i just want zoomers to know that computers were actually useful once. before the iphone/ipad/android/chromebook, computers ran software that was just like a program that did what it was supposed to do. also the internet used to have a lot of cool stuff on it that didn't give you an anxiety disorder
before spotify there was grooveshark and 8track and pandora that let you make public playlists and find new music. there was a time when pop-ups & intrusive ads were considered a problem of the old web that we had sensibly left behind us. it absolutely wasn't perfect but it did suck less
the biggest failure of my generation internet-wise was believing that its positive qualities were inherent, that "scarcity" was impossible to manufacture for digital goods ("information wants to be free" etc). alas, turned out an unregulated market can do whatever the fuck it wants even if it sucks
the last few years for me has been real eye-opening, in that i've realized just how thoroughly the early net optimism was a marketing ploy to expand the web's reach, make us dependent so they could charge rent. the positives EXISTED, but they were not inherent and they've largely been abandoned
but like. when i was growing up we were taught how to use computers. do they teach you how to use computers or do they just stick you in front of a touch screen with apps? do you do command line shit? do you learn html/css? christ, do they even teach netiquette anymore? that used to be a big thing
like there actually was a time when the idea of companies charging rent for software was abhorrent and offensive to a lot of people. alas, lack of regulations from an aging out of touch government (and this was 15 years ago, largely the same people!) allowed corps to boil the frog anyway. oops!
kid's content on the net when i was young was like. cheap flash game platformers. here's a digital coloring book. here's a bunch of animals you can click on to read about. where the fuck even IS carmen sandiego??? i spent hours making "modern art" in mspaint. "just one more line then i'll do chores"
Teaching kids that computers are inherently fuck-around-with-able is a VITAL task and we've societally been neglecting it (as an intentional plan on the part of Google et al).
I don't know about other folks, but "information wants to be free" was always a war cry for me, not an idyllic statement.
'gen z'-er here, netiquette was never super prevalent but I still grew up in a time where computer class was integral. 7th grade was my first exposure to making a website. I will be transparent; I worked in IT/networking and had unrestricted Internet access in the 00s, so I always tinkered around-
with tech and was exposed to it very early. Younger ones especially alpha are the poster child for "iPad kids", and it's a shame to see them in such a state on top of computer classes not really encouraging them to still know even the parts of a computer.
Fellow gen z person here, I was kinda taught netiquette, but it was more copyright laws and how to look smth up on google (wich is still good to learn lol)
to most people, even the ones who were taught in school, computers might as well be magic. people don't want to know how the soup is made, because that means they'd have to care if something was wrong.
Idk I’m 19 so maybe it’s different for the zoomers a few years younger but we had computer class and we were taught how to use them and how to properly type and once we got a bit older we were taught how to use different software
I worked in a school a few years ago, they for sure at least try to teach some internet safety, and kids still play lil educational games and learn basic coding. I worked in SEN so I assume mainstream gets a bit more complex too.
I think it was my first year of middle school when I was first taught about computers in the ‘lab’ but after that they kinda just stopped. Same for most classes throughout my school life. I just watched as the older kids did these classes that were no longer a thing for me when I reached that point.
In middle school I learned to type, and in high school CSS and HTML. I am afraid of asking what the curriculum at the places I went to are now.
—Zoomer
The modern smartphone era began in my first year of high school (2007) and I never had any classes for anything remotely like this.
We barely had typing class.
We were basically plopped in front of crusty old Dell computers and left to fend for ourselves.
So I can't imagine it got better.
Not to be That Guy but early net optimism was really a lot of naivety. People really did think that it was going to be a new world, a new, ungovernable, low barrier to entry global society. And then it got big enough to be governed, controlled, and commercialized. And all it happened easily.
What also happened was, at scale, barriers to entry come down hard. If not just from costing too much to run anything (remember when sites would sputter to a halt because people discovered them?) but also because the modern web is a fucking minefield of CSAM and hacking and other illegality.
Yeah I am here to say the same. Early optimism was from true NERDS who had not yet had their motives poisoned by the prospect of potentially becoming billionaires. The concepts we gushed about were themselves the rewards we were after.
Honestly that internet and that infrastructure still exist—
I feel this way about early social media optimism, too, with companies like Facebook, especially.
Knowing what we know now, a lot of that hype was a ploy to just get an audience so you can sell their information.
Open source advocates have been ringing alarm bells for decades about this sorta stuff, and we didn't listen. The Linux scene still gives me those good ol' vibes of optimism, passion and freedom about computing.
Pandora never made it out of the US :(. I knew about it, could never use it. The non-geoblock era is probably still ahead of us, not behind us. I don't think everything is necessarily getting worse.
I miss grooveshark. Those really were the days.
Thinking back we probably should've figured that an unregulated market would lead to extensive rent-seeking across the web. But in my defense I was like 12 during those "good ol' days".
Don't have Spotify, still use Pandora - even though they stripped it of so much of what made it useful and half those missing features aren't even hidden behind paywalls, they're just gone.
I tried to recapture that when classic came out in 2019. The second I stepped into stormwind it was a bunch of people going on a tirade about Trump and some Qanon madness. I cancelled my sub that night. That shit didn't happen in 2005. It was just silly nonsense and people taking it all to seriously
The weird enclaves of the internet all being turned into hives of right wing lunacy is one of our biggest cultural losses.
“Oh what happened to that heavy metal/knitting/fire eating chat board I used to post on?”
“Aww, it’s just threads about the Biden crime family now.”
No, I suppose it's just a matter of how easy it is to know these days. When I was 12 it was just "Oh this is rad!" and I never really looked into it. If I did then anything short of literally waving a nazi flag was subtle enough for me not to notice back then.
Yeah but the lunacy was very mid-2000's. Plenty of people making edgy and offensive jokes and calling everything gay but no one was vaulting into conspiracy laden rants about Bush. You could also report people to a GM, who wasn't just a bot, and they'd get banned if it they were going over the top.
We had Second Life, and it even had its own publicly traded, wildly fluctuating currency you could buy with real money, ages before crypto currency. And little objects you could buy with it and trade, that were tied to your account, again, ages before NFTs. 😅
I still can not believe that some guy wrote a parody of neuromancer, called his Main Character Hiro Protagonist and his Cyberspace dystopia Meta verse and some ass hat thought
Let's have this for real.
WoW with actual housing would have been 13848293 times better.
It still exists, it’s FFXIV, the housing and fashion is impeccable, the player base is queer, the trans rights are supported.
People put a ton of effort into making dance parties and clubs in the game, it’s wild!
