OMG, so insightful, Amy. I started going online in 1994, and it allowed me to find a sense of connection with other people. Before that, I had none. I was definitely a weird, socially awkward kid. Now that the internet has become so dystopian, I often feel nostalgic for the old internet. Being able to read a brilliant post like this though reminds me that there are still some really great things on the internet today.
My 15-19 was 5 years ahead of the peak, but I played out the rise. I gave non-explicit suicide a few goes. I was nearly successful. I also remember the early internet well, visiting BBSes (bulletin board systems) often. The internet has so much promise before capitalism seized it completely.
Culture bends all to its will, and this is why technology will not save us alone. We need changed minds, not old minds with new programs. Then again, I am not a social scientist either. But we have front-row seats on how it's playing out.
The older Internet could be a terrible place; endless flamewars, use of all sorts of gore and porn as shock images, and whatever 4chan had going. But it was impersonal. All the "kill yourself" cyberbullying stopped the second you stepped away. Now, it's turned RL into a fucked-up global village; high school forever. Pick your table...you want the Red Tribe, the Blue Tribe, the Greens? Now, posting the "wrong" thing on one of the Big 5 Sites will get it virally spread to the rest...and all your newfound enemies will happily track you down, jump on every online presence you have, even threaten your job, your house...the fact that the term "swatting" even exists leads me to despair. Give me the old days when a new start was as simple as a new username.
Great piece that made me reconsider aspects of 'Heathers' and who we're laughing at. If you're into games, I'd highly recommend 'Hypnospace Outlaw' as a game that accurately (emotionally at least) captures the utopian aspects of that period of the internet.
> a window in time during which teens could enjoy and benefit from the good parts of global connection and information exchange without all the bad parts that followed, as things got monetized and made worse.
While I do broadly agree that this is a component, I also think it was easier to find dodgy stuff on the internet. I can't speak to BBS times, but in the early 00s it was easy to find pro-ana sites, suicide handbooks or galleries of self harm scars etc, and even recovery-type forums weren't shy about linking to them. I don't think they used to be de-listed from Google/Yahoo/other search engines. Nowadays searching for anything like that will bring up helplines instead, and people on mainstream platforms are more vigilant about blocking such content (at least once its brought to their attention).
Born in 1980 and definitely saw Heathers a dozen times before I was 15. I remember thinking it sucked and the characters were all awful. As an adult I could finally appreciate that was the point.
Of interest, while you focused rightly on social media, it's also troubling to look back and see how Heathers predated Columbine by a decade.
OMG, so insightful, Amy. I started going online in 1994, and it allowed me to find a sense of connection with other people. Before that, I had none. I was definitely a weird, socially awkward kid. Now that the internet has become so dystopian, I often feel nostalgic for the old internet. Being able to read a brilliant post like this though reminds me that there are still some really great things on the internet today.
Nailed it.
My 15-19 was 5 years ahead of the peak, but I played out the rise. I gave non-explicit suicide a few goes. I was nearly successful. I also remember the early internet well, visiting BBSes (bulletin board systems) often. The internet has so much promise before capitalism seized it completely.
Culture bends all to its will, and this is why technology will not save us alone. We need changed minds, not old minds with new programs. Then again, I am not a social scientist either. But we have front-row seats on how it's playing out.
Sounds like a good plug for Substack to me!
The only thing better then Heathers is Heathers: the Musical. There’s a whole song titled “I love my dead gay son”.
The older Internet could be a terrible place; endless flamewars, use of all sorts of gore and porn as shock images, and whatever 4chan had going. But it was impersonal. All the "kill yourself" cyberbullying stopped the second you stepped away. Now, it's turned RL into a fucked-up global village; high school forever. Pick your table...you want the Red Tribe, the Blue Tribe, the Greens? Now, posting the "wrong" thing on one of the Big 5 Sites will get it virally spread to the rest...and all your newfound enemies will happily track you down, jump on every online presence you have, even threaten your job, your house...the fact that the term "swatting" even exists leads me to despair. Give me the old days when a new start was as simple as a new username.
Great piece that made me reconsider aspects of 'Heathers' and who we're laughing at. If you're into games, I'd highly recommend 'Hypnospace Outlaw' as a game that accurately (emotionally at least) captures the utopian aspects of that period of the internet.
> a window in time during which teens could enjoy and benefit from the good parts of global connection and information exchange without all the bad parts that followed, as things got monetized and made worse.
While I do broadly agree that this is a component, I also think it was easier to find dodgy stuff on the internet. I can't speak to BBS times, but in the early 00s it was easy to find pro-ana sites, suicide handbooks or galleries of self harm scars etc, and even recovery-type forums weren't shy about linking to them. I don't think they used to be de-listed from Google/Yahoo/other search engines. Nowadays searching for anything like that will bring up helplines instead, and people on mainstream platforms are more vigilant about blocking such content (at least once its brought to their attention).
Born in 1980 and definitely saw Heathers a dozen times before I was 15. I remember thinking it sucked and the characters were all awful. As an adult I could finally appreciate that was the point.
Of interest, while you focused rightly on social media, it's also troubling to look back and see how Heathers predated Columbine by a decade.