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Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

theatlantic.com

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Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#291

Post by chrisweekly »

standardUser wrote: post #254
pavon wrote: post #124

Recently I was thinking about how I am completely out of touch with the culture of younger generations, and was about to laugh it off cause that's how it is with every generation, but then I realized that I don't even know how I would know. In the past if you wanted to know what kids were listening to, you change the radio station to that new loud one you normally skip, or watch that new TV show that people are going…

In my early-40's, I've found that the massive gap between youth culture and adult culture has, thankfully, shrunk. While it's still the case that no 16-year-olds are going to want to hang out with us, their language and activities and perspectives don't feel as foreign as Boomers purported to feel about, well, everything. Because unlike previous generations, who fetishized leaving behind childish things and creating…

"it's still the case that no 16-year-olds are going to want to hang out with us"

That's a broad brush you're painting with, amigo. As a 49yo father w/ two teen daughters (17 and 15), I've been surprised and delighted at the strong bonds I have w/ each of them (esp. my 17yo). We "hang out", and seek each others' company, to our mutual enjoyment -- it's absolutely nothing like my relationship w/ my own parents at their age.

Edit: PS I think I agree w/ your main point; it was this one bit I wanted to counter.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#292

Post by [deleted] »

cbozeman wrote: post #44
segasaturn wrote: post #4

Maybe that's a good thing? I remember a few years ago when journalists were outsourcing their reporting to Twitter and we had headlines like "The Internet is Freaking Out About X" when it was really a dozen nobodies on Twitter. The death of Twitter and the re-fragmentation of the internet sounds like a breath of fresh air compared to the purple haze of the last decade's centralized web.

X isn't dead, nor is it dying. Elon Musk took away a bunch of people's status, people who thought they were important somebodies because some nerds in an office met them in person and/or they paid some money to get a verification mark. That's what happened. It's the election of Donald Trump all over again. One of the few people who actually understood what happened in the 2016 election - and was able to articulate it…

[deleted]

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#293

Post by akoboldfrying »

nradov wrote: post #281
standardUser wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my early-40's, I've found that the massive gap between youth culture and adult culture has, thankfully, shrunk. While it's still the case that no 16-year-olds are going to want to hang out with us, their language and activities and perspectives don't feel as foreign as Boomers purported to feel about, well, everything. Because unlike previous generations, who fetishized leaving behind childish things and creating…

Are video games actually fun ? I used to spend a lot of time playing, until I had an epiphany and realized that it was more like working an unpaid part-time job. I was playing because I sort of felt obligated to reach the next level or finish the campaign or whatever, but I wasn't actually enjoying it and no one else cared about my achievements. So, I just quit and never looked back. Maybe I was just playing the wron…

>I had an epiphany and realized that it was more like working an unpaid part-time job

I've had the reverse epiphany: That if I view aspects of my real life that seem difficult to make progress on as being more like a computer game, I can increase my motivation to tackle them.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#294

Post by redwall_hp »

kredd wrote: post #265
throwitaway222 wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one goes to those anymore because people rotate their streaming platforms, eventually they'll get any movie for free that way.

A very back of the napkin math - so far, 2023's domestic box office total is 75% of 2019th (pre-covid). Although the number of releases in 2023 is 60% of 2019th number of releases as well. I definitely wouldn't say nobody is going to the movies. I would even say, I went to see some this year as many times as I probably went in 2019.

I see more movies than ever in theaters, because I have an Alamo subscription. It just becomes like going out to a restaurant, and you see a movie you might not have otherwise.

It also is like a restaurant where everyone is required to be silent and not use phones...

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#295

Post by flextheruler »

nradov wrote: post #281
standardUser wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my early-40's, I've found that the massive gap between youth culture and adult culture has, thankfully, shrunk. While it's still the case that no 16-year-olds are going to want to hang out with us, their language and activities and perspectives don't feel as foreign as Boomers purported to feel about, well, everything. Because unlike previous generations, who fetishized leaving behind childish things and creating…

Are video games actually fun ? I used to spend a lot of time playing, until I had an epiphany and realized that it was more like working an unpaid part-time job. I was playing because I sort of felt obligated to reach the next level or finish the campaign or whatever, but I wasn't actually enjoying it and no one else cared about my achievements. So, I just quit and never looked back. Maybe I was just playing the wron…

Couldn’t that argument be used with a lot of hobbies?

I think for most people it’s like interactive light television watching. Not great to do it obsessively but it can be relaxing and/or mentally stimulating.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#296

Post by gniv »

mbb70 wrote: post #161
pavon wrote: post #124

Recently I was thinking about how I am completely out of touch with the culture of younger generations, and was about to laugh it off cause that's how it is with every generation, but then I realized that I don't even know how I would know. In the past if you wanted to know what kids were listening to, you change the radio station to that new loud one you normally skip, or watch that new TV show that people are going…

The extreme personalization of the internet/modern life can lead to a feeling of isolation. I recently was on a plane with broken inflight entertainment, so all you could watch was a single movie in lock step with everyone else. When the movie ended, there was a weird sense of camaraderie; "we are all stuck in this tube and we all just sat through that mediocre movie".

I’m surprised people preferred watching the plane movie over whatever they had saved on Netflix on their phone.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#298

Post by notfed »

M4v3R wrote: post #23

There’s an awesome recent Film Theory episode called „How YouTube broke your brain” that covers a very similar topic that I highly recommend watching: https://youtu.be/RXiLAn3vUKg?feature=shared

> "if you're lonely, anxious, or depressed, it's because the world has become increasingly fragmented" - https://youtu.be/RXiLAn3vUKg?feature=shared

IMHO this video was hard to watch.

There is no "loneliness epidemic" [1] *, and blaming every listener's anxiety+depression on X (the oldest snake oil tactic), where X is YouTube's personalization algorithm, is cringeworthy. The rest of this video was full of loose correlations. It reminded me of watching the "pizza gate" conspiracy video.

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/loneliness-epidemic

* Or rather, there was none before 2020. Obviously, in 2020+, the COVID quarantine was a massive drive of loneliness poll results, and we must assume that effect might still linger a few years later. The only way to rule this out is to look at pre-2020 polls.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#299

Post by yetanotherloss »

1over137 wrote: post #269
mckern wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, The Economist published a 17,000 word un-paywalled piece [0] recently about the NYT's group think problem. [0] https://www.economist.com/1843/2023/12/14/when-the-new-york-...

Maybe I'm old, but didn't the NYT used to be very right-wing?

The NYT has always gathered the zeitgeist of highly affluent and artsy new Yorkers, who tend to be highly invested in maintaining their status quo. They may not be right wing by principle, but they get there a lot on some subjects by talking to lots of bankers and financiers.

Re: Nobody knows what's happening online anymore

#300

Post by TMWNN »

scottyah wrote: post #66
lloydatkinson wrote: post #26

Reddit is a good way of knowing

Reddit is just another segregated community, it is one that just somehow attracts the type who perplexingly think they can understand and speak for everyone.

The best description of Reddit that I've ever read:

> [maladjusted 19 year old desperate to prove that he is smarter than his parents](http://np.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ihk09/iama_cuban_who_li...)

Bonus:

> On 4chan, smart people pretend to be stupid. On Reddit, stupid people pretend to be smart.

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