Do you think things were better before (circa the turn of the millennia)?

[Dissitesuxba11s]

We like to romanticize the past because we remember fondly the good things about it and completely ignore the fact that it wasn't all that great. Once you take off the nostalgia glasses, you would not even consider that the past is better than the present. We have come such a long way in the mere two decades after the turn of the millennium that it's practically a new world to our 90's self. The past has its ups as well as its downs and the same will be said for any generation to come.

[Lord Szechenyi]

1 hour ago, Lord Vile said:

Mixed, privacy disappearing with the advent of Facebook and google owning most of the advertising space on the internet. Obviously things progress but most every day tech hasn't advanced in design or functionality since Steve Jobs passed. Everything seems to be pretty much them same since 2010 with the only exceptions being gimmicky devices like the Galaxy fold that reduce functionality in an attempt to desperately shout "look at me" rather than bringing something useful to the table. News sources are hard to trust because they're more interested in their agenda than facts and most people are becoming increasingly more tribal in every regard from politics to brands they like. On top of this the "inclusively" brigade try to undermine society as a whole and are trying to erase the past because it's "problematic". Then you have the racist dickheads from BLM trying to start a race war. Life in the 21st century is just peachy.

Steve Jobs really only made the Ipod and Iphone (at least after the turn of the millenia) and the Ipod was quite a big deal, only the iphone was really revolutionary (for better or worse). I doubt Steve Jobs would change much as we saw that Bill Gates hasn't done much either.

News weren't very good most of the time to begin with, nowadays it's at a peak (or a low peak, i don't know what would be the correct term for the opposite for peak) where it's only garbage in the news.

Hell even back in the "communist" days here in Hungary there were much better news.

My theory is that Life in the 21st century was achieved by a series of dominos, and the last (major) one was 9/11.

Since then everytime we thought it was going to be better, it became worse everytime.

First with 9/11 (obviously) which started the fire (that billy joel didn't start of course).

Then 2008 economy crisis poured massive gasoline on it (much has changed because of it)

And now with Trump+Virus there's even more shit that hit the fan.

The real question, How worse can it get at this point?

China will conquer the world and enslave us?

[kelvinhall05]

11 minutes ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

We like to romanticize the past because we remember fondly the good things about it and completely ignore the fact that it wasn't all that great. Once you take off the nostalgia glasses, you would not even consider that the past is better than the present. We have come such a long way in the mere two decades after the turn of the millennium that it's practically a new world to our 90's self. The past has its ups as well as its downs and the same will be said for any generation to come.

Yes, this exactly, and it's also greatly exhaggerated by the fact that OP is going off other peoples' opinions and memories as he wasn't even alive back in the 90s.

[Lord Szechenyi]

13 minutes ago, minibois said:

It's much easier now to find a community of like-minded people somewhere (i.e. a forum, subreddit, etc.) than it was ages ago.

Very ironic, since i find it to be the complete opposite

[Wheresmehammer]

1 minute ago, Lord Szechenyi said:

Very ironic, since i find it to be the complete opposite

Welcome to the world and why every decade has ups and downs.

[Lord Szechenyi]

13 minutes ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

We like to romanticize the past because we remember fondly the good things about it and completely ignore the fact that it wasn't all that great. Once you take off the nostalgia glasses, you would not even consider that the past is better than the present. We have come such a long way in the mere two decades after the turn of the millennium that it's practically a new world to our 90's self. The past has its ups as well as its downs and the same will be said for any generation to come.

Yes but no.

i don't have glasses, so that's my advantage here.

obviously we have better hardware, better emulation in 2020.

But things like optimization have been completely looked over, today i can say things are improved from before, but my real point is that "nothing is impressive".

Like i can't see another Boing Ball demo.

If they make Ray tracing soon with some extra feature or some other task running in the background, THEN i might change my mind

[Lord Vile]

8 minutes ago, Lord Szechenyi said:

Steve Jobs really only made the Ipod and Iphone (at least after the turn of the millenia) and the Ipod was quite a big deal, only the iphone was really revolutionary (for better or worse). I doubt Steve Jobs would change much as we saw that Bill Gates hasn't done much either.

iMac, MacBook, MacBook Air, iPad, iTunes.

 

Bill gates hasn't had a massive hand in Microsoft for a while now and wasn't in the same mould as Jobs at apple. 

8 minutes ago, Lord Szechenyi said:

News weren't very good most of the time to begin with, nowadays it's at a peak (or a low peak, i don't know what would be the correct term for the opposite for peak) where it's only garbage in the news.

Hell even back in the "communist" days here in Hungary there were much better news.

