I know. And I get it. And I’m old and wise enough to know I don’t know anything about anything.
Also, I know I’m as wistful of my youthful times as my great grandfather probably was, but the world today vs the 80s/early 90s… The Internet thing is an epoch shift. It’s crazy that our grandparents grew up without planes in the sky and we’re expected to navigate cable news, yes, I get that.
But to go from… the world… to… the world plus the globally interconnected virtual world… is fucking nuts. I had lots of screens. I wrote code on a CRT in 88 and fucked with my share of bunny ears or played Civ 1 for entire school breaks. It’s not just screens. The library of Alexandria x a million in our pockets, everyone everywhere all the times accessible to one another, constant surveillance from walking down the block to our most private digital thought, all of it capitalized and personalized to perfection to encourage obsession and consumption and spending.
I have one of the rare boomer parents, that for however crazy she is, she’s flat out said, “I understand it’s impossible to get a mortgage and get started these days. I don’t understand how kids go to college and start careers.” Vs “but we did more with less. Fuck off.”
These are actually different times. Things were less anxious and bombarding and all consuming.
Just about every change in communication technologies has caused social and political turmoil
the printing press
radio
TV
the internet
social media
One possible explanation is that, new forms of communication often don’t have as much social regulations (intrinsic or extrinsic), which cause the proliferation of socially unacceptable ideas and conspiracy theory
There are a couple of YouTube videos by Hank Green that go into this topic
That’s not to say that i don’t feel the “doomscroll depression”, or that things will 100% get better. Just that there’s a historical trend, and we happen to be in the dip of the largest communications tech change in history
It’s different because it’s 24/7, and global. But it’s the same pattern
I know. And I get it. And I’m old and wise enough to know I don’t know anything about anything.
Also, I know I’m as wistful of my youthful times as my great grandfather probably was, but the world today vs the 80s/early 90s… The Internet thing is an epoch shift. It’s crazy that our grandparents grew up without planes in the sky and we’re expected to navigate cable news, yes, I get that.
But to go from… the world… to… the world plus the globally interconnected virtual world… is fucking nuts. I had lots of screens. I wrote code on a CRT in 88 and fucked with my share of bunny ears or played Civ 1 for entire school breaks. It’s not just screens. The library of Alexandria x a million in our pockets, everyone everywhere all the times accessible to one another, constant surveillance from walking down the block to our most private digital thought, all of it capitalized and personalized to perfection to encourage obsession and consumption and spending.
I have one of the rare boomer parents, that for however crazy she is, she’s flat out said, “I understand it’s impossible to get a mortgage and get started these days. I don’t understand how kids go to college and start careers.” Vs “but we did more with less. Fuck off.”
These are actually different times. Things were less anxious and bombarding and all consuming.
Just about every change in communication technologies has caused social and political turmoil
One possible explanation is that, new forms of communication often don’t have as much social regulations (intrinsic or extrinsic), which cause the proliferation of socially unacceptable ideas and conspiracy theory
There are a couple of YouTube videos by Hank Green that go into this topic
That’s not to say that i don’t feel the “doomscroll depression”, or that things will 100% get better. Just that there’s a historical trend, and we happen to be in the dip of the largest communications tech change in history
It’s different because it’s 24/7, and global. But it’s the same pattern