I understand that crypto is a scam that will rob millions of people of money they desperately need.
See, this guy gets it
I don’t think there is one legal use case that can only be solved by a blockchain and not cheaper and faster with a classic database.
Except money laundering, crapto is fantastic for that.
Bitcoins got lower inflation than gold, that’s a use case right there
I am sure scamming people out of their money with crypto is legal in a few jurisdictions.
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But what you said there is literally the end of my understanding of what crypto is. It has something to do with computers solving math problems, and somehow that’s worth money.
What?
I’m gunna try to explain the basics of just Bitcoin here, its probably the easiest to understand out of all of them. It’s all based on a mathematical function called the hash function. Basically the hash function can take in any input and produce a unique number between zero and a bazillion that represents it. Statistically speaking, the outputs of the hash function are random, and if you only have the output its impossible to find the corisponding input - it cant be reversed. When a transaction happens with a cryptocurrency its broadcast to the whole network, and made very public. All the information about it, the sender, the receiver, the amount, the time, and a few other things too, all that is sent around the network. That bundle of information is basically all a transaction is. But the process of validating it is what makes it real. Some people have computer programs that collect all of these transactions broadcast across the network, and they combine them into large chunks, known as blocks. Each block, along with all the financial data inside it, has an extra number attached to it known as a nonce. These people who listen for new transactions and later store them, take the block, and apply the hash function to it. If the output of the hash function is in a very small range - with is unlikely - a new special transaction happens, from no one, to the person who calculated the hash, minting new bitcoins (rn I think this amount is 3.125 Bitcoin but that might be outdated). (This is what Bitcoin mining is). If the output of the hash isn’t in the range, they try again. The network automatically changes the size of this range to make sure that over a given amount of time the same number of bitcoins are minted, making Bitcoin free from spikes in inflation. Additionally, the network halfs the reward from mining a block about every 4 years, causing the inflation rate to drop over time. As this happens the network with settle on a fixed number of usable bitcoins, slightly less than 21 million. And that part of it makes its a viable alternative to gold, because while new gold is always being mined, its not much so overall gold has very low monetary inflation. But a large amount of bitcoins value stems from the fact that eventually Bitcoin wont have any at all.
I’d be more than happy to further explain how this stuff works, I’m no expert but I’m really interested in the math and economics behind it all. I really recommend reading the original Bitcoin paper, https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-paper , its not a light read but it explains it all a lot better than I can. Have a nice day!
I’m not religious, but God bless you.
I still barely understand, but I understand more than I did five minutes ago, and that is worth something.
Why is this math problem worth monetary value to anyone if it’s just a randomly generated number? I don’t care if something generated a number somewhere. Like, good for them I guess? Why is that valuable?
Thank you! Well its really not that useful by itself, just like little green papers aren’t that useful. But its just more practical for the world to imagine that the paper is worth something its not, because this makes trade a lot easier to do. Same thing with Bitcoin
It’s a speculative asset that fluctuates based on the whims of billionaire hedge funds and early crypto investors. There is zero value in owning it unless you got in early enough. And even then it’s a situation of the last man holding the bag. Someone will end up losing their asses.
On average the value of any crypto token is less than 0 because of the high cost to produce and transfer them. Ironically it seems people find the most wasteful tokens more valuable. “It’s hard to make so it must be valuable” or some such nonsense.
Not all crypto is hard to mine you know. Stuff like Ethereum and Solana don’t use up that much electricity bc they use a different method called proof of stake, rather than bitcoins proof of work. Basically people who wanna validate transactions stake some money on the network, and if they validate a transaction right, they get paid a bit. If they get it wrong, they lose that money they staked. And the more money they stake, the more they make from validating transactions.
I literally said that there is a difference between tokens in their cost to produce. E.g. bitcoin is more expensive than others and valued higher.
Most crypto is. Proof of work crypto is not and brings actual stability and longevity to the table. Most people don’t understand this. Proof of stake is never anything more than gambling.
Well it really depends. The good thing about PoS is that it lowers volitilatity to some extent, because stakeholder cant take out too much of their money otherwise they’d be losing out on money they couldve been making. PoW is definitely more concrete though, PoS is really abstract for sure
This has been my favorite response so far. It explains nothing, but the mental image is priceless.
No, that’s basically it.