My theory is that Life in the 21st century was achieved by a series of dominos, and the last (major) one was 9/11.

Since then everytime we thought it was going to be better, it became worse everytime.

First with 9/11 (obviously) which started the fire (that billy joel didn't start of course).

Then 2008 economy crisis poured massive gasoline on it (much has changed because of it)

And now with Trump+Virus there's even more shit that hit the fan.

The real question, How worse can it get at this point?

China will conquer the world and enslave us?

Would agree with 9/11 putting governments on edge and trying to put surveillance on every blade of grass but overall it's not been that bad. Recessions happen it wasn't the first and won't be the last. With the pandemic again there's been much worse, the Spanish flu was in the late 1910's and killed a huge amount of people when the population wasn't nearly as high. 

[Lord Szechenyi]

4 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Yes, this exactly, and it's also greatly exaggerated by the fact that OP is going off other peoples' opinions and memories as he wasn't even alive back in the 90s.

Who are these other people?

i do not know anyone, i'm quite a lone person.

So i have no idea what the hell you're talking about

[Lord Vile]

7 minutes ago, Wheresmehammer said:

Just because your language is separate from English, it does not separate your intentions.

 

I am English, our dry humour is perhaps too dry.

 

Nonce

 

TBF sarcasm has gotten me into trouble on this site with American mods who just have the worst sense of humour.

[kelvinhall05]

1 minute ago, Lord Szechenyi said:

But things like optimization have been completely looked over,

Because people are developing for infinite possible combinations of hardware instead of one fucking computer.

[kelvinhall05]

Just now, Lord Szechenyi said:

Who are these other people?

i do not know anyone, i'm quite a lone person.

So i have no idea what the hell you're talking about

How are you forming opinions from your experience when you weren't even alive then? Lmao

[Lord Szechenyi]

10 minutes ago, Sakuriru said:

I was alive back then, so don't worry I remember how much worse it was.

There's a huge difference between technology existing and its wide adoption. Car phones existed for some time but do you think the average family had one? This is the good ole, "Things were better back in my day," argument but by any objective metric it wasn't. Sure I like shows and movies from the last century. In the 21st century I can watch them on demand whenever I want on my pocket computer.

 

Yeah yeah you might think everything was better but all of the stuff from the 90's still exists. You can still play 90's games, listen to 90's music, and watch 90's television. It's just even more consumable these days than it was in the past (except for the animated Aladdin series, Disney+ doesn't have it).

When driving, you do not telephone.

So that argument falls flat about car phones.

And yes, but i want to be marketed those products, and i want news about things similar to it.

can't we have something like (this is just an example i don't mean exactly this) the Dick Cavett show?

i don't want to see jimmy kimbel's face anywhere near television, or the other jimmy, or that other guy from SNL

Spoiler

Speaking of, SNL also became really shit

the problem is that, yes we still have those stuff from back then, but we haven't had anything that was both NEW and GOOD

[minibois]

2 minutes ago, Lord Szechenyi said:

Very ironic, since i find it to be the complete opposite

Could you explain further?

 

From my perspective it's much easier now that say 10-15 years ago.

if I am looking for a community of people now, it's just a as easy as searching a couple terms on my favorite search engine and check out the first couple of results. Those first results are likely a forum, a YouTube channel and maybe a Subreddit (which might have more Subreddits affiliated).

From there I can go further or ask my questions in any of those places.

 

Compare that to 10-15 years ago, where many of these forums were still in their infancy and didn't have the SEO they have today. Where YouTube channel weren't as big, with as much content (or didn't exist at all still). Same with the Subreddits.

 

The only thing I would be able to say is more difficult to find now, than 7-10 years ago is a YouTube channel with a tight knit community in the comments, but that is mainly because their size and the way YouTube comments work has changed. Stuff like Discord servers have really altered the way people look for any sort of community.

No longer do you have the days of joining a TeamSpeak server, or a Skype group only to find it non-active, nowadays there are many Discord servers with a ton of people in there.

 

Of course that does have its downsides, in my opinion it all feels way less personal now. When you join a Discord, it has likely been up for a good couple years now with groups within this server. Finding your way into those is harder, but that is just the nature of how it works.

 

So you call it the complete opposite, how do you feel like your experience now of finding communities is worse than it was 10-15 years ago (or however long ago you want to reference)?

[Lord Szechenyi]

4 minutes ago, Lord Vile said:

Nonce

 

TBF sarcasm has gotten me into trouble on this site with American mods who just have the worst sense of humour.

The problem with sarcasm online is that there is no intonation.

Since you know, text.

