Comment by stego-tech
Comment by stego-tech 6 days ago
Very well said. I struggled with a dearth of social skills in adolescence that persevered well into adulthood, a combination of extreme naivety and being a spoiled brat (and, potentially, some autism for good measure). Being online in forums and IRC helped me work on those a bit at a time, thanks to clear-cut and instant feedback on what was and wasn’t acceptable. What really boosted my abilities were my tenure as server administrator or moderator, though, something I never would’ve been given a position of in a real job. I learned the basics of power politics, how to lead a group of people (or at the very least, how to herd cats), and how successful authority derives respect (hint: by adhering to the rules and punishments it applies to others; yes, I banned myself on several occasions when I overstepped or broke rules, just as I did to anyone else). None of that is really feasible on such a large scale anymore, with centralized social media having centralized moderation (if any at all) that the average community member has no hope of reaching.
That said, I’d also echo what others have pointed out regarding the “barrier to entry”/“this tall to ride” mindset of the early internet. Good sites would block free email providers from signups to both preserve community standards and reduce spam accounts. IRC required some rudimentary understanding of ports and domains to join, along with some text commands if you really wanted to have fun. And everything was offline by default, requiring an always-online connection, a dedicated computer, or access to a shared server at a colo to run your own bouncer and remain online at all times. Even those of us who invested that time and effort to be online more often approached a point of diminishing returns as we moved to smartphones of the era and their meager data plans at extortionate rates (miss you, Nokia N80ie and my Symbian IRC client). The internet was a “destination” that required some degree of skill to engage with, and rewarded those who practiced and honed that skill with more freedom.
Ultimately, the nostalgia my friends and I have for those bygone days is twofold: the ability to disconnect entirely and be unreachable until we decide to hop online again, and the barrier to entry weeding out those who don’t really want to be there in the first place. An era of opt-in, rather than opt-out, and all the beauty that came from the types of people who were willing to put in the effort of going online in the first place.
Thanks for sharing this. Somehow it evokes images of travel to me.
Seeing the wonders of the world used to require skill, (sailing, flying, or) hiking/climbing up mountains to see the view. There were few people at the top and likely like-minded.
Since cable cars were installed, there's hordes of tourists at the top that take the place for granted and cable car operators eventually ruin the view by putting up ads billboards all over the landscape.
Some folks set-up their private viewing areas only accessible by hiking (some free, some rented, some purchased), and still hike to the top, but they'll take the cable car for convenience sometimes and there is the looming threat that the hiking path will become inaccessible some day.
Others find new mountains where they try to trailbreak with a few others, knowing they may be laying the groundwork for new cablecars down the line and will need to move on again.