there being no chance of further work appearing afterwards. The days working in an office before email and PCs were wonderful.

The good:

• not always being reachable. Less immediacy. More self discipline without instant answers
• 3rd spaces caused people to mix who wouldn't otherwise. There are fewer these days. It also kept people more civil (in one way or another). Likewise, it provided a buffer against disinfo in some senses since people would call BS on something that was wrong. Contrast this to life today on the internet with weird bubbles and conspiracy theories spread like crazy
• more togetherness and hopefulness. Some of this is probably because I was younger, but even in my really rural, conservative US town, no one was against conservation, not wasting water, being more eco-friendly, and trying to help stop the acid rain and ozone hole. That somehow became very politicized and hopelessness has taken over
• people were in the moment, not filming the moment. This especially sucks at live shows compared to the past. Also people doing dumb shit in public for an internet audience didn't exist for obvious reasons.
• the entertainment was what was on or what you made. No endless distraction or scrolling. More imagination, more involvement in things rather than just posting about it online.
• More privacy, fewer devices constantly sending any telemetry or personal data

The bad:

• not being reachable has consequences in terms of emergencies
• it was easier to get stranded in the past
• things that were missed by forgetting a schedule at home or not knowing it and not being able to look it up
• learning languages was worse IMO. Certainly less variety where I was
• much more casual sexism, homophobia, racism, etc.
• navigation was sometimes harder since maps needed to be updated and one needed to know and to buy the new one. Not a big deal, though, in most areas
• obvious things like medical and other sciences being much more behind. More death.
• HIV/AIDS scare and its consequences on people

I'm sure there's more that will come to me later.

I traveled to Japan without knowing anything about the language or address system. I was well and truly lost. Upon landing, I had the address of my hotel and knew what subway station I needed to get to, but the numbers on the buildings made absolutely no sense to me. They did not continue by linear means.

It was amazing.

I felt like I was truly in another world. Like I was on an adventure in a video game and had a puzzle I needed to solve. I found a little police hut and asked for help by showing them the address and looking confused. They gave me a map with hand drawn directions. I still have it.

You could probably still do this but just turning off your phone, but I feel like society is different now and people are more likely to wonder why you aren't using it.

Those before what? For you it feels likethere was a “before" and a now, but for me (54 years old) it feels like continuity. So many people keep asking this question, or promoting some pseudo “better before” era, that I’m starting to wonder if the world didn’t just wake up dumb.When cellphones didn’t exist, the idea of a cellphone‑based world didn’t even occur to us...except in science fiction. Now that I have a smartphone, I’m just glad I can video‑call my kid, buy groceries online while I’m on the road, and get home to cook. There’s nothing “better” or “worse.” Rude people always existed. In my time, you’d walk into a room, say hello, and there was always that one guy who wouldn’t even lift his eyes from his sports magazine.

Subcultures. These days, it's just an aesthetic choice.

Having an attention span. I used to be able to sit with a book and read for hours in silence. Now I don’t like when it’s too quiet. And if I play music to counteract that my brain also can’t read the same thing for more than a paragraph because scrolling through Reddit has made it so I don’t have the patience for anything and I want quick, digestible pieces. Watching movies and tv shows is also terrible because I’m constantly checking my phone so I miss a lot of important details. I fully acknowledge I have a phone addiction.

Written from my stream of consciousness, edited for grammar:

The simplest answer is that we were able to do dumb things and make dumb choices without it becoming a viral moment that haunted us.

The things that kids in high school did that would be life-shattering now were little more than rumors to most kids in the school. There was no video that circulated, no major social media that allowed the school to sit in judgment of whatever was happening. The thing happened, people talked about it for a few weeks, and aside from a handful of mean people, everyone moved on.

I'm of the Jackass generation, so we had our fill of stupid. We had our fill of online danger too, but there was less permanence to the choices we made in the moment most of the time. We were free to be stupid, and being stupid is a part of growing up that we've forgotten.

Online was different, it was better. I'll die on that hill. We communicated with each other instead of trying to win a popularity contest. Some of the old viral videos were just made to test software and goof off. It was real and human in a way that has been replaced by commercialization. There was stuff you shouldn't see. There were people you shouldn't talk to. But the majority of digital spaces and forums were about communication, debate, and understanding. Yes, there was a lot of degenerate content, but those spaces were relegated to the darker corners of the internet.