The reason for all this work is basically the concept of a currency that isn’t backed by and dependent upon governments while also being impossible to counterfeit, hence a lot of encryption because it fundamentally says that you can’t trust the other computers that you’re talking to. Everybody holds a ledger that says that you have $5, so you can’t suddenly say that you actually have $10. And all the math is to prevent inflation by limiting the amount of currency that exists at any time. The more currency there is from solving the math, the harder the math gets to slow down the creation of new money.
It all falls apart, though, because the only value that crypto has is what it’s worth in traditional fiat currency - the very thing that it’s supposed to replace.
So it’s just a bunch of computers doing a lot of math to make funny money that’s supposedly worth something because…of reasons?
You’re close. 1 unless the coin is proof of work you can’t trust it. 2 the value it brings it in the replacement of third party trust for economic transactions and the infrastructure and labor required for that, along with global, instant access to transfer infinite amounts of value as well as store that value logically within your own mind.
Downvotes are coming but if you’re seriously intellectually curious where the value is, read the Bitcoin standard.
prevent inflation by limiting the amount of currency that exists
which is a flawed premise itself. the supply of currency needs to expand at the same rate as productivity increases or else you get deflation which has its own set of problems
well…no. Gold goes up because of the same reason and its not ruining everything. And I’m pretty sure actually no currency has THAT much inflation, like that’s a lot more than you might think
it’s also at the same time libertarian political project that aims to, how they put it, “separate money from state”, which is in itself absurd, but not for libertarians, because their only problem with capitalism is that they’re not on the top. crypto is an attempt to “fix” that “problem”. see also doings of peter thiel, curtis yarvin, urbit,
first they build a place with no state interference and then they learn hard way why there’s so many financial regulations. sometimes it’s deliberate and it’s a way to use novelty to repackage old financial crimes to deflect responsibility long enough to fuck off to Dubai. sometimes it’s scams all the way and scammer already lives in North Korea
the problem with crypto is that when you try to explain it, it sounds so stupid that someone else thinks you have to be explaining it wrong
but if you want explanation, this one is fine https://ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/bitcoin/2020-12-31-bitcoin-ponzi.html and this https://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/bitcoin/2021-01-16-yes-ponzi.html
So the same as most currency that isn’t backed by actual valuables? Like the US dollar after it stopped being backed by gold like 100 years ago?
Crypto is a world currency that people have assigned value to. Pretty much all other money is a currency that individual countries have assigned a value to. Both types can be just as worthless. Hyper inflation has made money from many countries worth less than a roll of toilet paper to wipe your ass with. For that matter, the US dollar could buy you 30 rolls of toilet paper 75 years ago. Now it can only buy you like 1 roll.
A pretty generous comparison. USD is at least FDIC insured and somewhat tied to our country’s finances. Crypto only stabilizes around the markets that use it, i.e. black markets.
At this point, the US is becoming a black market.
FDIC insures you won’t lose your money if a bank or something goes under. It doesn’t do anything to insure that the money’s value stays good.
You have a good point, the value of any money (even a lot of gold’s value) is a social construct, i.e. only what the population makes of it. For that reason, I don’t think that crypto is inherently bad, but the fact is that most people trading aren’t using it as money (you know, an intermediate good to facilitate trades), they’re attempting to use its wildly fluctuating value to make a quick buck. Those types of trades ironically only make it more volatile, and are what made it volatile in the first place, so there’s now a vicious cycle. Will crypto ever stabilize? Fuck if I know, I’m not qualified to talk about this, but frankly I think you could say the same about most people in the stock market and especially in crypto. Maybe if a critical mass of people start actually using cryptocurrency as a currency it’ll change, but who can say.
Crypto has already started stabilizing. But only proof of work can demand the trust and longevity to make it so. Everything else has the threat of a scam. Do not trust proof of stake. Research those terms and the Birds Eye level of the crypto they represent for more info.
I wouldn’t say PoS is a scam but it 100% increases that existential threat of a 51% attack.
When I think of crypto I think of that bloke grubbing through landfill for a lost hard drive. I think of Sam Bankman Fried. I think of Trump’s meme coin. Yes, I’m sure someone must be explaining it wrong to this old lady.
I feel like there’s so much nonsense happening with crypto that people will overlook any of the legal, ethical use cases of it. Like its got lower inflation than gold, I mean that’s actually incredible from an economic standpoint.
