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Does anyone else remember the first time they discovered the internet?
Mine was at an internet cafรฉ, a crowded place with tons of people. It was a bit before I actually got Internet at home, with one of those fascinating, noise modems. There was where I discovered what by all means was a new world.
In a sense was like exploring a new land. Each little corner, with its clashing aesthetics, felt like an electronic wild west, a patchwork of ideas and feelings. Every place was different, and every place had a real human behind, and you were visiting a part of who they were. You didn't search for things to visit, you found them.
It was full of this childish wonder, and you could walk into it every day and discover a different place to go through. Geocities, Tripod, Lycos... If you wanted something specific, Altavista and Jeeves were there to guide you through it, but it was just a reference - a quick skim through what was there, instead of an artificial intelligence powered indexing.
...I've shown my age a bit there, sorry!
This changed over time, so slow we might not have truly noticed until recently. The internet is no longer a tapestry of individual people keeping their own electronic gardens open to the world, but a small set of small commoditized boxes where you have to fit, and are given calculated dopamine rewards for doing so.
FOMO, peer pressure, pointless karma. Current day social media is ruthless and profit driven. Aesthetics are imposed, measured for readability and reception, tuned by experts. Discourses are encouraged and promoted by the powers that be, to drive up "engagement". Either by rewarding you for ticking the boxes that make you popular, or by driving you to anger over not fitting the bill. You can be yourself... as long as it the yourself that makes us money.
If you're familiar with the term "doomscrolling", you might know where I'm coming from. A glance at twitter or facebook and you'll see a cloud of overwhelming cynism and anger. It's not only that things are worse, or that people is worse - it's measured. There's something in the current internet model that makes us cynical.
This is the behavior rewarded by these platforms, the everything connected, the everything uniform. It creates fictional needs on us, places some standards, provides slanted views of reality. And it's not even solely for political or ideological reasons, or to sell us goods and services alone. It's just because it's the surest, cost effective, efficient way to drive up "engagement"; and thus profit. Keep you hooked, keep you scrolling, keep you clicking.
For the last few years I found myself, for different reasons, craving going back to the simpler times where the websites I liked were long geocities addresses scribbled on a red notebook I hauled around, feeling weird for wanting something like this. An outcast, left behind by realizing the system was harmful and having no one to turn to. Putting up with it for lack of anything better to do, or a better place to be in.
And then I discovered things like Neocities; discovered vaporwave, future funk; music that channels the nostalgia for an era I missed. And... SpaceHey happened. I am not exaggerating if I say SpaceHey has been the best thing for my mental health in years. It's like getting back a piece of that lost past, and most importantly, it's made me realize I'm not alone in feeling like this, and that I was right - that overwhelming cynism wasn't a fact of life, but something created. Removed those artificial needs, people have no need to be cynical, or angry. And that's my experience here so far.
This is just a piece of the bigger puzzle that is myself, in a sense, but that might be better left for another day. For now, let's do our best to enjoy this little oasis in the modern internet, and care for our little electronic gardens! I know I am.
Thanks for reading! ^_^ have a song for the trouble! โฅ
Comments
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astralkyouki
I think I may be a bit younger than you, cause my first experiences with the Internet were limited by parents' supervision to children's sites like Disney Channel or PBS Kids, where I played a bunch of fun flash games. Nonetheless, I understand your frustration with "standard" social media sites - the greed, the corporate control, etc. In my opinion, the main problem with Facebook is that it's too heavy on politics. SpaceHey is definitely a nice change from that. I feel more free to be myself here - and as it's named, it provides a space for me to express who I am. The nostalgia I get from SpaceHey is 2012-2013 Tumblr before Yahoo bought it out. A place to connect with others who share your interests and just be yourself :)
You're probably younger than me, yeah. But you know, there's something to say when people across a wide age gap can all relate to the same experience.
