Meh, if it drops it drops. I’ll never have the relationship to social media I used to, because I don’t want it anymore. If Lemmy can give me a few posts a day of things I might not normally see, that’s enough for me. It doesn’t need to be the next Reddit or whatever. After quitting Reddit I’m getting back into things I haven’t done in years. I don’t need that again.

I have always wished I were around for the Cretaceous period… :(

Seriously though, it’s understandable to want to experience something you can’t. Like, the more we know we can’t do a thing sometimes, the more we want to.

Personally, having lived through the 80s and 90s, there was absolutely something unique about both. I think if you set aside the trivial stuff, fashion, etc., it comes down to what I describe as a more human pace. Life just moved slower. You had to interact directly with people more, yeah. Also, people were kind of more on the same page. For example, TV shows were aired at a specific time, movies showed at a specific time. (I’m referring a bit more to the 80s here, pre VCR.) So, you kind of always felt like you were a part of something bigger. It was kind of a cozy feeling.

On the other hand, if you didn’t fit into mainstream culture (straight, mostly white, probably Christian), things could be really rough for you. It was much harder to find groups outside of that mainstream. You could feel very lonely and isolated. Connecting with people was hard. Being a nerd was definitely not cool, it was just being a nerd. Bullying was really bad.

It was really hard to learn about things. Like, you had to go to the library or school. No internet searches. Maybe in some ways that was a good thing.

That’s more the 80s. I would describe the 90s as sort of complacently boring for the most part. Also, in the same way that people romanticize the 80s and 90s now, many in the 90s were romanticizing and imitating the 60s and 70s. It didn’t feel like there was as much of a distinctive culture to me. The 90s were when corporations really figured out how to commercialize everything too. Think… Pepsi sponsoring Woodstock 99… Things felt less organic, more engineered from above.

But, those are generalizations. People always find a way to express humanity, to be creative, to be unique, to express something new. We’ll look back on these times and see special things too. Personally I really miss when everyone was walking around with their fidget spinners dabbing…

Yeah, it seems like all the answers I get boil down to: people don’t like them because they just don’t like them. Which is perfectly fair, I’m not sure why I was expecting a more nuanced response from anyone. It’s sort of like how some people like chocolate and others don’t. Who can say why really? It is interesting though that Lemmy seems to have a disproportionate share of vocal meme detractors.

I don’t think they’re entirely negative. Memes can be very creative. Nor are they all political. That’s a weird argument to me. As far as humor, I think we’re just demonstrating how subjective it is. I find plenty of memes very funny. Yeah, can’t say I agree with really anything you said there, at least not as a blanket statement.

Okay, I appreciate such a considered response. I do agree it gets old seeing the same exact post over and over. Reddit was getting really bad with that. Of course there’s always the question of why some people find something funny and others don’t too.

For me though, setting that aside, I just find the variations on a meme can be really fascinating. Then you have memes referring to other memes or imitating them, sort of like you described. Memes that descend into abstraction so as to become practically incomprehensible… I’ve had to research a few just to understand whay they were even talking about. I think at its best memeing is like some kind of collective conceptual art collaboration. Or like graffiti or music sampling. So interesting.

So, I’m not trying to be snarky at all, just genuinely curious, as I’ve seen several people on Lemmy brag about how much they hate memes… Like, why? Do you not enjoy humor, or just not find them funny or something? It’s a bit like someone saying they hate dogs to me. I honestly don’t get it.

Petulant is such a great word for all these people.

You mean my cloth mask and beard might not have been so effective?

(I like to think at least I was protecting other people a little…)

I can touch type at about 70 wpm. Why? Typing practice looks remarkably productive to anyone who doesn’t know what I’m actually doing. I also find doing math puzzles helpful. Making little calculations and drawing diagrams looks super impressive to clueless managers. Of course, such strategies depend on apathetic managers.

Success is mainly about sucking up to the right people. No matter how good you are at your job, you have to know how to play work politics. Most bosses don’t know how to evaluate actual ability, and they’re much less objective than they think. Usually they favor more likeable employees over capable ones if forced to choose. Human life is a popularity contest, always has been, always will be. That’s the side effect of being a highly social species…

I have never wroged anyone. But seriously, I was a real jerk to a coworker a long time ago. Like, for quite a while, not just once. Just didn’t like him for some reason. One day, I’m not sure what happened, but I realized that I was being a big jerk and told him I was really sorry. Ever since then I always try to remember that experience and be as kind as possible to others. Like I said, I really don’t know what caused the change, but I’m glad it happened.

I thought the point of Lemmy was that people could make their own instance if they don’t like what’s on offer. It can be whatever people want it to be, and none of those are mutually exclusive.

Seems highly unoriginal and low effort to me. This is like first Shrek movie level humor. Clever for about five seconds.

In my country we call it “maximum data surrender”.

Nice.

Nah, give me all them SuperbOwls.

Republicans increasingly rely on the most extreme voting base for energy. It works mostly because we only have two viable parties and even the less extreme Republicans think the extreme right is the lesser of two evils. How many Republicans do you suppose will wring their hands in 2024 but vote for MAGA candidates and Trump anyway? Almost all, even if they say otherwise. We know preference falsification is a thing now. People will just lie if they’re too embarrassed to admit what they’re doing.

Yes but “NFT” has been exposed for what it is, a bag holder scam, so now they’re trying to rebrand.

Wow, that cover photo gave me nostalgia, and I wasn’t even young in 2006. Already seems like a distant era.

I think Reddit and Twitter will just become garbage, zombie platforms like Yahoo - still around but basically irrelevant. We’ll see. I was an avid Redditor and quit about two months ago. Honestly I don’t miss it at all. It had already become garbage before the whole blow-up.

Noooooooooooooo…