*20
Back in the day when we ran random exes, good times
I remember I used to be subscribed to a mailing list for a programming language. A friend of the lead developer set the mailing list up for them at his university, and then went off and did his own thing. It was completely unmoderated. Some kid sent a “neat little proggy” his friend Dieter wrote. If the extent of my Internet usage wasn’t limited to free email through Juno, my entire hard drive probably would have gotten deleted that day lol
Remembering the good old days of eSheep.exe and my dad freaking out that “It’s a virus!” because he saw “a black sheep come running up to the other one and hit it! It started bleeding!”
Dad, that’s a ram… The other sheep’s not bleeding. It’s blushing!
Embarrassingly recently a load of people were i worked (including me) downloaded from some sketchy website and installed a snow effect and christmas tree generator on our work PCs just added christmassy overlay over what you’re doing.
I shudder to think of it now
There used to be this thing going around on pre-smartphone phones (via Bluetooth, I assume) that showed a pocket watch closing and when it was fully closed, the phone shut down. We all thought it was hilarious to send it to as many people as possible and watch them panic. I don’t even know what format it was to look like a normal gif or video and do that. I certainly didn’t even care back then.
My guess is it was an actual gif that exploited some flaw in how the OS handled gifs and thus was able to execute code.
Our parents, 10 years ago “Don’t trust anything you read online!”
Parents, today: “I do my own research online!”
Ironically, that mindset predates the internet.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
- Isaac Asimov
He died in 1992.
We were not prepared, as a species, for a device that let us come up with any opinion at all and find validation for it.
It used to be that when you had an opinion that was wrong, you’d say it out loud a number of times, and you’d notice that everyone around you would call you an imbecile and ridicule you. It would make you reassess yourself and grow as a person.
Now that societal failsafe is gone. Now people just aren’t challenged for holding the wrong opinion.
That was an integral part of growing up and maturing. We don’t have a solution for it.
That’s why rather than trying to change people’s mind on the internet, I’ve resorted to just ridiculing them instead.
Of course, sometimes those ideas being ridiculed were “I don’t think our king, who claims Primae Noctis and whips anyone who looks at him, was actually chosen by God to rule. Gramp said he remembers when the king murdered the old king and skull-fucked him. Maybe we’re just victims of an inherently violent system?”
It’s not that they aren’t challenged for any given opinion, If you go into the wrong place you still get lambasted but then you’ll just say "oh that’s because I put an insert group here idea in an insert opposing group forum and thats why I got downvoted. The problem is how easily you can put yourself in a bubble online, compared to real life where unless you work/shop/live in the same community of like-minded people you’ll be forced to eventually come to grips with the fact that you’re one of many POV’s.
It’s hard to tell how popular or unpopular your opinion is in terms of the average person, now. Since it’s all just chatrooms online with vague numbers of subscribers, etc.
Now that societal failsafe is gone. Now people just aren’t challenged for holding the wrong opinion.
I agree with everything you said except for this. Opinions are never wrong since they’re subjective, they’re just fucking stupid.
This exactly. I think theres a saying that goes “our technology far outstrips our actual intelligence”. Surprisingly smart phones & arguably the internet as well are both technologies that we are unable to manage responsibly as a species. Confirmation bias is one hell of a drug
Back in the 90’s & early 00’s, if you were running around ranting about Jewish space lasers or kids being dissected in the basement of your local Pizza Hut, you’d be shunned, ridiculed and likely catch a visit from your local police department haha
Yeah. I firmly believe it will be a hurdle the human race cannot overcome. Technology advances faster than our own maturity. If you gave a room full of 4 year olds loaded guns, how long would they last in there?
That is us with the internet.
I see the Internet getting blamed for this shit and i want to offer a counter-opinion: the tech is different but the problems we have now are the same as we’ve had before: deregulation and corruption.
The Internet is incredible. Even good ol’ r was just as great a tool for learning about other perspectives as it could be an echo chamber. I learned so much about other people just by joining their /r/ and lurking, because I’m the type of person who’s interested in people. The Internet gave me the power to do what i do normally with people but on a larger scale. Perhaps the best critisism of the Internet is also it’s greatest strength, to give more people more range to do what they were doing anyway, for good or ill.
I believe though that when we criticize the Internets current state we are looking at a symptom, not a cause. I believe what we’re looking at is actually the fallout from the media deregulation and consolidation following the telecommunications act of 1996.
Ever since that time the people have increasingly been getting their “news” first in the form of propaganda opinion pieces, otherwise known as otherwise known as VNRs. These press releases, written by increasingly larger, increasingly right-wing corps are designed to sway public opinion rather than inform, and they are very successful at their craft.
The underlying problem in my opinion is that people are exposed to these lies and vitriolic ideas first from these sources. Combine this with a dearth of credible news sources so even one with the critical thinking skills of sherlock would have a hard time finding objective truth?
Well here we are, flailing about in the dark. Some people, when searching for answers, find themselves in echo chambers filled with other people who came to the same conclusion. I don’t blame them. When there is no objective truth, where do you find yours?
Fun fact, the forum post is now 17 years old.
Forums are still around. If you really missed them, you can go find them. I don’t think it’s forums you miss.
When you see “Account created: 1997”.
“These are the sacred scrolls of the ancient ones.”
When you see “Account created: 1997”.
“These are the sacred scrolls of the ancient ones.”
I have boots older than some people that are posting on Lemmy today…