These are great, but they don’t explain what a crypto coin actually is.
If your interested in learning more about the math behind Bitcoin and how it functions at a lower level I’d recommend reading the original white paper for it
A central part to it is that each coin is defined as a series of transactions, not the other way around like with real world items. For example if a new Bitcoin is mined, that’s described as a transaction from no-one, to someone.
technical details vary and honestly matter little. what matters more is what people do with these things, and that’s what’s explained
Its just an entry in a ledger. It says something like, “blandfordforever sends courageousstep 1 coin” along with a cryptographic signature from blandforever that validates the transaction. This means you now have and can transfer that coin to someone else, provided that you have the key to sign the appropriate transaction. That’s all it is.
The miners are all competing to sign a “block” of transactions onto the ledger by figuring out new correct answer to a math problem that’s determined in part by a number from the previous block. They are rewarded for this by being able to send themselves a preset number of coins in this new block they’ve signed. Transactions aren’t final until they’ve been added to the blockchain by this mechanism.
You know what a normal database is.
The Blockchain is a distributed database instead of a centralized one where normally people can verify that each other part of the database is correct.
Generally anything a distributed database can do, a centralized database in good hands can do better. Except for crimes. It’s more difficult to get away with crimes when they can be shut down in one place.
Also it’s harder to undo Blockchain/crypto stuff. They sell this as a benefit while the primary use is scams and rug pulls.
“The government can’t get your money back.” Yeah, gonna be hard to get back thr money you were scammed out of with a court order, isn’t it.
They also try to sell it as anonymous, but it’s very much not. Everything is on the record, so if they link you to an address (and they generally can), they can see every transaction you’ve ever made. There used to be services to obfuscate this, but the government has well and truly broken through those. They can find you of they want to.
Crypto is a an MLM for guys. You can make money, if you’re lucky enough to be the scammer and not the scammee.
There used to be services to obfuscate this, but the government has well and truly broken through those. They can find you of they want to. Not all currencies have this issue, like stuff like Zcash and Monero cant be traced
Fiat currency is just as silly. As is all money, really.
“I trade numbers for food. The numbers are accessible via a magnetic strip on some plastic in my pocket.” or “I trade paper for clothing but the number of papers isn’t as important as the number printed ON the papers.” Both of these realities are absurd. :)
As a store of value representing labor rendered: neither of those are terrible systems and most people don’t understand either of them anyway. Fiat seems “normal” because we grew up with it. That said: I’m no apologist. Popular crypto currencies offer little novelty for the layperson, no true improvement on the concept of currency generally, and cost orders of magnitude more to maintain their required infrastructure. I fail to see the appeal.
There are some projects which focus on the practical utility of decentralized currency (I remember thinking Nano (wikipedia.com) was cool back in the day) but they don’t get the same kind of attention as meme coins because they can’t be abused as easily. I’ve heard stories of these kinds of tools facilitating commerce in places where the local currency collapsed. Neat as that may be it isn’t revolutionary… Still more convenient than bartering via cigarette though.
Fiat isn’t “silly” insofar as there’s an underlying reason why fiat has value. The US dollar is valuable because the US government only accepts tax payments in USD. As long as the US government demands tax payments and has the ability to make good on those demands, US dollars will have value.
“it’s somehow worth money” is basically true of all fiat currencies. It’s worth what the consensus agrees it is worth.
(this comment should not be read as a defense of crypto)
Government currencies are backed by taxes - someone did something and gave a portion of the value of their labor to the government, represented by currency. The government then reinvests the labor into the country supposedly for the public good. This is expected to continue indefinitely and it is this cycle that gives the currency value.
Crypto companies have investors. Investors are only attracted by the prospect of growth. They have no natural revenue cycle, no way of creating value without hype and people gambling with their.money.
The exception is the value inherent in being a currency outside of the control and surveillance of the Governments. Hence all the illegal activities. As time goes on cryptocurrencies will be more regulated and controlled by government, and it will diminish that trait.
It’s fucking stupid.
What is a fiat currency?
Oh, I just looked it up. So it’s the USD.
It’s any currency that is unbacked by a commodity.
Traditional currencies are backed by governments and the global economy. Boiling down USD/EUR to “it’s worth money because we say so” is many many magnitudes larger of a splicification than saying the same for crypto.