Unsurprisingly, the issue of politics in social media is also very likely not an accident. There's a few topics that can make people flare up and begin ""engaging" with others, for lack of a better word, like religion, or politics. It's very likely social media is intentionally trying to drown everything in politics specifically because of that. After all... the more angry people are, the more they ""engage"".
It's a bit of a shitty position, because once you see through the profit driven based bullshit of current day internet, there's a lot of things that start making a lot more sense, but you also become disgusted with all of it.
by Xx_๐ข๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ท๐๐ช_xX; ; Report
Draxdoll
You certianly have a way of saying stuff! Reading this makes me nostalgic even if I discovered the internet in 2009 when i was 9 years old! I wish I would have been a teenager in the 2000s when the emo culture was peaking. I miss those simpler times of the internet. I didn't use myspace because I didn't know about it and was too young but this site makes me realize that I missed out on great stuff!
Hey, it's never too late to become a 00s emo. The rawring 20s are coming!
The point is, it's not too late, and you don't have to miss out on stuff. You can just do it now!
by Xx_๐ข๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ท๐๐ช_xX; ; Report
โ ALEX โ
I may be of a younger generation but I feel this. So many platforms encourage whatever gets people to interact, because their motives are just profit driven. It is so nice to have a place to code my own little room into existence and design a tiny home base to curl up in, and talk to people who wanna do the same.
It's weird. Feels like at some point they lost sight of the fact there's real people there that can get seriously harmed by the way they ... not force, but strongly encourage people to interact.
There's definitely a lack of spaces like SpaceHey on current day internet, yeah.
by Xx_๐ข๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ท๐๐ช_xX; ; Report
AmyTheWeeb
for me my first time on the internet had to be around 2005 and my family still had dial-up internet and i had found youtube and flash game sties.
I still have the sound of our old dial up modem burned into my mind. BRRRRRTTTTTTTTTT NYEEEEEEEEEEE BLEEEP BLEEEP BLEEEEEP NYEEEEEE
by Xx_๐ข๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ท๐๐ช_xX; ; Report
๐๐๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ถ ๐๐ฏ๐๐จ๐ข๐ซ
My first discovery of the internet came when we got our first Dial-up modem when I was a child. I remember always going into AOL chatrooms and wasting tons of time talking to random people. Times were so much simpler it seems. Modern social media is literally a trap of depression. My short time on Spacehey has been nothing but heartwarming and positive. I love being able to actually express myself! This was very well said! Thanks for the good read!
Aw, thank you for reading it!
It's weird, for years I've felt like I was weird for thinking this, and all it too was SpaceHey to find out I wasn't!
by Xx_๐ข๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ท๐๐ช_xX; ; Report
Todd Donald
I wrote a few blogs to this end and I think you articulated EXACTLY something that I've been feeling, that allot can relate to,, and that allot that were born into facebook and everything post-zuck are discovering. An is truly a wonderful being for creating/re-creating this PEAK of social media.
PS: I fondly remember BLURTY (which I had) and her older brother LIVEJOURNAL. Posting nothing but pictures, or profit-driven so-called "blogs" is NOT blogging.. but what do I know?
by Todd Donald; ; Report
I don't think I remember Blurty, but Livejournal, I do! Spent a bunch of time there, too.
An is definitely a genius for bringing this back, and I can only hope this sparks something bigger. It's high time we reclaimed back an Internet that doesn't kill our fun and self expression for profit!
by Xx_๐ข๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ท๐๐ช_xX; ; Report
Negan Mactavish
This reads like an article for Wired magazine! ^^ The nostalgia and mentions of the early days brings back so many memories..
Gosh, Wired, don't make me blush! It's just a little thought dump, nothing more! x3
by Xx_๐ข๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ท๐๐ช_xX; ; Report
Itโs well thought out, I bet theyโd feature something just like this!
by Negan Mactavish; ; Report
Well thaaaanks ๐ค
by Xx_๐ข๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ท๐๐ช_xX; ; Report