Makes sense that social media is the fundamental difference vs ancient times. We had music, drugs, sex (if lucky), drinking, computers, and gaming. For a few years in the 70’s there was a chance of ending up drafted, but that stopped in 75 as I recall. Perhaps the other difference is that people had part time jobs in high school or university - such jobs are gone or filled by “real people” trying to get by. In Europe, there was the wall and the Cold War.
There were stereotypical phone abuse (princess phones in bedrooms) and harsh comments between cliques occurred. But there was (very) little social interaction that weren’t face to face. Computers meant terminal rooms, which were also face to face. I’d like to think that rubbed the rough edges off a bit to be able to interact.
The internet came in the 80’s for the most part but it was textual and non commercial. And access was usually job related and somewhat limited. In some ways, the original HN community probably resembles the late internet/pre web community. No clue what the solution or remediation for social media will be but people should think about what they want it to be. Would be good to see the level of hostility that exists dialed back a bit but that’s up to others.
There were stereotypical phone abuse (princess phones in bedrooms) and harsh comments between cliques occurred. But there was (very) little social interaction that weren’t face to face. Computers meant terminal rooms, which were also face to face. I’d like to think that rubbed the rough edges off a bit to be able to interact.
The internet came in the 80’s for the most part but it was textual and non commercial. And access was usually job related and somewhat limited. In some ways, the original HN community probably resembles the late internet/pre web community. No clue what the solution or remediation for social media will be but people should think about what they want it to be. Would be good to see the level of hostility that exists dialed back a bit but that’s up to others.