Why does it suddenly feel like 1999 on the internet? - MIT Technology Review
▻https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615442/why-does-it-suddenly-feel-like-1999-on-the-internet/?truid=a497ecb44646822921c70e7e051f7f1a
It’s like turning the clock back to a more earnest time on the web, when the novelty of having a voice or being able to connect with anyone still filled us with a sense of boundless opportunity and optimism. It harkens back to the late 1990s and early 2000s—before social media, before smartphones—when going online was still a valuable use of time to seek community.
You see it in the renewed willingness of people to form virtual relationships. Before social media soured us and made us aloof and dismissive, we used to take the internet’s promise of serendipitous connection more seriously. Now casually hanging out with randos (virtually, of course) is cool again. People are joining video calls with people they’ve never met for everything from happy hours to book clubs to late-night flirting. They’re sharing in collective moments of creativity on Google Sheets, looking for new pandemic pen pals, and sending softer, less pointed emails.
You see it in the rekindling of old relationships. Before sentimentality was replaced by an annual Facebook friends spring cleaning, it was a treat to keep in touch with middle school classmates and rediscover primary school teachers. Now we’re back to cherishing faraway old friends; after all, there’s no longer much difference between hanging out with them and those closer to home. People are going analog, too: sending postcards, leaving voicemail messages for family, putting together care packages.
All these factors are certainly among the reasons online interactions at least appeared more peaceful. By juxtaposition, they also make the modern internet feel a whole lot louder. But while innovations like browsers and the explosion of bandwidth increased room for discourse and disagreement, they also expanded accessibility and have made our lives far more resilient to disruption. Without these updates, in other words, we would be far more isolated in our social distancing now. “The internet allows us to maintain a sense of normalcy and support one another and come together,” says Sullivan. In essence, it has provided a way for us to remain human.
When this is all over, will the internet be a kinder, gentler place?
Leah Lievrouw, a professor at UCLA who’s studied social change and the internet, says that what’s emerging is an unprecedented sense of community. “We’re seeing that we don’t have to be physically present to mobilize,” she says. “It’s not that the physical infrastructure is doing this. It’s what we do with that technology.”