[Lord Szechenyi]

8 minutes ago, Wheresmehammer said:

Just because your language is separate from English, it does not separate your intentions.

 

Of course, but those intentions could be misinterpreted.

[Lord Szechenyi]

8 minutes ago, Wheresmehammer said:

Welcome to the world and why every decade has ups and downs.

yes but no, since this decade seems to have way more downs than ups if at all any ups

[kelvinhall05]

Just now, Lord Szechenyi said:

The problem with sarcasm online is that there is no intonation.

Since you know, text.

The real problem is people getting offended by sarcasm.

[Wheresmehammer]

Just now, Lord Szechenyi said:

yes but no, since this decade seems to have way more downs than ups if at all any ups

That's just your perception.

 

I gave many negatives on this era to offset the positives, but i don't see in only 1 way.

[Tan3l6]

I think it was simple times and living standard in my country was lower, considering today.

90's-2010's had a great spell in movies/films....,.....,..

[Lord Szechenyi]

6 minutes ago, Lord Vile said:

iMac, MacBook, MacBook Air, iPad, iTunes.

 

Bill gates hasn't had a massive hand in Microsoft for a while now and wasn't in the same mould as Jobs at apple. 

Would agree with 9/11 putting governments on edge and trying to put surveillance on every blade of grass but overall it's not been that bad. Recessions happen it wasn't the first and won't be the last. With the pandemic again there's been much worse, the Spanish flu was in the late 1910's and killed a huge amount of people when the population wasn't nearly as high. 

Anything Mac is from before the millennia, and even then they aren't that revolutionary as Microsoft always had the biggest market share (by a considerable margin).

Yes, it's true that Bill Gates isn't as active as Jobs was, but then again Jobs did a lot of bad things.

He was reported multiple times to be "a dick", stole some ideas here and there, and especially (although here i'm not sure it's specifically him) did bad choices like the Apple Pippin.

In a way, you could say the spanish flu was good as it was natural selection and it killed off all the idiots who didn't watch out.

There was no lockdown in 1910, and there was ABOLUTELY no globalization, which is today a very big factor.

As for 9/11, well it's true crisises (or idk how to spell it) have always been a thing, but 9/11 seems to be the final nail in the coffin, the final domino, the icing on the cake that started something, or lit it up.

Yes, since there was tension building up, look at the late 90s films like fight club or office space, and even other things too.

Gasoline was poured in huge quantities, but it wasn't lit.

But 9/11 lit it, and since then huge chaos building up.

[wall03]

-Much higher resolution displays (also more color)

-Cleaner software interfaces

-Lower prices on faster hardware

-Music streaming services are a thing nowadays

-Faster internet

-Better games (in my opinion)

-Memes

-Rick rolls

-More efficient kitchen appliances (I'm looking at you: fridge!)

-Shopping online

-More information accessible to the public at faster speeds (Yes, Wikipedia was made before 2000, but it's arguably better nowadays)

[WaggishOhio383]

10 hours ago, Sakuriru said:

Get rid of all portable devices. Limit your internet speed to 56k with Windows 98. The only way you're allowed to talk to someone is over the phone. Also you're not allowed to call anyone else's cell phone. You're also not allowed to use any consumer GPS device (time to get out the map). Replace your TV with a big ole CRT. Oh and you're not allowed to use anything more recent than VHS.

 

You tell me how good it is. I'll wait.

Honestly, that doesn't sound too bad to me. As much as I enjoy the benefits of modern technology, I'm not overly attached to it. I could function without it and be perfectly happy. I already love messing around with old tech anyway. And the 90s had some great video games (not just games that came out in the 90s, but also 80s and prior games that would still be accessible).

[Wheresmehammer]

Just now, wall03 said:

-Much higher resolution displays (also more color)

-Cleaner software interfaces

-Lower prices on faster hardware

-Music streaming services are a thing nowadays

-Faster internet

-Better games

-Memes

-Rick rolls

-More efficient kitchen appliances (I'm looking at you: fridge!)

-Shopping online

-More information accessible to the public at faster speeds (Yes, Wikipedia was made before 2000, but it's arguably better nowadays)

 

[Lord Szechenyi]

12 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Because people are developing for infinite possible combinations of hardware instead of one fucking computer.

EXACTLY!

and why are they doing that?

Because money, more companies try to make money and instead of having one computer, we have near infinite choices.

Back then, you either bought a commodore, an atari st, or an IBM compatible.

Simple as that

[Lord Szechenyi]

13 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

How are you forming opinions from your experience when you weren't even alive then? Lmao

Because i told you i grew up with these things, but apparently you weren't able to understand that despite me writing it multiple times.