Missing no technology

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jon
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Joined: April 9th, 2015, 4:30 pm

Missing no technology

Postby jon » March 1st, 2021, 9:25 pm

I was thinking how I think I’ve come to the conclusion that it was better in the 90’s even without the technology we have now.

1) I miss paying for music. I can listen to whatever I want now But I only listen to a few dozen bands If that and that’s it. Music stores were places for creativity. I don’t care about everything on your fingertip now I’d go back in a second and just buy the cd’s I want.

2) I can’t stand social media. Does everyone really need a camera on their phone. It just makes needy people even more annoying. I miss it being not as easy to take pictures.

I remember the movie Executive Decision in early 1996 and they were going after a terrorist. The terrorist had only 1 known picture of him when he was a student. I almost miss hearing about how tough the streets used to be before social media. I always respected gangster rap from people that had lived that life.

mbd36
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Re: Missing no technology

Postby mbd36 » March 2nd, 2021, 9:25 am

jon wrote:I was thinking how I think I’ve come to the conclusion that it was better in the 90’s even without the technology we have now.

1) I miss paying for music. I can listen to whatever I want now But I only listen to a few dozen bands If that and that’s it. Music stores were places for creativity. I don’t care about everything on your fingertip now I’d go back in a second and just buy the cd’s I want.

2) I can’t stand social media. Does everyone really need a camera on their phone. It just makes needy people even more annoying. I miss it being not as easy to take pictures.

I remember the movie Executive Decision in early 1996 and they were going after a terrorist. The terrorist had only 1 known picture of him when he was a student. I almost miss hearing about how tough the streets used to be before social media. I always respected gangster rap from people that had lived that life.


You know that music is still being sold, right? Nobody is forcing you to stream. You can even buy CDs. Maybe you have to order them from the internet but they're still out there. Vinyl records have made a comeback as well.

Voor
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Re: Missing no technology

Postby Voor » March 2nd, 2021, 9:49 am

I use YouTube to preview an album, but if I like it enough, I’ll buy a CD, since I listen k music mostly in my truck. One issue though: newer vehicles don’t come with CD players!

Social media—I use it to promote some local businesses (events/sales) and out neighborhood watch page has been helpful, but that’s it.

Like gaming, you can choose to engage with whatever technology you want. Not forced on you. I’m not super into tech at all, but when I need to be, I try to balance it out with more outdoor time and book reading.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Missing no technology

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 2nd, 2021, 3:58 pm

Maybe Jon is on to something.

1. When you bought music, you were invested in it. There was a music culture. I would love going to record stores to hear everybody talking about the latest stuff. I remember people were raving about Nirvana when Nevermind came out. It was fun. Now, music is disposable. There still is physical media, but in general people don't buy albums any more.

2. Social media is horrible, much like most of the internet. I amplifies the voices of the overly-opinionated, self-righteous jerks (1%) and stifles the remaining 99% of us.

If nothing else you could have a decently conversation with a person without them being endlessly distracted by their phone.

bluenote
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Re: Missing no technology

Postby bluenote » March 3rd, 2021, 8:00 am

My friends always ask me why I still buy cds instead of streaming. I always explain it this way: Imagine being a kid, and you have your collection of toys. Then all of a sudden, you can "rent" and have access to every toy ever made. You can keep them as long as you want, but you don't technically own them. How would you feel? As a kid, it would be cool for the first couple of months, but then the toys would not be special anymore because you have every single one made! When you had only 20 NES games as a kid, you replayed them over and over, and took care of them, etc. When you added a game to your collection, it was a big deal! It was exciting. I liked that feeling as a kid.

I still do the same today. I have my collection of cds, that I like to add to. With streaming, I get kind of bored and I lose that specialness of getting a new cd in the mail or coming home with a stack of new cds from the record store and pouring over the liner notes, etc.

I do stream though, I only stream albums that I own for when I go out for a jog, or for a walk.

I went to a friend's this past summer, and he had an outdoor projector and we played video games from a raspberry pi. Pretty cool, you had every game from atari through N64. Cool for an evening, but I would not want that as my videogame system. I still like ordering an NES game (complete if I can), and waiting for the arrival to my doorstep, and looking through the manual, etc.

