Not really... Even back in the Web 1.0 days people didn't visit the same websites unless they had the same interests. And even today this exists – I'm seeing the same HN homepage for example, and this is true of most sites.
I think what you're describing was much more of a thing in the 80s and 90s with TV. People genuinely would tune into the same programs as each other every night and have these collective cultural experiences which don't quite exist in the same way they used to.
I don't miss it personally, but I suspect us losing that has led to some of our cultural divides in recent years.
I'm not the global shared experiences you're describing really ever existed.
I often think about MySpace - how it was so anchored in the real world.
It was a social media about real life. We don’t have anything like that.
Closest thing is maybe Yelp but it’s totally separated from being social. They have made it into a kind of Yellow Pages with comments.
But MySpace did ticket sales and music streaming and people were designing their profiles in wildly creative ways, there were games, news, gossip, and somehow it was all seamless with the real world.
I guess Big Media took over because, now it’s all individualized social media, a manufactured feed of random drama. Like the WWE shoved its way into websites and started setting up Trump and Joe Rogan, and COVID-19, Netanyahu, and “Black Lives Matter”, and all this heightened sensation totally unrelated to my actual real life. I’m not even saying it’s all fake or bad or anything - just that it’s now mostly information detached from my daily life.
I digress, offline is a shared experience, yes. But online could be too. It was.
Tell her to read HN.
PS: Was there ever a front page of Instagram? Sounds weird!
It’s also a portal in time. 2000 years ago people were looking at that same moon
Without a shared experience, it’s direct mail on steroids.
> The Internet used to be like that.
Not really... Even back in the Web 1.0 days people didn't visit the same websites unless they had the same interests. And even today this exists – I'm seeing the same HN homepage for example, and this is true of most sites.
I think what you're describing was much more of a thing in the 80s and 90s with TV. People genuinely would tune into the same programs as each other every night and have these collective cultural experiences which don't quite exist in the same way they used to.
I don't miss it personally, but I suspect us losing that has led to some of our cultural divides in recent years.
I'm not the global shared experiences you're describing really ever existed.
> I doubt the global shared experiences you're describing really ever existed.
You were probably too young and did not experience it.
What you said is not accurate.
Offline is a shared experience.
I often think about MySpace - how it was so anchored in the real world.
It was a social media about real life. We don’t have anything like that.
Closest thing is maybe Yelp but it’s totally separated from being social. They have made it into a kind of Yellow Pages with comments.
But MySpace did ticket sales and music streaming and people were designing their profiles in wildly creative ways, there were games, news, gossip, and somehow it was all seamless with the real world.
I guess Big Media took over because, now it’s all individualized social media, a manufactured feed of random drama. Like the WWE shoved its way into websites and started setting up Trump and Joe Rogan, and COVID-19, Netanyahu, and “Black Lives Matter”, and all this heightened sensation totally unrelated to my actual real life. I’m not even saying it’s all fake or bad or anything - just that it’s now mostly information detached from my daily life.
I digress, offline is a shared experience, yes. But online could be too. It was.
Having offline for free, why would we need online for a price?