I think it helps to reinforce how silly crypto is, though. Once you establish that fiat currency is basically magic paper we all agree is worth something because it’s backed by things like the government’s reliability and contract to uphold that value, and then you say, “and crypto, designed to replace fiat currency, is backed by fiat currency,” the whole thing falls apart like the house of cards that it is.
How can you justify a funny money that doesn’t do anything new in terms of cyber security, while burning vastly more resources to do it, and is only worth something because of the currency that it’s supposed to replace, and that value rapidly fluctuates from moment to moment.
How can you justify a funny money that doesn’t do anything new in terms of cyber security, while burning vastly more resources to do it, and is only worth something because of the currency that it’s supposed to replace, and that value rapidly fluctuates from moment to moment.[?]
Well its got lower inflation than gold, that’s something.
It’s decentralized, so how do you prevent people from making up bullshit lies that didn’t happen about where the money is? You do it by incorporating a difficult math problem. Then to incentivize people to actually work on that instead of just using the money, people who solve it get a reward.
I am not pro crypto, just explaining.
Just a big lottery you’ll never really win https://youtu.be/4DUkS98yw5Y
Then you don’t understand crypto.
Public ledger blockchain is genius technology, whether you can imagine a use-case you consider valid is not a condition for it to actually be an amazing construction.
The only crypto that makes kinda sense is the idea of a stablecoin (essentially a layer around a stable currency/reserve), but so far there’s not really a good implementation of one.
All the big crypto coins are just more volatile stocks with shittier tax implications (assuming you don’t try to skirt the law with it)
Yall seem to young to to understand crypto. Its original intent was to combat the crazy bad economic stuff from 2007. It’s not inherently a scam as a category. 2007s banking collapse was really scary when it happened if you were paying attention. It made 9/11 seem like NBD. Unfortunately not much has changed and you’ll probably get to see something similar again.
Huh. I’ve never heard that being the reason, especially when crypto was supposedly made outside US but the 2007 crisis was centered around US.
The original reason is in the name.
You should read some of Satoshi’s stuff about bitcoin, its honestly pretty interesting ,he wrote a lot about the economic implications of it. Actually fun fact in the first Bitcoin block, the first transaction has the title from British newspaper about how the government was bailing out more banks.
Yes. Absolutely. But I see where the appeal comes from. A few years ago I bought some Bitcoin for 50 Euro. A year later it doubled in value. That was nice. And that was moderate compared to when I first got Bitcoin and it was as cheap as dirt and suddenly it’s worth 70k. With the world in the grips of the billionaire class people get desperate for even a chance at moderate wealth. It’s a sad symptom of the fucked up world we’re living in.
The relative value of your bitcoin changed, but the amount of bitcoin itself stayed the same.
Same happens with cash I guess, except it tends to be worth less over time.
It hasn’t been that hard in my experience. Ignore shifts in the social landscape until the yung’ins reach a consensus about it, and always remember that time just before the dotcom crash when a company got venture funding to deliver tuna subs by mail.
I understand crypto… and it is utter shit.
People used to enjoy anime and MST3k episodes on fifth generation VHS copies. Crypto is worse than that.
People used to enjoy anime and MST3k episodes on fifth generation VHS copies.
As a general rule, I prefer getting torrent links from friends in a Discord stream over huffing it over to a Blockbuster and hoping their single copy of “My Neighbor Totoro” isn’t checked out. You can make the case for a better brighter tech future.
Just don’t put half your paycheck into “TotoroCoin” because its trending on pump.fun
You know why vhs quality degraded with every generation of copy? It wasn’t an accident or a technical problem, it was deliberate.
They want to discourge people from copying their tapes, so there was a mechanism in the VCR to actually cause some drop in quality when you taped something.
This is why TV tapings of a movie would never be as good as buying/renting the same movie from a store. Even if you used a virgin tape.
No, it was really a technical issue. Analog signals are very prone to noise, and noise is cumulative. Even the best recording heads are going to pick up stray magnetic fields, and of course you get the typical cosmic ray noise hitting the recording tape and head, and then there’s noise in power lines that also contribute to the noise.
