The fear of Nostalgia Weaponization

[Vaking Voda]

iirc all the advertising about that Plants Vs. Zombies "remaster" was nothing but nostalgia bait about 2009.

REMEMBER THAT GAME YOU PLAYED AS A KID????? HERE'S THE SAME THING BUT CRAPPY, EASIER AND WATERED DOWN!!!!!!!!
[2009]

[Daniele63]

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.

If you go to the extreme and reject everything modern, then yeah you have a problem. I don't like when people shame others for not prefering the older thing, or in the frutiger aero community, people for liking flat design, stuff like that. At the end it's just a preference and these things are a product of their time and a trend.

Like Web 2.0 designs I think had a lot of personality and were fun but flat design is easy to read and has better accessibility for mobiles and disabled people so I don't hate it either, they are also easier to make which makes developers jobs easier. But it's true a lot of websites look the same. However if you look at some asian websites they still look super bloated, compared to minimalism in the west.

The old web was in many ways better but also not always better. The web is still great, it's an open sea and there's more websites about more things than ever before, and that's not something to take for granted. We have even got a revival of the personal website trend with places like Neocities and Nekoweb, so it's not all garbage.
We have places like Archive.org to visit old websites, Wikipedia.org, the biggest encyclopedia ever. We have instant access to a massive library of videos made by creators on YouTube. If you showed all this tech to someone in the 80s I think they wouldn't believe it.

Some things have gotten worse but also so many things have gotten better too and people always prefer to focus on the bad especially YouTubers because they can make juicy clickbait thumbnails and get that sweet ad money.

My conclusion: celebrate the past and what we have made, and create more cool things today so that we can say the same tomorrow.

[glaciation_trilogy]

At the risk of getting too close to violating the same rule, I don't think that people stating a simple fact (that the internet and the quality of posts/content made on it, even by humans, have degraded, and that new technology has largely lost its luster for people) has that much to do with trends that are a result of much greater factors. It's a very surface level 'just watched a video essay youtuber' viewpoint. It irritates me for different reasons, namely that you could just enjoy said things instead of making a crappy knockoff for nostalgia points, but I don't think zomg 2000s childhood nostalgia edits are moving the needle politically.

To lakes' point, rose tinted glasses are always a thing here. As much as I wish I were born a bit earlier it was easily the worst time in the US to be someone of my identity (you can probably guess)

[MacroNemesis]

I'mma be honest I was not expecting this topic to be so popular (in hindsight, maybe I should have been) I finally had a moment to read everything. I guess I'm just sort of glad I wasn't alone in this feeling.

The old web was in many ways better but also not always better. The web is still great, it's an open sea and there's more websites about more things than ever before, and that's not something to take for granted. We have even got a revival of the personal website trend with places like Neocities and Nekoweb, so it's not all garbage.
We have places like Archive.org to visit old websites, Wikipedia.org, the biggest encyclopedia ever. We have instant access to a massive library of videos made by creators on YouTube. If you showed all this tech to someone in the 80s I think they wouldn't believe it.

I would like to say this is a general take that I have, as has also been echoed by others in the thread. A lot of the commercialization has me bummed out tbh, it's still amazing what we can do with technology in the modern time, and there's still amazing things to find on, or better alternatives like GOG or Bandcamp(in some aspects) as an example, and I personally need to try neocities as oppose to some linktree or something. I think it's important that we don't forget "Old Ways" as we be vigilant of the more problematic sides of the modern web/tech and perhaps build something that can be a kind of complement, if not a synthesis for old and new.

