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The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

muddy.jprs.me

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Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#261

Post by cindyllm »

ButlerianJihad wrote: post #239
functionmouse wrote: post #2

I agree, but it's been said by all... make homebrew software for an old Nintendo console pick up cross stitching or weaving make an independent film with a friend; use stuff from your kitchen as props find a borderline functional instrument at your local thrift store write a 1 page short story in pen it's not enough anymore to merely criticize this bad time we're having

> pick up cross stitching or weaving Ironically, it was the Jacquard Loom that made redundant a generation of highly-skilled, mostly female, weavers. Of course, any human can choose to take up this hobby manually, but we will never again compete in the job market with machines that are accurate, blindingly fast, and so far haven’t demanded the right to vote

[dead]

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#263

Post by shit_game »

munificent wrote: post #53

I have a pet theory that much of what we're seeing culturally is that the 90s and early 2000s (at least in the US) was a window of time that offered a sense of safety and surplus. 9/11 was extremely culturally disruptive, but aside from that, for many in the US, it felt like there was "enough to go around". That environment breeds a lot of creativity, innovation, whimsy, and doing things for their own sake. But that…

> That psychological environment is not conducive to art and fun. It sucks.

I think that two significant social conditions that very strongly affect how people socialize online now are

a) there are multiple parallel well-established, invasive, unstoppable, government-sanctioned economies of theft that seek to profit at everyones expense (advertising, AI, surveilance). Why would anyone want to share anything if it's going to be stolen? Why would anyone want to be online if they're going to be spied on? Why would anyone want to look at anything if it's all advertisements?

b) it's politically en vogue for major online platforms to allow (and even propagate) hateful content because of the current political situation in the west. The companies that have grown to control the online spaces that people use are the same companies operating the economies of theft, and have demonstrated that they will happily bend the knee if it means they are allowed to continue stealing and spying and selling all this data to governments. Why would anyone want to use a platform filled with hate speech and political propaganda?

I would describe this combination of conditions as repulsive. There's no more appeal in the social internet because the bad guys won.

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#264

Post by 63stack »

clickety_clack wrote: post #220
apsurd wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can feel how you feel and understand how and why people feel how they feel too. Instead, reads like you're blaming the victim. Shoulda worked harder in school!

If you spend all day on Reddit or twitter etc., and you say “all these Reddit and twitter things are making me feel sad and anxious”, then you can’t avoid all the blame for making yourself feel that way.

But nobody said that apart from you?

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#265

Post by roncesvalles »

munificent wrote: post #53

I have a pet theory that much of what we're seeing culturally is that the 90s and early 2000s (at least in the US) was a window of time that offered a sense of safety and surplus. 9/11 was extremely culturally disruptive, but aside from that, for many in the US, it felt like there was "enough to go around". That environment breeds a lot of creativity, innovation, whimsy, and doing things for their own sake. But that…

And yet, by most development and wellbeing metrics, America is doing better than ever before.

My theory is this:

People are just more aware of wealth disparity now. People in the 90s and 00s knew that multi-millionaires and billionaires existed, but they were faraway mystical gargoyles in Connecticut or Monaco.

What's more transparent now is that you might be making $50k and your neighbor might be making $500k. Or the kid you grew up with moved to Dubai after making a small fortune on crypto or drop-shipping, or became a YouTube/TikTok celebrity.

People didn't even know surgeons hit 7 figures, not low 6 figures, until recently. People knew Wall St suits made good money but they assumed it was $200k, not $2m or even $20m.

I remember when levels.fyi first came out and lots of people on social media were like "these numbers are completely made-up". A lot of SWEs themselves didn't even believe FAANG IC SWEs made $200-500k.

Not to mention, social media video lets you experience their lives through their literal point-of-view now.

In a way, the democratization of wealth and fame, and the transparency of information around it, has made people more anxious. We basically live in an era of epidemic FOMO.

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#266

Post by roncesvalles »

prewett wrote: post #229
tristor wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that the average CS grad can't expect to make 100k, it's that when that was the case 100k was a meaningful amount, now the same purchasing power requires 235k and almost nobody is making 235k in any job role, career pursuit, or field of study. Those that are making 235k aren't experiencing the same lifestyle because they don't exist in the same context, they exist in a context where they're surrounded by dep…

This sounds like a bit of romance for the past, and if any software developers are thinking about "grinding misery", it wasn't any better in the past. My salary as a junior developer in the early 2000s was about $60k, on average. I met someone who had given up a $100k networking job (to do church ministry), and I remember $100k feeling like a number that was just not ever going to be in the realm of possibility for m…

Even as late as 2014, I didn't think it was ever possible to hit six figures with a CS degree (without climbing the ranks in management).

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#267

Post by fragmede »

joe_mamba wrote: post #105
doctorwho42 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lower cost of living and higher incomes when compared to purchasing power of a dollar.

That and also people weren't paying for Netflix, Disney+, PlayStation online, ChatGPT+, etc Edit: Also people were having more kids back then and earlier in life, so they had less time for hobbies and "finding one's self", they'd be busy with their kids and work. The bored DINKS with free time looking for hobbies is a relatively recent phenomenon in western societies (10-15 years).

Skipping Netflix and Disney+ and avacado toast isn't going to make it affordable to have kids and pay for their college tuition.

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#268

Post by jaredcwhite »

The Web is Dead. –WIRED Magazine, 2010

But seriously, I feel like every few years we're all wringing our hands about what's happening to the web. And plenty of folks think they have the correct remedy. Remember when web3 was going to swoop in and save us all? lol

Truth is: the "Keep the Internet Weird" phenomenon never left us, it just went a bit underground. Is that a bad thing? Honestly, perhaps not. Many of my friends in the Fediverse specifically don't want it to grow much, or grow very slowly at most, and I don't entirely agree but…I get it. Would your local comedy club down in the basement be better if it seated 20,000 people? Hell no!

The small web, the slow web, the indie web…these are all movements which are alive and well. Join us!

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#269

Post by snek_case »

pseudalopex wrote: post #232
DarkNova6 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole structure has changed. We are not even in the web 2.0 anymore and regressed to a client-server model where what we see is dictated from central platforms with little interaction between actual users. This was not a natural evolution of the web but the consequence of low-tech people accessing the web passively via a tiny touchscreen.

The central platforms began before smart phones were common.

Yeah but they weren't as toxic. I was an early YouTube user... The platform used to have no ads, can you imagine?

Re: The fun has been optimized out of the Internet

#270

Post by brokenmachine »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #219
randomNumber7 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely the fish stinks from the head. I'm also a bit confused about how the people on the top think this will play out. A long time ago there was a french saying "noblesse oblige", or the german pendant "Wohlstand verpflichtet".

I don't like being conspiratorial but it genuinely feels like the people at the top know some major catastrophe is coming and are just grabbing whatever resources they can while they can before retreating to their bunkers. Even the white house is trying to build a massive underground bunker using the ballroom on top as a excuse. I don't see why else they would all be willingly destroying society as they are right now…

Everyone knows a major catastrophe is coming. Scientists have been talking about the tipping point for like five decades now.

It's a done deal, we were too stupid.

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