• lugal@sopuli.xyz
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    2 months ago

    In Because Internet, Gretchen McCulloch argues that there are three waves of “internet people”. The first was “before it was cool”, the second when it became mainstream (give or take the turn of the millennium) and the third when internet was already a thing. The third are young people, too young to remember the 1900s and therefore the time before internet, and old people who go online because it’s unavoidable and also more intuitive and easy than ever before.

    Despite the generation gap, they have things in common and in contrast to the first and second wave (which she also subdivides but that’s beside the point). For example they never used mail as primary communication and they have smartphones as first device and most often second hand from a family member.

    Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk and sorry if I took your shitpost too serious but there’s truth and science behind it and I couldn’t not share it.

    • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
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      2 months ago

      I grew up when the internet was already a thing but I didn’t really get to use it until I was a teenager. We had a family computer with space cadet pinball on it, and as a small kid I didn’t know how to surf the web, I only knew how to play the games like solitaire. I knew you could connect your DS (It’s not a Gameboy, mum!) to the internet for online multiplayer, but it was too complicated to figure out without a grownup’s help. When I got a bit older, I got My own laptop for schoolwork and discovered the internet. I got hooked on webcomics and Reddit. I had a dumb phone for emergencies, which was later replaced with a smartphone on a prepaid plan, with too little data to use it for the internet. So I browsed the internet from the Ubuntu desktop I built at home. Eventually I got a monthly plan and joined the 21st century, but it was a long way getting there.

      Technically I fall into your third group, but I don’t have anything in common with these kids.

      • lugal@sopuli.xyz
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        2 months ago

        Interesting! This sounds a lot like the experience of millennials (like me) but instead of coming to an internet that’s as young as I was, you get there a decade or so later.

        I checked the book again and she’s like “of cause there are exceptions” so you’re kind of seen as well