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I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

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Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#271

Post by C_System »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #11

My guilty pleasure is 9gag. It's blocked in the office (thankfully), so I spend way too much time on it when I'm not at work. I used to read a lot of webcomics (XKCD, Joy of Tech, Pon and Zi, QuestionableContent, Poorly Drawn Lines, The Brads) and user-generated art (DeviantArt). 9gag lowered the barriers to entry and made it easy for images to become viral. It's also now transitioned into auto-playing videos instead…

This is a great story, it's like triple-dipping. You're getting a) paid to b) learn and c) look at memes.

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#272

Post by sgt101 »

mathgeek wrote: post #242
sgt101 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quit WOW at about that time, I played from release, the golden days were TBC && WoTLK, but the rot set in when 40 mans were retired. Doing a 40 man and getting the gear from a 40 man was a defining ambition of guilds, not many guilds managed to set themselves up to do regular 40 man runs and you had to ladder up the 40 man content when you did - molten core and on and up. This pressure and ambition drove really str…

I readily agree that old school WoW was much more social and fun, but personally, most of the enjoyment of the game for me was only possible because I was a 20-something with no spouse, no kids, and no real responsibilities outside of showing up to work during the day. Now that I'm a practicing Adult®, I still kinda dream of WoW Classic being what we all remember the original game being, but I also know that if I got…

Yes - there's no going back, life changes! It's like Rugby.

I used to enjoy Rugby, but I was 17, if I played Rugby now I would enjoy it. But I am glad it's available for 17 year olds who want a go.

One thought though, my guild has actually re-awoken in the last few months. I'm still on the mail list - as apparently was everyone else, and now people are talking about doing instances and so on. I couldn't have done it until recently, because I had small children - so as everybody knows, fugetaboutit. But, if WOW was in TBC state with some interesting new content I'm pretty sure I would jump in.

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#273

Post by dpark »

pmlnr wrote: post #205
mseebach wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a major factor is the fact that the internet is now mainstream. In the early days, you had something in common with everybody, simply by being on the internet. The place was silly with people absolutely floored by the idea that they were casually chatting with someone halfway across the continent, something only possible on very expensive phone calls until then. Everybody was also, by necessity, an early tech…

Internet data connection might be mainstream, but Internet, as in websites, blogs, genuine, independent content, is really not. There are places where the internet is Facebook. I remember times when the internet was a blue E on the desktop, but at least that really did take people to the internet, and not a walled garden.

The idea that the Internet is just Facebook for most people is absurd. Yes, there exist people who essentially only use Facebook, but this is not the norm.

Google is worth 755 billion dollars, and they didn’t get there just by being the easiest way to find Facebook. Pinterest has amassed a 12 billion dollar valuation just for managing to insert themselves between Google search results and a the billion blogs you think most people don’t even know about.

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#274

Post by eyeundersand »

cityzen wrote: post #255
jakespencer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have nothing interesting to add, except that I literally just stood up from reading House of Leaves in bed before sleep.

How far are you? Are you reading all of the footnotes? I am so confused about it all but I love it. It has really sparked a curiosity I haven't had in awhile. Btw, have you heard of the book Ship of Theseus? I bought it for my wife and we haven't jumped into it yet but seems similar in that it's a big puzzle: https://www.amazon.com/Ship-Theseus-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642 (and JJ Abrams if you're a fan)

I'm not OP, but I finished House of Leaves a year back and you definitely want to read the footnotes and everything else that Danielewski (or Zampano, if you like) has put on there.

It really is a terrific book.

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#275

Post by Jemmeh »

y2bd wrote: post #61
gkoberger wrote: post #44

I think a lot of people here are missing the point. Yeah, there's a lot more content to consume now. However, it doesn't feel like a community... it feels more like watching reruns on TBS. I remember making actual friends on message boards. Friends I eventually met in the real world. I don't think relationships like that are really formed anymore. Most of social media now is a broadcast, not a conversation. People (m…

This is pretty much how I felt as a long-time TF2 player super excited for Overwatch to come out, and then very sad once I realized what kind of game it was. You grab your friends and play Overwatch, while you play TF2 and meet your friends. And also a parallel, TF2 obviously still exists, but all of the servers I used to play on are gone now. Haven’t found anything else quite yet. FFXIV actually was super enjoyable…

Join a discord channel for whatever game you're playing. You can voice chat with people and make new friends that way.