Basically, what you don’t get to hear anymore causes it: Tune an older radio to somewhere between stations. The static exists all the time. If it didn’t, it would just be no noise at all, rather than static. Same with older, analog TVs: You see snow and hear static. That’s all environmental noise, which will impact analog recording medium. Even the source side of the house gets that noise introduced. That’s what Signal-to-noise ratio means: How much signal, vs how much noise exists.
So, dupe of a dupe of a dupe… All recording noise.
It’s also quality of the tape and how we used it. You could buy a tape and use it for 2, 4, or 6 hours with a tradeoff in quality. Blank tapes were rather expensive, so we all used 6 hours and then copied from there.
Commercially produced VHS tapes also tended to be higher quality than blank tapes, unless you went out of your way to buy the quality ones.
And it still happens even with digital technology. If you, say, rotate a .jpg file a few thousand times, the image will start to degrade as it doesn’t perfectly copy over everything and the very slight losses start to add up.
Somewhat different issue there. JPEG compression is lossy. It doesn’t happen on a BMP. Though you can probably link the two up with underlying information theory.
However the original quality was so shit you don’t really notice.
Prior to true HD home media we really didn’t know any better. I grew up in Dubai and the Disney Aladdin film was actually banned there, but not before some pirated copies came out. That pirated tape was really poor quality but I didn’t notice or care. Seeing the 1080p, however, totally blew my mind.
Same thing with a refresh of all the stuff I pirated as a kid. Woof SD is baaad. I have to feel our imaginations used to be better?
If you were a child in the early 90s your imagination would have run wild to take basic video game characters to new heights. Today they kinda flesh everything out (because they can) and not as much imagination is needed.
To give you an idea, video game developers would sometimes invent very elaborate backstories for what was going on in rhe game, but none of it was apparent to the players. Take the classic arcade/Genesis game Zero Wing (All your Base are belong to us) for example. If you played the arcade game only, you would have no idea what is going on other than ‘move to the right and shoot enemies’, but they actually came up with a decent story as to WHY your mothership blew up and what your objective is and who your enemy is. None of these were in the arcade game.
MST3K was great, and anime is good.
It’s not “brain melting”. Even watching the internet go from “this is super neat, and way cool” (For nerds) to “Well, it’s ALL going through enshittification now” wasn’t “brain melting”, it’s just what happens under capitalism.
Going from seeing nothing but possibilities when I heard about some new device or software coming out to dreading what they are going to remove or break has been one of the most depressing parts about my life.
Hell, I was looking to replace my 10 year old mouse last weekend and couldn’t find one that was equivalent or better. I even asked people who were more into computer shit than me and I felt like I was taking crazy pills reading their responses. I ended up just fixing the problem myself rather than replacing it.
He’ll, I was looking to replace
diff note: Why is autocorrect suddenly changing “hell” to “he’ll” all over?
Technology is circling the drain.
I have been looking for just the right mouse for ages and the market for mouses (mice?) is terrible. I’ve been looking for a 5 button mouse that supports bluetooth (reliability) and I am actually so frustrated with what the options are. They are either massively over engineered, huge, expensive paper weights or cheap, super light, cheap junk I can crush with my weak feminine hands. I have ranged from top of the line hundred dollar gaming one to junky light weight 10 dollar ones and I am still looking. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
Mine is a Logitech G602. To replace it I need something with at least 6 extra buttons (I actually use 2 more but I can compromise on those functions), it needed to be wireless, and take regular batteries (I don’t want to be stuck replacing it or having to use it wired when the built in one wears out). I wouldn’t have thought that would be asking for much but nothing lined up at all. And the shit people were recommending weren’t even close. Like, the point is I still want to be able to do what I’m doing now. Not just buy an expensive mouse you swallowed the marketing for…
G602
AH I have that one too, loved it for years but then the click went out and it started double clicking randomly. I took it apart to try and fix it and no luck, its in my dead mouse drawer along with 2 G302s, the MK mouse, a M240, several Microsoft mice, a Naga, Death Adder and 5 cheap no name mice. They aren’t all actually dead, just dead to me.
I ended up replacing it with the G502, which is not an upgrade or even a side grade but it works for what I need it to do for now. For my laptop I am using a cheap no name bluetooth mouse for now. It’s way too light and disconnects randomly, but it has bluetooth and 5 buttons with is the minimum count I need.