I learned more about world history, labor history, sociology, and finance than I had ever learned in high school. Every instance of learning came with the ability to ask questions, and those questions got answered thoroughly, sometimes with sources. It wasn't a game to find the perfect pun or insult. The top-rated comment was the one most people agreed with or appreciated.

I know it isn't the main part of the question, but I honestly blame Tucker Max for the start of the downfall. In his autobiographical book, he walked through a lot of early social engineering and manipulations that I came to see as commonplace online.

I know this is long for the modern internet. It wasn't for my internet. This was about cell phones. My mistake, but then again, the modern internet is experienced through the cell phone. We had to use a computer in the living room or go to a friend's house and access the internet when everyone was asleep. That way we didn't mess with the phone line.

We had walkie-talkies to keep in touch with family in case of emergencies. Sleepovers weren't about scrolling on phones and showing each other videos. We did do that. We used the computer to look at YouTube videos, but we also walked around at night when we shouldn't have, played video games until dawn, and watched Real Sex (the show) on TV. Things were just a little bit harder, so you had to work a little to get anything.

Something else, no matter what you were doing or where you went, you didn't just take a walkie-talkie. You had your radio, then a Walkman, then an MP3 player. You brought your Magic or Pokémon cards to trade. Maybe you would need your camera or a copy of Game Informer, or a cheat code book, etc. Every time you went out, you had to decide what was important to bring, what options you wanted for playing and experiencing things together with your friends.

We were more able to be bored, and that made us more able to be creative, or stupid, if we're bringing it full circle.

I know this seems long, but this post is almost standard for some writing from back then, online at least.

you could absolutely buy singles of songs if you wanted (I would usually buy my singles on cassette cause they were way cheaper), however it was usually more cost effective to buy the whole album. (if you liked the artist and wanted to take the risk)

usually listening to the entire album a few times will get you some pretty decent songs and it meant you got to take time to really appreciate what you had to listen to. also I found that my enjoyment of stuff would change every listen.

the best case scenario is you bought an album and every single song was a banger. and you just don't get that anymore because you have access to everything all the time. so its much easier to just hit the skip button nowadays.

Everything. The world had so much before we started spending our present in phones. I had time for art and hobbies and writing. I did so much exploration and sports and socializing. Road trips, and events, and helping others. Things were memorable.

Now is more like an addiction. The time goes but I’m never sure where it went. I barely have time to sleep, much less any other activities

• there being no expectation of being reachable at any moment

• not being under constant surveillance

• not being so brazenly exploited and having my data harvested at every possible opportunity

• not having the world at your fingertips and the associated feelings of needing to make use of that

Conversations without someone pulling out their phone or checking notifications on their watch.

Also, not knowing something. Pete Homes has this joke about before the Internet there was not knowing something. You just wouldn’t know where Tom Petty was from. You’d go around asking people if they knew. Finally, a woman tells you and that’s how you meet your wife.

I kinda like the idea of it just being okay to not know something but the ADHD in me is screaming.

Science fiction dystopias being fictional and set in the "far future".

Being care free. Drinking a beer and smoking down by the river at the age of 15, without the possibility of someone posting it. These days I see kids very self cautious. Which is good in someways, somking half a pack a day as a child might not been the best idea. But there is probably a lot of pent up frustration and stress that they cannot release easily. It's probably very taxing mentally.

Being unreachable without it feeling weird—peace was built into the day.

Going to the video rental store with my family and browsing for movies to watch. Shelves with multiple copies facing you, then you realise that behind the front ones are blank, empty boxes to bulk up the display and none of the ones on the shelf are the ones you actually take home anyway. Seeing the 3D cardboard cutouts advertising new releases.

I also miss christmas TV. Getting a 2 week TV guide and going through it with a pen putting a star next to the things you wanted to see. Recording one channel while watching another when there was a conflict. Big movies that were at the cinema 6 months to a year ago being on TV. Popular series making good Christmas specials. I guess the scarcity of media made it more desirable and christmas tv was an event. Now it is shit but not only because of what's on, but because you've already seen the food stuff that's on, and the Christmas specials are rarer, and not good. Also there's too much 'classic' TV from the 70s I don't care about. Feels lazy that they rely on filling the program with the old instead of making new.

