In terms of the amount of information you can take in, sure. In terms of the psychological damage, I’m not so sure. There was plenty of harassment and bullying on BBSes. As I said, I got harassed. I had also developed a ‘fuck you, I don’t care what you say’ attitude to pretty much anyone who decided to be a dick to me by that point, so it didn’t really affect me, but a more insecure teen? Just as many problems as social media today I suspect. There were just less kids doing it.
I did the same thing as you, at the same time, and had similar experiences. (Except I played MUDs more than I spent time on Usenet. Still, I made friends for life.)
The social media experience today isn’t anything like the experience on those old BBSes. I was just remarking to someone yesterday that Facebook’s process of tracking which ads stay on your screen – even if they’re not clicked – has finally defeated my policy of never clicking on anything in Facebook. I watched it slowly adapt to show me things that got me to stop and look, and now my feed is a steady stream of little dopamine hits, and very little social interaction.
I don’t know that curfews will make any difference, but clearly the social media landscape of today is way, way worse than what we were exposed to, and it needs to be regulated.
Not Lemmy, though! So far it’s the closest thing I’ve seen to the old BBSes in a long time.
I was a little after you, I played a few BBS games, but was mostly a forums guy.
I’m not really talking about the harassment so much as the mental engagement required. It just feels like things on the internet are becoming more like tv in the sense that people are passive consumers and not engaging in actual conversations or meaningful interactions. And most content used to be created by average users with little to gain financially. Now everything is monetized with influences and…
In terms of the amount of information you can take in, sure. In terms of the psychological damage, I’m not so sure. There was plenty of harassment and bullying on BBSes. As I said, I got harassed. I had also developed a ‘fuck you, I don’t care what you say’ attitude to pretty much anyone who decided to be a dick to me by that point, so it didn’t really affect me, but a more insecure teen? Just as many problems as social media today I suspect. There were just less kids doing it.
I did the same thing as you, at the same time, and had similar experiences. (Except I played MUDs more than I spent time on Usenet. Still, I made friends for life.)
The social media experience today isn’t anything like the experience on those old BBSes. I was just remarking to someone yesterday that Facebook’s process of tracking which ads stay on your screen – even if they’re not clicked – has finally defeated my policy of never clicking on anything in Facebook. I watched it slowly adapt to show me things that got me to stop and look, and now my feed is a steady stream of little dopamine hits, and very little social interaction.
I don’t know that curfews will make any difference, but clearly the social media landscape of today is way, way worse than what we were exposed to, and it needs to be regulated.
Not Lemmy, though! So far it’s the closest thing I’ve seen to the old BBSes in a long time.
I was a little after you, I played a few BBS games, but was mostly a forums guy.
I’m not really talking about the harassment so much as the mental engagement required. It just feels like things on the internet are becoming more like tv in the sense that people are passive consumers and not engaging in actual conversations or meaningful interactions. And most content used to be created by average users with little to gain financially. Now everything is monetized with influences and…
But isn’t that what they’re claiming is the problem? Harassment and the like?