True or false: Having a childhood before social media took over was a such a blessing.

[Rekkapryde]

Thats THIS forum.

Oldschool forums didnt have a "likes" system man. You HAD to expand on ideas or just not post. You could still have fun obviously, and expand on jokes and hunor. (Which was also more fun to read)But a rep system isnt fun, its arguably trying to bring real life social heirarchies into a realm that shouldnt have it.

Its like the jocks and cheerleader normies cant survive in a world where that doesnt exist, and HAD to bring it with them in a place where only perspective matters.

Now imagine if i just dapped or negged you instead of writing this...

Oh, I'm so I fully know what you are talking about. But this site was birthed from SOHH which was around since the late 90s and early stages of the internet.

 

[Rekkapryde]

Online shyt used to be online shyt

this

 

[Sad Bunny]

I’d cry if my kids grew up addicted to social media

 

[Deltron]

It was. But I remember how folks use to laugh at people for "internet dating" back then. And now online dating/hookups are the norm to the point some people see cold approaching outside the net as behavior now.

Crazy how that script got flipped.

It is nuts.

 

[Cheese McNair]

Smart phones was the true game changer

 

[dangerranger]

I do however hate how it is the majority influence on everything, how these...people let it become that. Because if the world was full of me...this shyt would be in trouble lmao

I hate how it lowered the quality and standards of entertainment(tiktok), discourse, fame, comedy, even "modeling" etc. Because it allows normies who could never make it without social media, to suddenly get viewed alot by people looking for cheap content.

That cheap big titty chick who would NEVER make it in the modeling industry without insta? Now suddenly is an "instagram model". That hacky comic who wouldnt make it before? Now can do voice overs or something and be richer than really good comics.

It just cheapened everything. And created or excerbated a narcissistic culture. fukking normies man, just gravitating towards whatever people fukking tell them to.

Excellent post. You nailed how I felt about all of this crap. It cheapened everything. Like we outsourced ourselves. People like to rally against gatekeepers but they exist for a reason. They are there to keep the purity of things in essence. There are procedures. There’s a way of doing things. Social media allows people to skip a lot of that. They aren’t as thoughtful as the gatekeepers bc they can just do things easy and for cheap. It shows. It’s crept into everything.

 

[dangerranger]

hahah exactly. The attention issue is where we circle back. I just didn't want to go there, but forums and texts (now) have many of those same features,

the like, the love, the EMPHASIS, all without saying why do you love what I sent? What about do you love? do you agree or disagree?

It's not all bad, of course no one is going to engage in a Platos Cave debate with you every hour, about a 90's hip hop shooting, or a drug cartel arrest in Sinaloa (no matter how much I may want to) but it doesn't really build towards understanding or in depth thought, it's all superficial, again bringing it back to the slot machine idea, we get these likes and notifications with noises and colorful emojis, and sometimes, that can be efficient communication, but a lot of the time it isn't.

to underline a point, if your attention span gets so shortened, how can you attempt to understand things, that require more than a half second consideration?

and if we always do what's easy, what does that say about our resolve for the rest of life?

The idea that was this page about the performative nature of communication is also really insightful, goes back to the text convo I referenced, as in who can communicate LESS to preserve the idea of being more powerful?

These are the things people don’t talk about in society that often. It’s why we are having a lot of the problems that we are having currently. It’s all tied together. I truly believe that technology has evolved too much. By too much, I mean evolved past where society is. We don’t know how to manage and balance the use of these technologies which make us susceptible to manipulation but also adapting concerning bad behaviors without recognizing that we are doing it. I stand by this belief, what’s happening now despite some sounding the alarm is a battle for the minds, hearts, and souls of the up and coming generations. They are the ones that grow up thinking these ways of living are normal. They are the ones that are being influenced in terms of these online wars and meme inspired disinformation campaigns bc in the future they will eat up all the lies they were fed when they were younger. We think it’s bad now, it can get much worse.

 

[NatiboyB]

I know for a fact I’m lucky social wasn’t popping because I would of been behind bars multiple times.

 

[OperationNumbNutts]

True.

 

[NoirDynosaur]

I would say it was better before the Internet was easily accessible on phones.

I agree smartphones changed the way we accessed the internet

When we had computer desktops we had to put more effort to make our posts stand out. It felt more authentic because we weren't in a rush for likes and followers. It was slow paced, natural and organic communication.

Nowadays we live in the digital "fast food" era where everything posted at a instant rate. As a result, attention spans have gotten shorter. It's on to the next.

 

[re'up]

I just thought that I, kind of intentionally, don't post on The Coli from my phone, I don't even access it. Only from my desktop.

Gives some distance.

 

[SunZoo]

Childhood was pretty fukked up sans social media.

I don't know if it would have made it worse or not Can certainly see pros and cons.

 

[Duke Wy Lin]

Young ppl don't even know how it feels to be bored. There's always a way to kill time if your phone is near by.

I still remember not knowing who was calling my landline phone until after I picked it up.

Still remember walking around without a phone in my pocket with no way for ppl to reach me if I was out and about.

It definitely was a blessing because it set a healthy baseline that we can judge our current reality against.

 

[NoirDynosaur]

I do however hate how it is the majority influence on everything, how these...people let it become that. Because if the world was full of me...this shyt would be in trouble lmao

I hate how it lowered the quality and standards of entertainment(tiktok), discourse, fame, comedy, even "modeling" etc. Because it allows normies who could never make it without social media, to suddenly get viewed alot by people looking for cheap content.

That cheap big titty chick who would NEVER make it in the modeling industry without insta? Now suddenly is an "instagram model". That hacky comic who wouldnt make it before? Now can do voice overs or something and be richer than really good comics.

It just cheapened everything. And created or excerbated a narcissistic culture. fukking normies man, just gravitating towards whatever people fukking tell them to.

Social media nowadays is like having social security card, it's like we automatically need one just because it's now part of society.

IIt's silly how a lot of people would go extreme just for virtual clout... Being famous on social media is like being rich in monopoly there's no realistic endpoint

Dating wise it has affected. A lot of girls got big egos online

get them in person they're like shy as fukk

 

[Deltron]

Young ppl don't even know how it feels to be bored. There's always a way to kill time if your phone is near by.

Trust me, they do.

My nephs be always telling me they bored when I check on them.

Despite my sis giving them their own tablets and shyt