The fear of Nostalgia Weaponization

[MacroNemesis]

So this is something I've been thinking about for a while is how nostalgia seems to weaponized online. For a lot of us, perhaps with some rose tinted glasses, have positive memories with older tech, and the old web and I think there are things we can learn from it (aka, offline as an option, RSS, open communication and information). But while I was still on twitter I noticed this weird trend of "This is what they took from us" as they show a (usually ai slop image) of a messy room with a CRT on turned to Video that echos the same "Retvrn" vibe that just rubs me the wrong way.

So I guess my question is do you ever get worried about slipping into that mentality?

I like to think I'm not like that, but I get worried sometimes when I get a little wistful about ps1/2 graphics.

[sundowner]

Yeah, I get it, It's weird, But even if not necessarily better, Familiar can feel better.

In the past you know how everything goes, No anxiety about events, you know it all, no surprises. It just feels more certain than the current.

There's a lot to it, But that's to off topic. Er, As I was saying, Some people just over-do it. Its okay to miss some things, I for example absolutely hyper fixate on win 7, As for me it's more than an OS. It represents a whole chapter of my life for me.

[rnottelovesowls]

it’s easy to get suckered in to nostalgia. it’s something i worry about falling into every day. that said…

there are good ways to relive nostalgia. those being bringing things we used to do, such as physical music, MP3 players, DVD, pixel art in video games, stop motion, forum boards, RSS, personal sites and blogs, and of course, frutiger aero, and using modern systems to make them work in a more efficient way, without relying on big tech platforms to do so

the bad way being abandoning any semblance of “modern” media and retreating into genuinely outdated technologies, like VHS or dial-up, and bashing people for still using facebook, twitter, amazon, or google as “part of the problem”. this is what i like to call the “old thing good, new thing bad” mentality, and having it means giving up many things in life

in conclusion, no, there’s nothing wrong with being wistful of PS1 graphics in many ways, our nostalgia is helping us. we are in an era of taking back autonomy and “everything old is new again” that’s bigger than we realize

[MetalJack98]

this is what i like to call the “old thing good, new thing bad” mentality, and having it means giving up many things in life

That's true but there are some old things I genuinely find to be better than newer things. Like for example I been learning Unreal Editor for Unreal Tournament 1999, and I gotta say it's WAY easier than any modern 3D engine that I've used. It's clunky, sure, but once you learn how it works it's truly the 3D engine I always wanted.

[rnottelovesowls]

oh, of course, i’m not saying that ALL old things are bad. some old things are indeed better. in fact, i bet paying for a CD copy of an old version of photoshop would be a better investment than getting an adobe creative cloud subscription at this point

but, there are lots of new technologies that are objectively better. although, lately, that statement keeps being called into question…

[MetalJack98]

in fact, i bet paying for a CD copy of an old version of photoshop would be a better investment than getting an adobe creative cloud subscription at this point

If you REALLY want to, there's a REALLY old version of it on Archive.org I can link you. But I'll have to PM it to for reasons...

[lakes]

As comforting as I find nostalgia for these old trends, I have to wonder how shallow for lack of a better word my nostalgia is, or if things have gotten so bad that a time I hated is now preferable. I think it's a bit of both. I know we shouldn't get "political" on this forum as per the rules and some of the things I had a problem with during the 2000s were political. So I'll keep this brief. Take the good with the bad. We shouldn't act like the past was inherently good, so much as things have gotten worse in some ways & better in others.

[Bumhug]

I'm nostalgic for some things but it doesn't have any impact on my current life aside from hobby-related stuff which I think is pretty harmless. However, from what I can tell nostalgia has already been weaponized in the USA. It really looks like boomers & older are nostalgic for their childhood because they weren't aware of how the world really works and were completely ignorant of the reality of the world at the time because they were kids. That leads into the anemoia of younger generations for the same imaginary past that the boomers were imagining. It's like some sort of mass delusion. As another wiser poster said, that wanders towards politics so I'll leave it at that.

[frenchfry]

The world is growing darker everyday. Better believe in Jesus or something.
Ok but I saw this proposal called stratospheric aerosol injection where like Bill Gates wants to spray dust into the air it's pretty scary

[venomnik0]

I always see this kind of thread everywhere in other forums. This doomer mentality that the "old web" was so much better and that the modern web has gone to shit. Not that that's entirely wrong but I feel this point has been obnoxious to the alt web, atleast to me. We need to move on at some point and just enjoy the new forum format; have new discussions that couldn't be had with a simple tweet and the cool new formatting.

We can also try to introduce to each other new places to simply check out. Sure its not going to be as active or frequent and thats ok but its important to understand our options.