I'm in the League of Legends discord and party up with strangers all the time. If the game goes well or people are just particularly friendly we usually play a few rounds and sometimes friend requests are sent and we end up playing more often. I've met a fair amount of people this way.

I do agree though, love MMOs for community. Some of my oldest friends are from my MMO days, but those games often get grindy and take up too much time.

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#276

Post by Jemmeh »

newsbinator wrote: post #201
jonreem wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Join a discord server for a relatively niche interest that you have and not only will you meet many others with similarly deep interest in a water cooler format but you will be able to work on your hobby much more effectively with a close community of like minded people. Discord is a place that still has conversations and communities, not broadcasts and celebrities.

How would you find these communities? This is particularly hard if you're not interested in gaming (beyond the N64 level).

Just google "yourInterest discord reddit" and someone is usually talking about it. I'm in a keto diet discord & joined a programming channel recently.

I see N64 discord servers. I don't know if they're busy, but I see 'em.

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#277

Post by Jemmeh »

cityzen wrote: post #6

I have been saying I've "reached the end of the internet" for awhile now. I am 44 and have been working on the web since mid 90s. I remember so much cool stuff from then. Trying to get a 56k modem to work, dealing with the fact that you couldn't always get online or if you did you could get kicked off at any time. I remember streaming the Tibetan Freedom Concert with realplayer back in '98. The first mp3 i got, napst…

Unsubscribe from r/politics and subscribe to r/writingprompts instead. You get free short stories, a good way to read a little something before bed. Just implement a limit of some sort on yourself. "I'll only read 2 stories per night" or something like that. I keep my reddit super positive: DIY, programming, fitness, wholesomememes, finance. That's the beauty of it, you can control that content.

I try to keep HN as my only news source. I still know about the big stuff but I don't get super weighed down. I donate to a charity I know is doing good and focus on what I can do to improve things. I can't fix all the madness in the world but if I focus on a narrow strip of life that I can reach I can have more positive impact than I would sitting around stressed and sad.

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#278

Post by Aco- »

eswat wrote: post #227
y2bd wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty much how I felt as a long-time TF2 player super excited for Overwatch to come out, and then very sad once I realized what kind of game it was. You grab your friends and play Overwatch, while you play TF2 and meet your friends. And also a parallel, TF2 obviously still exists, but all of the servers I used to play on are gone now. Haven’t found anything else quite yet. FFXIV actually was super enjoyable…

I’ve also felt this experience when it comes to content creation for games. I missed the modding communities in the late 90s/early 00s that had a sense of place and community. Things tended to gravitate around their IRC channels and those of the actual game. Was great to develop relationships online with not only the modders but the people developing the games. As an example, Epic Games were super-accessible back in…

You mention UT99/2003/2004, did you play competitively by chance? I miss the good old days of gaming, clans, ladders, forums & IRC.

If it weren't for UT's modding & hacking community I wouldn't have got in to this industry. A lot of people I know have similar stories.

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#279

Post by [deleted] »

silveroriole wrote: post #145
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #28

He's just old. Go to Tumblr, Facebook groups, Instagram. There's thousands of places to waste your time with vapid, unyielding streams of barely entertaining content. I recently spent hours going through bad geography memes. Geography. Memes. Or you could go old-school. Fark.com is still around, as is SomethingAwful. Reddit has tons of content. And if you're not at work and looking for a horrifying thrill ride, 4chan…

“Go to Tumblr, Facebook groups, Instagram... Reddit... 4chan” All of those have one thing in common to me, which is that they’re not meant for holding conversations on. Facebook pretends to be but if you post more than a couple of replies they get collapsed up. All those sites are “here’s a picture/video, make a kneejerk response, move on.” Ok sure that’s optimised for timewasting - I just want to see content, I don’…

[deleted]

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#280

Post by cityzen »

eyeundersand wrote: post #274
cityzen wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How far are you? Are you reading all of the footnotes? I am so confused about it all but I love it. It has really sparked a curiosity I haven't had in awhile. Btw, have you heard of the book Ship of Theseus? I bought it for my wife and we haven't jumped into it yet but seems similar in that it's a big puzzle: https://www.amazon.com/Ship-Theseus-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642 (and JJ Abrams if you're a fan)

I'm not OP, but I finished House of Leaves a year back and you definitely want to read the footnotes and everything else that Danielewski (or Zampano, if you like) has put on there. It really is a terrific book.

I am definitely reading them but some of them are just references to news stories or articles that I just skim. Not sure if I'm meant to be digging deeper with those.

the nonlinear aspect of it all is wonderful.

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