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Ask HN: 90s kids happily less connected?

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21–30 of 58 posts

Re: Ask HN: 90s kids happily less connected?

#21

I'm not observing this at all. Most of my Millennial family and friends are on Instagram, regularly posting Stories about their family or travel. Many 30-year-olds+ are as hooked on short-form content (TikTok, YouTube shorts, Reels etc.) as the younger generation, but the latter are more likely to contribute rather than passively consume. Messenger apps are very popular, with WhatsApp still being the number one choic…

Twitter is in this weird schrodingers cat situation where I don't know anyone that uses it, but its brought up as important constantly. Journalists, Celebrities, and Politicians love it, and that made it seem more important. I hope it goes away forever one day.

Re: Ask HN: 90s kids happily less connected?

#22
I think for older millennials it’s sort of like moving on to high school and encountering middle schoolers. You get this icky feeling of what you once were. Like geez, you guys are really into that? Yuck.

It’s a form of self loathing. One has to understand that everyone goes through these phases and when you make it out, leave it behind, and don’t judge those in whatever phase of life they are in. As lame as it is, and as much it reminds you of how lame you once were.

I don’t know what’s wrong with all the dick riders on social media. I just accept that it’s a phase ( a long one ) for a lot of people.

Re: Ask HN: 90s kids happily less connected?

#23
I didn't notice this at all. My close friends are part of my finsta and I am part of theirs. That's two different accounts most maintain. I haven't posted on my instagram in forever but I post a story every once in a while. Most of my friends are the same way. Some of my friends have made their twitter completely professional, but most use it to shit post. Everyone I'm close to uses the 'close friends' feature on instagram, the standard stories are much less frequent.

In certain groups we have shifted to using discord for group messaging, not just a group channel, there's one for meme, new papers, food eaten, tv shows, we even had a world cup and did a group voice call during the finals. I don't know what member count would be considered social media vs . I am in small private ones and also huge, 2000+ people public ones. Arguably my friends are a healthy mix of millenial and gen z kids because I was born on imaginary border between the two. What size should be considered the limit?

I don't think 90s kids are happily less connected. I know friends that take breaks, sometimes for months, but they always come back and generally post holiday stories/posts. I know in the past, my "break" has been just looking at stories like once a week and posting stories but not opening stories.

Re: Ask HN: 90s kids happily less connected?

#24

It’s more of an age thing than a generational thing, Once you get in your 30’s, you have had enough real human adult socialization to realize the value of actual relationships vs the fake personas that people generate, curate and filter on social media.

That's not really what we see though given that while in their late 20s / early 30s many people reconsider their view of social media, the older generation of people in their 50s / 60s use social media more and more and highly value the fake online relationships.

Re: Ask HN: 90s kids happily less connected?

#26
post #5

Im 36, I guess so? I don’t use “social media” at all anymore, but I use Discord a lot. It reminds me of the good ol’ days of AOL and IRC, and I prefer chat rooms over posting into the void. I find Twitter and such intolerable because it mostly started to feel like I was just a mark for random grifts. At some point around ~2016 everything seemed to turn into a link for Patreon or a podcast or blah blah

> I don’t use “social media” at all anymore Posted on HN, QED.

Do you consider forums "social media"?

Re: Ask HN: 90s kids happily less connected?

#27
I’ll toss in my two cents as someone born in the mid nineties, and is not very connected by modern standards. I have a Discord, Reddit, HN, YouTube (?) and Steam. I’ve deleted or completely stopped using any other social media accounts.

That being said I can count on one hand the number of people who have a similar level of disconnect. Most people +/- 5 years of me that I know maintain on if not multiple other social media accounts. Mostly Instagram, from my experience.

I think the biggest thing I’ve noticed is that people I talk to are _aware_ of the risks and dangers of engaging with social media. But for some reason or another still choose to do so. But the level of awareness is up quite a bit from where it was half a decade ago.

Re: Ask HN: 90s kids happily less connected?

#28
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t use “social media” at all anymore Posted on HN, QED.

This kind of pedantry is exactly what keeps me coming back for more!

You better write longer, more informative paragraphs LOL

Re: Ask HN: 90s kids happily less connected?

#29

It’s more of an age thing than a generational thing, Once you get in your 30’s, you have had enough real human adult socialization to realize the value of actual relationships vs the fake personas that people generate, curate and filter on social media.

I do not that that will be true for teens growing up today. They seem to be weened on a sort of cyborg I traction model rather than any actual direct human contact.

Interesting, please could you elaborate more precisely?

Re: Ask HN: 90s kids happily less connected?

#30
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t use “social media” at all anymore Posted on HN, QED.

Do you consider forums "social media"?

I don't consider forums social media. To me, HN is more of a forum.

A social media's primary goal is engagement - to keep you coming back for more, to keep you scrolling. And the content reflects that.

A forum's primary goal is discourse.

Reddit straddles that weird space in between.

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