[goya flensburgh]

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.

here's the thing, nostalgia isn't just one broad sense, it's connected to very specific eras of your life; when you feel it, you also get an emotional flashback to that point in time, for example, revisiting the original 2010 iPad (which is the fkn best btw ) or Sesame Street which is a show that's nostalgic for pretty much every kid on Earth at this point, just brings back one of the few memories I still have pre-2013 of sitting at a dumb little wooden table eating some oatmeal, watching it, and just ya know, exploring life before logic existed to me, I get the aroma, I get the setting, I get the state of mind back, the show itself is only a small part, just the gateway into reliving that little era of my life again, so I don't really think I'll be sucked into that "You traitors" mentality 'cus 1. nostalgia is personalised in pretty much every way and 2. why would I want to ruin something that makes me happy by turning it into a source of animosity? it's just diluding yourself into thinking your life is owned by this one product your fond for; Frutiger Aero I think has gotten a bit too political for it's own good with titles like "The Future We Were Promised" where they use this neat aesthetic to be like "And that's them rubbing in why today sucks and you should feel bad!" Ain't nothing to get upset over, people! It's just a design language, not a contract with the devil. Anyway, sorry that was a long response but I get disappointed when this happens every... ten... years!

[lakes]

Frutiger Aero I think has gotten a bit too political for it's own good with titles like "The Future We Were Promised" where they use this neat aesthetic to be like "And that's them rubbing in why today sucks and you should feel bad!" Ain't nothing to get upset over, people! It's just a design language, not a contract with the devil. Anyway, sorry that was a long response but I get disappointed when this happens every... ten... years!

The "Future We Were Promised" titles annoy me too, less so because they're political and more so because it's foolish to think these corporations promised us anything with these designs, other than usability & eyecandy. I'm pretty sure they just wanted to show off the new HD displays and other hardware capabilities at the time. This sentiment is pretending to be rebellious while being naive at best.

[goya flensburgh]

Frutiger Aero I think has gotten a bit too political for it's own good with titles like "The Future We Were Promised" where they use this neat aesthetic to be like "And that's them rubbing in why today sucks and you should feel bad!" Ain't nothing to get upset over, people! It's just a design language, not a contract with the devil. Anyway, sorry that was a long response but I get disappointed when this happens every... ten... years!

The "Future We Were Promised" titles annoy me too, less so because they're political and more so because it's foolish to think these corporations promised us anything with these designs, other than usability & eyecandy. I'm pretty sure they just wanted to show off the new HD displays and other hardware capabilities at the time. This sentiment is pretending to be rebellious while being naive at best.

yeah, Microsoft's Luna and Aero were always an attention grab to begin with, it just worked on most that time 'round! yes, the business practices now have changed, but people are like "oh, they had soul back then" not really, they just didn't rush it, and took time to get you engaged which isn't a bad thing, but nobody (well, not nobody but you get it) really realised it was just a trend that happened to be in a better time for experiencing the Web; if Neumorphism were the thing back then, people would hate Frutiger Aero if it were modern probably calling it "A distraction from corparate evil with flashy icons!" liking Frutiger Aero is an opinion, not the ideology rage-baiters think it is

[MacroNemesis]

Frutiger Aero I think has gotten a bit too political for it's own good with titles like "The Future We Were Promised" where they use this neat aesthetic to be like "And that's them rubbing in why today sucks and you should feel bad!" Ain't nothing to get upset over, people! It's just a design language, not a contract with the devil. Anyway, sorry that was a long response but I get disappointed when this happens every... ten... years!

The "Future We Were Promised" titles annoy me too, less so because they're political and more so because it's foolish to think these corporations promised us anything with these designs, other than usability & eyecandy. I'm pretty sure they just wanted to show off the new HD displays and other hardware capabilities at the time. This sentiment is pretending to be rebellious while being naive at best.

I had to admit, I fell for this initially. I think the combo of me growing up in that time, being naive, and having nostalgia for those made it a comfortable narrative when looking back at that time. Plus, at least for my young mind, there was still tendency to be bright, colorful, and optimistic in the media I consumed. Like the reason why beaches were prominent in video games at the time amounted to "YO LOOK AT HOW GOOD WE CAN MAKE WATER LOOK!" and it didn't really have a deeper meaning than that. I'm sure the glossy look of Fruitier Aero was in a similar vein a lot of the time.