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Comment by drawkbox | Hacker News Reader

The Straight Dope from Cecil Adams is like lots of that neat content that was essentially the internet before the internet.

Books and mags like MAD Magazine, Nintendo Power, comic books and more were where you learned about life and it's cynicism, sarcasm and fun aspects, some with great write-ins.

Malls/bookstores where you socialized, record stores and movie theaters where you got your pop culture.

Arcades, convenience stores like 7/11 and video/game rentals to entertain yourself and play with others, bike your way over to the nearest adventure.

Bulletin boards, mailing lists, IRC and message boards of the early internet were really great and in-depth.

All of that greatness is turning to vaporwave nostalgia.

So long Cecil.

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> The Straight Dope from Cecil Adams is like lots of that neat content that was essentially the internet before the internet.

You start with this, and then go into more examples of "content that was essentially the internet before the internet" like going to 7/11 with friends, reading Nintendo Power, and riding your bike. That sounds a lot more like missing your childhood than any cultural changes, especially when your pre-internet internet includes things like IRC and message boards. It seems like you're just using "internet" as a synonym for "the present".

> All of that greatness is turning to vaporwave nostalgia.

The only criteria for being included in "that greatness" is that you enjoyed it and it's not popular anymore: it isn't turning to nostalgia, it's nostalgia by definition.

Replace Cecil Adams and the Straight Dope with whatever you like, and this is just as fitting of a sappy eulogy.

The grandparent comment makes a nice point. Humans imbue their lived environment with meaning and functionality.

Our lived environment now includes a whole different element, that of being ever connected in the present to a global information network.

This means that there is a real loss, to society, of the utility of previously physical common spaces. People derived meaning and value there, and it has gone away.

Losing something meaningful and valuable is sad. The fact that it happens a lot doesn’t make it less so.

Obviously, the WWW offers all sorts of opportunities to create meaning and value, perhaps more.

But something fundamental has changed, in that we now engage in important social activities through telecommunications and mediated is experiences. This is devaluing sone types of social infrastructure that previously provided these functions.

I think we have crossed a “social singularity,” from which there is no going back. Similar to other technologies that changed human societies profoundly, and permanently.

The other I was trying to recall what it felt like to “not have the internet,” and I couldn’t get the feeling back, even though I lived half my life like that.

> whatever you like

Car Talk. RIP. :-(

One of the unique pleasures of Hacker News is the slightest of smiles caused by someone unafraid to share a feeling that is powerful to them, followed up immediately by an exhaustive and somewhat mocking explanation of how their feeling is grievously incorrect.

To contribute to the conversation, the fast service convenience chain with ‘hot’ ‘dogs’, an electrical and surprisingly loud ‘nacho’ ‘cheese’ squirting device representing a vast achievement of modern engineering, half gallon fountain beverages, and many delightful American locations is called 7-Eleven. No, I don’t get it either, and I hate that I know it. Merely helping international folks Google just what the hell this thread is about, though I wonder if you were missing much without my aid, because 7-Eleven is practically Americana made into a storefront and I’m pretty sure you already know exactly what goes on at one.

Within this audience, they’re known as the place to step over homeless sleepers and incognito buy cigarettes before their morning standup sees them at Sightglass or Four Barrel or whatever.

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