Let me explain. So imagine this tv show with the plot taking place about like a few decades before the internet was invented. If I see that, I suddenly feel some sort of anxiety as in: “Damn, how did people even get information?”, like I suddenly imagine myself, there, as a child, and not having access to this seemlingly unlimited access to information that I currently have, and not to mention, entertainment content. So like, that feeling of feeling like I’m in the past (as in: I’m imagining myself being in the past), but not have access to the internet just gives me a very bad feeling. Idk how to describe it. As an introvert, I’d hate the pre-internet era.

For context, I’m Gen Z (I mean like birth year around 2000-2005), and I grew up reading a lot of Wikipedia and educational Youtube videos, and variety of news articles, and reading through a lot of internet forums. I hate imagining a world where I didn’t have that. Like Growing up 100 years ago, I would feel even more lonely and isolated, I’d probably have ended my own life out of boredom, if it weren’t for the endless amount of information I am able to obtain.

What is this weird feeling that I’m feeling?

Reverse-Nostalgia?

History-Phobia?

Techno-philia?

(Am I being weird? 🤔)

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
    2·
    11 hours ago

    I’m around five to ten years older than you and get the same feeling sometimes. Not so much from TV shows or movies, but also from reading or watching real-life stories from that time. Like, when reading documents written pre-Internet that reference then-current events, how and how much did they know about those events? All just TV and newspapers? Nowadays I can easily find out what happened back then, but that was obviously not so much so at the time.

    I do not remember a time without the Internet at all, but I do remember very well a time before mobile Internet, and I remember that around the time you were born, most people watched TV almost every day. I hardly ever watch TV nowadays, there is so much more entertainment online (e.g. YouTube).

    As for looking up information, in the mid-to-late 2000s it was really mostly Wikipedia that built up the Internet as a useful resource for doing that. Obviously nowadays nearly all information that can be found there can be found on numerous other websites too; the Internet has now been built up, so Wikipedia is arguably a much less important website now than back then…