this is an interesting thought i wanted to share somehow - why do i really prefer retro-esque socials like SpaceHey, OpenVK, BitView, etc. over modern places?
of course nostalgia seems like an obvious answer, but, considering that i only joined VKontakte in its hayday in 2015, months before redesign happened, and i never used neither MySpace nor YouTube in such early state, it kinda invalidates the easy explanation of "it's just nostalgia". of course general Y2K zeitgeist nostalgia still can be in effect, but not nearly as much.
and what i really think makes me love these places more, despite occasional mild love-hate swings (SpaceHey suffers from occasional petty drama and troll raid plagues for example), it the simplistic utilitarian nature of these places. modern socials are designed to keep your attention, to make you stay, they use complex algorithms to appear smarter than you and decide what you wanna see for you. socials following ideas of early to late 2000s, like SpaceHey, OpenVK, Offline, Pikidiary, BitView, Tubelious, Owler, Blips and so on do not do that - they don't attempt to be smarter than you.
they don't want to hold you hostage and make you endlessly doomscroll. you are in charge, you decide what you want to see, who you want to talk to, and when to shut your damn PC off and touch grass.
this also often comes with a benefit of customizability - SpaceHey follows ideas of MySpace, and on inside technical level, this is the dumbest social network ever made - no algorithms, no personalized feed, no real "theme" feature - just an ability to insert CSS/HTML into "About" fields. it's so not smart that you have to make your own theme or take one from someone, and that's actually a good thing!
early 2000s socials are embodiment of "more with less". more freedom with your social media not being a smartass and deciding for you. and that's why i love em
Comments
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Farah
I agree with this!!! I hate how much social media has changed now and how it also changed people sm.
snailgrl
I think you've really put what a lot of people are feeling into words. I am so sick of modern social medias, because they're not actually SOCIAL. They're just algorithms feeding you more crap that you don't truly care about. It's unlikely, but I'd give anything for one of these retro social sites to get popular enough that most people use them.
signific
These kind of retro social medias are definitely giving a kind of refreshing vibe. No Brain rot stuff here or at least I haven't seen anything like that before. Also no Ads or algorithms. Just people who share their thoughts and experiences. Its really cool.
I totally agree, and this made me think about how "brainrot" content came to be and how it's perpetuated - stuff like modern brainrot, ironic or not, almost literally cannot exist on a site like Spacehey because there's no system to arbitrarily show it to people. People have to choose to interact with something on a site like this, whether by being friends with someone or by consciously clicking on a blog or a bulletin or a profile, which is totally antithetical to how "brainrot" content functions.
by Cro; ; Report
Yes exactly, interesting thought. Btw it's nice to finally have an interaction here. I am new here and it's not that easy to find people to interact with.
by signific; ; Report
Welcome to the site!
by Cro; ; Report
Oh yeah, good luck interacting with ppl in spacehey. You'll come to find this is more of a blogging site with some comment and IM features off to the side rather than a social media, interaction is few and far between
by whoah; ; Report
benny // whalefall
i agree completely
James the magical cheese wizard
Absolutely. I could never disagree. Honestly, despite the fact that nothing from here is of my era, even though I'm new to it with little knowledge about it, I find it quite enjoyable.
Nugget(>w<)
so trueeeee! im new here and i already love it
NameNotImportant
I also feel like modern technologies destroy us completely. Outside, everyone is just staring at their phones because of the endless scrolling and ´Oh NO! I HAVE TO SNAP BACK BEFORE OUR FLAMES ARE GONE!`In the past, we actually communicated in real life and we had fun. Now I even feel lonely ooutside with hundreds of people around me. Thats why I like old technologies way better, we had them but still talked
Aston
soooo true, really, with any modern social media I can spend 10 to 13 hours DAILY, with SpaceHey it's just "haha gud blog" and then do another thing without the anxiety of seeing more and more in my phone or pc.
rr124
literally, what i felt when i signed up to this site yesterday.