Yeah this is actually my 3rd one. The previous two developed a double clicking problem and were replaced under warranty. The most recent one the middle mouse button stopped working intermittently. When I took it apart I found that the button itself worked fine when I pressed it directly or even with the wheel as long as the screws were loose, I suspect the plastic peg that presses it when you push the wheel was worn down and no longer hitting it right. Fortunately I had the previous one it replaced still and was able to just swap the top halves on them. I’m seriously considering buying some switches to see if I can fix the old one too to have a backup. I’ll have to figure out the middle click problem too but I have some ideas for that. All that being said I’d just fucking buy one if a replacement was available.
I’m glad you at least found something that works for you. I’ve got a no name wireless keyboard and mouse for work that were the only set I could find with both a mechanical keyboard and regular batteries. It’s always a gamble but sometimes those no name brands are surprisingly decent.
look at either high end productivity mice, or MMO/RTS gaming mice. there is so many thousands of options for mice if you’re willing to look.
I really like my Logitech mx master but I like heavy beefy mice
Hmm, I might try the MX Anywhere. I have a M240, I like the size and weight and the Bluetooth connectivity, but it only has 3 buttons, that got old real quick. Look like they don’t even sell that one anymore.
Us millennials basically had the internet to ourselves for like 15 years.
The only reason we’re still on it is chasing that high even though it’s gone
What? I’ve been on it since the early 1990s ….
Here’s a kicker: You’re a millenial, and yeah, us millenias had it all to ourselves, by and large, for about 10-15 years.
Remember when you can to configure Trumpet with the proper IP settings, and that was AFTER you configured your modem’s DMAs and IRQ’s (Unless it was an external serial modem…)
Then came +++ath
You also had to figure all this shit out by trial and error. Google or YouTube didn’t exist in 2000. Let alone like 96.
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Probably a safe bet… I feel I may be among the oldest in the crowd here, and we are a minority here.
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Yep. Or Gen X. Depending on who you ask.
I was a child (14-15) in 1990, but I’m definitely gen x…
“before 1990” ffs. I was expecting “before 1960”
But crypto is borderline useless that consumes more electricity than the entire AI industry while enabling alot of illegal activities and money laundering. I was quite susprised when my drug money found their way into normal people’s lives.
I feel both cuddled and attacked
There’s a whole treasure trove of meme gifs from PlayStation/Sony.
The real brain melter was the societal culture shift.
I grew up witnessing “the end of history” with my own eyes. People were getting wiser and kinder year after year, decade after decade. It was like a feedback loop of positive changes, the only way was up.
Then 2010s hit and I’m still processing the 180 degrees shift. I read dozens of books about nazis, authoritarianism, societal memory, cults, fucking roman empire. But I still have cognitive dissonance every time I open news feed.
Facebook and unregulated social media. Up to now most governments in the world don’t even have a clue or idea that the internet is a very powerful tool that should actually be regulated because there are very evil people who will always act in bad faith to manipulate others for power and control. The Golden era of the internet is definitely over, I think 2016 was a defined shift that will be recorded by historians.
In fairness, most internet users would have been extremely against regulating social media until quite recently
it’s all about how the regulations are designed… for the benefit of corporations? or regular people?
for example, there could easily be rules placing caps on the amount of advertising that’s allowed on any given platform. no fucking way now the government will ever put that cat back in the bag now that the 20 percent of GDP comes from tech monopolies fueled by advertisements.
Early internet was very much regulated. I wish we could all just go back to usenet and no internet on phones.
Holy shit thank you. You finally put it into words for me. The shift of 'the internet is the greatest tool for knowledge, to what it is now, some cancerous corpo bloated bullshit that ignorant people are harnessing just to find others to support their shitty beliefs. Been such a hard thing to watch and understand how the fuck we got here.
Eh, I still think people are generally pretty nice to each other. The problem is that when that same nice person goes online, they behave differently. The more time we spend online, the more impact that “alter ego” has on our “IRL” personality.
So what we need is more IRL connection, but we’re instead spending more and more time online.
The real brain melter was the societal culture shift.
I grew up witnessing “the end of history” with my own eyes. People were getting wiser and kinder year after year, decade after decade. It was like a feedback loop of positive changes, the only way was up.
Then 2010s hit and I’m still processing the 180 degrees shift.