ThePixelatedGenocide
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Re: Missing no technology

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » March 3rd, 2021, 9:22 am

I miss the days when you had to be invested in technology in order to take advantage of it. There was a slight price barrier, but if you knew what you were doing, you could get a used desktop PC for less than the price of a console.

Back in the days when social media was actually social, and diving into any chatroom was a great way to meet new people. People who enjoyed conversation for its own sake!

And, if you took the time, you could discover individualized webpages that only existed to promote a single band's work, from someone who passionately cared about their music.

Back then, you could still believe the internet was going to make the world a better place.

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Re: Missing no technology

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 3rd, 2021, 11:33 am

ThePixelatedGenocide wrote:Back then, you could still believe the internet was going to make the world a better place.


This point resonated with me. We though the internet would promote world peace. Instead it's full of people trying to tear each other apart just because they have a different opinion.

I think the anonymity part in particular brings out the worst in humanity. Keyword warriors with pent-up hate just say the meanest, most outrageous things they know they can't get away with it in the real world. You almost feel sorry for people whose sole purpose in life is to spew hate online.

SpiceWare
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Re: Missing no technology

Postby SpiceWare » March 3rd, 2021, 3:01 pm

I have a free Slacker account in my Tesla, but that's the only place I can listen to it. I prefer to buy CDs where possible. I have them all ripped using lossless compression, and keep a 1TB USB drive in my car that contains all my 3, 4, and 5 star rated tracks. They sound phenomenal on the Model 3's sound system, which is noticeably better than my home setup.

I'm tired of social media, but love that I have a camera on hand at all times. My photos automagically sync over the cloud to both my Mac Pro, and the Mac mini that drives my TV* where they get used in the screensaver slide show:

Houston Art Car Parade:

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IMG_1653D.jpg (92.17 KiB) Viewed 2303 times



Houston Museum of Natural Science:
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IMG_1654D.jpg (76.17 KiB) Viewed 2303 times



of course I should do some cleanup of the photos on the mini, the hurricane damage photos don't really need to be in rotation:

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IMG_1655D.jpg (80.81 KiB) Viewed 2303 times



* I cut the cord in 2013 and use networked TV tuners (both ATSC 1.0 and 3.0) with my mini, which acts as my DVR for local broadcast TV. It has a Drobo 8D with 36 TB of storage holding the TV recordings as well as my ripped DVDs, blu-rays, and iTunes purchases (which is how I watch a select few current cable series, like Archer and Resident Alien).
Last edited by SpiceWare on March 3rd, 2021, 4:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Voor
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Re: Missing no technology

Postby Voor » March 3rd, 2021, 3:44 pm

I think it’s kind of lazy to say that all social media is trash. It certainly has its fair share, but it’s up to you to engage with it or not, and to what degree.

I follow literally 4 people on Twitter—all speedrunners. My Facebook page is either family or businesses I like to keep tabs on. Don’t do Instagram or tik tok or Snapchat. So I spend less than 5 minutes a day on social media.

So, just use it the way you want and if others want to consume their life with it, it’s their choice.


Remember a certain poster here on this very site who seemed to take opinions WAAAAY too seriously? So, even this sweet spot of the Internet isn’t immune. But VGC took care of it to maintain the site’s appeal. So we basically have to do the same thing if we interact with social media.

newmodelarmy
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Re: Missing no technology

Postby newmodelarmy » March 3rd, 2021, 6:52 pm

[quote="Voor"]I think it’s kind of lazy to say that all social media is trash. It certainly has its fair share, but it’s up to you to engage with it or not, and to what degree.

I/quote]

I respectfully disagree with you. True, you don't have to be on social media (I am not, save for Facebook which I mainly use to stay in touch with my Army buddies) however it has negatively impacted everyone in society. I agree that it is "not all trash" but we would be better off without it. All you need to do is look to "cancel culture" to see the negative impact. Most people seem to think that is just a loud minority but I am not so sure about that. It may be, but it is definitely impacting many facets of our lives whether it is what we are "allowed" to think, "allowed" to say, "allowed" to eat or just in general how we are "allowed" to live our lives. Don't believe me? All you need to do is look at those people who stand up to the nonsense to see how they are treated. They are attacked, lose their jobs and generally shamed. Anyway, my apologies for the rant but the thought of all this makes me so miserable it is hard to comprehend I am even living in the same country I grew up in these days.


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