You had to organize to meet a place and time. It wasnt just spur of the moment to moment decisions with easy communication.

It meant you actually had to plan and going places was a bit more like a quest and you had to consider other people into your plans.

My attention span

I didn't have to worry that someone would call me at a random moment and will assign me some random task.

Lack of expectation that wherever I am and whatever I do anyone can just call me to get instant answer.

Also - less societal control. Kids nowadays can't go anywhere in public without their parents. They either get kicked out, have police sicced at them, or spaces where anyone can hang out for free are regularly erased. Case in point - even online spaces are now slowly closed from non-adults. In my youth one could go to any of the public spaces and hang out there for free with nobody troubling you.

World now feels like it's strongly geared towards raising slaves - always available, always under control, even rest seems to be paywalled.

My parents never used to know where I was and had no way of contacting me. At the time I liked that though I I'm glad smartphones exist now so I can keep track of my kids. If they start doing what I did when I was a kid it would worry me.

We also used to jump off a bridge into the local river, but 2 years ago a kid drowned doing that so now I'm worried about it.

Not being constantly bombarded with information. Not just the internet, but every source of information (TV, radio, music, even written media) has grown by orders of magnitude. Then you pile email, messaging, social media etc on top of that, dump a shitload of advertising on top of the whole mess, add on a bunch of algorithms to keep you hooked and AI to churn out drivel. We went from information scarcity to a ludicrous excess and perhaps people of my age find it hard not to try to voraciously consume all we can, because that's what we did when we were young, when it was scarce.

Life was quieter back then. You had to find ways to fill your time. Read a book. Draw something. Make something. Of course you can still do those things but now I have to fight to find the time and attention. We live in a world of constant interruption, so many things fighting for our attention. It's tiring.

Top 40 Radio. It was the default in most stores and restaurants.

You didn't have to go hunting for music, music came to you.

People in small towns were hearing Motown and people in the city were hearing Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton.

These days, most of the places I go into have a 1980s station on.

Also, variety TV shows.

I think my (and probably everyone else's) memory was better when you couldn't just look things up instantly.

those analog landline phones were good

when you mad at someone you could just slam it, nowadays the touchscreen hanging up is not the same effect

Funnily enough I miss the internet. You can kind get the same experience in the right places, but it's not quite the same vibe.

Maybe if you typed the question as text instead of a screenshot, you might get some folks to accept the question as legitimate.

Being on holiday really felt like you were in a far away place, cut off from everything familiar. Today, no matter where you go on the planet, everything is kinda the same because you bring your digital environment with you.

When I was a kid, before we had internet connection, I bought my own copy of Visual Basic and spent evenings coding all sorts of stuff.

These days trying to find consentration to get in the flow is way harder

I miss the higher level of engagement and interactions with another person or group when socializing.

Now that everyone has a computer in their pocket, they have an alternative (and sometimes primary) source to engage with during social interactions and events. Now instead of using social skills to change, deepen, or otherwise adjust conversation and engagement on an individual or group level, many people opt out and zone out on their phones instead.

It started with texting. I noticed that at parties or small group interactions, people would oscillate between interacting with the group and texting others either in attendance or not, whichever entertained/engaged them the most. Suddenly instead of parties being full of people who were there to be there and interact with others there, they became full of people who were there until the next exciting thing flashed on their screens and they would just leave without even really being there anyway.

What I’m saying is that people used to be engaged and dedicated in a more wholistic way when socializing, and I miss that. I hate that texting others while you have someone right in front of you that you agreed to spend time with is normal. I hate that I can’t trust anyone to value my time as much as I do theirs, and that apparently I’m taking it too seriously if I do.

Being inaccessible was a hidden pleasure. Just be where you are

Getting a phone call from a friend, someone else in the house would usually get to the phone first, and you'd pick up another phone on the same line in a diff room, or calling someone you'd usually get their parents first. My step dad had a rough demeanor and would scare my and my siblings friends barking "yeah" at them when he answered we thought was pretty funny because once you knew him he was usually pretty kind & generous and loved cracking dad jokes.

Being a child. My grandparents being alive. Not having to go to work. Being able to just go out and do shit and not be answerable to anyone until I came home.