Fucking thank you! This has been hard for me to put into words. (I’m on the older end of Gen-X)
Nice, you’re spot on. We bonded for a while… now we’re in entropy!
From “The Hunt for Red October”, to “you shouldn’t have started the war against russia then.”
Red Dawn to half+ our leadership bowing down to him, and a president calling him a good guy.
God damn what a wild ride.
The internet came way too quickly, or at least it evolved way too quickly for us. We should still be on 56k and surfing Limewire for what may or may not be what we’re actually looking for. 24/7 access to everyone all around the country, and world, was too fast as well. We can’t acclimate that fast. Our brains weren’t ready for it.
That’s the saddest thing about people born after the 90s. We expected the future to get better. Kids now are just hoping we don’t destroy everything.
I got to be alive before mobile phones and social media.
Worth it!
I seriously wonder how much brain damage I avoided by squeaking in my teenage years before the invention of smart phones.
I am immeasurably grateful that the entirety of my youth is not on record.
Right? AFAIK there’s about 5 pictures of me between the ages of 8 and 25. A couple of those are driver’s licenses.
Honestly I understand better now why old people complained about computers so much. We don’t even know what we lost.
As an elder millennial, I respect gen z and alpha for coping with modern society. It may just be a fond remembrance, but things seemed much simpler then. Creative jobs weren’t threatened by AI, the tech didn’t exist for corporations to spy on people, the US… well let’s not get into that.
I at least got to experience a decent time in history and built up enough context where I understand what is going on in the world today. That of course leads to irreconcilable sadness with where things are going, but at least I got to experience a wild culture shift.
When I was a kid I always was amazed at things like my grandparents going from no electricity to microwave ovens and VCRs. I often wondered about huge cultural shifts and what that was like, going from preindustrial production to industrial or major shifts in religion that affected whole societies. Now I am experiencing it and it’s very uneasy but exciting at the same time. Weirdness.
Some of it is rose-coloured glasses. Even my grandfather (born in the 1920s) once remarked to me whilst watching the news: “you know, this has always been happening; we just didn’t used to talk about it”, in response to some kind of crime/violence. It’s also generally one of the goals of parents to let kids be kids and shelter them as best they can from some of the actual hardships and shit that is life, so a lot of us think back fondly on those times (at least who are lucky enough to have similar experiences; not everyone had adults in their lives that would or even could do that).
Spying has been around forever, but the creative jobs thing is apt. Instead, it was the threat of manual work getting taken over by robots, hating Japan because of their miracle economy basically made possible (at least at first) due to the US but then nearly overtaking the US, etc. that defined a lot of what I saw (which is humorous given that I have been living in Japan for the past decade).
Is it really so hard to just stay somewhat connected to the world around you?
It’s not like it was a rapid shift, this shit has been progressing for DECADES and some just refused to learn. I’ve talked to 30 yos who can’t do anything beyond basic computer usage, and I’ve seen a 80 year old who was extremely with it and troubleshooting with me.
It’s not an age problem, it’s a lack of effort
Apparently I’m an elder.
The shifts in tech were easy.
It’s the repeated economic punishment, school shootings, terrorist attacks, and political dive bomb this country has put us through that’s been tough.
I thought this was a Canadian site? You must be usaian
I don’t think you understand how Lemmy works then(not trying to be rude,just evaluating based on your comment and instance.)
While yes, you are a member of a Canadian instance (Lemmy.ca), lemmy.ca federates with other instances, many in different parts of the world. Some are European, some from the US. Undoubtedly some in other countries also, since anyone can spin up an instance, but I don’t know any examples to give you.
The poster you replied to is from lemmy.world, one of the more generic instances is based in the US. Same as OP. The sh.itjust.works instance is also Canadian,but you should expert to see tons of people from all over, not just Canada and not just the US either.
SMH. Dear boy. We elders were taking it to the streets in the 60’s and 70’s—in huge numbers. We organized without social media, were willing to face danger and arrest, and got shit done. We were using DOS before you were probably even born (do you know what that is?). While many of us are, in fact, fading, there are legions of us with knowledge and experience you will never understand until YOU are an elder.
Crap. I’m an elder now?
Oh. Yes. Yes you are. Look after your back. You only get one.
Oh. My. God. Becky look at her…
1971 here, I must be your great grampa.
