These aren’t radically new forms of celebrity so much as new methods of circulating a fad. Thirty years ago we had Pewdiepie and Mr. Beast, they were just Talk Radio shock jocks and daytime TV game show hosts. The names and faces change, but the gimmicks are all the same.
“Oh, you don’t know who Octomom is? Oh, you haven’t heard about the Macarena? You don’t know all the call-lines to Rocky Horror Picture Show? I guess you’re not cool.” shrug These things come and go. You can follow them or not. But pretending the height of socialization is knowing the current crop of Mouseketeers-turned-pop-idols isn’t going to make you less of a Boomer than your great-grandparents.
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
Nah, this is millennial energy right here. “Fuck social media, why doesn’t everyone have a geocities page with a webring that links to their angelfire page and guestbooks and ICQ and stumbleupon KIDS NEED TO STOP HAVING A DIFFERENT INTERNET EXPERIENCE THAN I GREW UP WITH!”
Gen-x, as is their nature, simultaneously doesn’t care and complains endlessly about everything equally, even the stuff they like, especially the stuff they like.
gwen@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 months ago
yeah but the internet objectively sucks ass now and the webrings dont seem that bad ngl. also the ‘geocities page with a webring that links to their angelfire page and guestbooks and ICQ and stumbleupon’ still exists lmfao (neocities etc)
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
The internet objectively sucked back then too. But it seemed cool, because it was new and exciting and all the millennials that are nostalgic for it were young teens at the time.
ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social 3 months ago
Not a millennial but I will always argue that the modern internet is inherently worse for people than the internet even of 15 years ago.
can@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
It’s a very different place.
Sadrockman@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
Best. Explanation. Everrr.
charonn0@startrek.website 3 months ago
This, but unironicly!
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
I want to live in a world where people blame geocities and angelfire instead of alphabet and meta for destroying the internet and spreading misinformation