Imperfect

internet in retrograde

Inspired by Nick's The Resurgence of Retro & The Internet.

Like Mercury in retrograde, I see the Internet not truly moving backwards. It just appears that way from some people's perspectives.

While I haven't noticed a resurgence in old tech in recent months, I have witnessed plenty of discourse scapegoating screentime for a lack of social connectivity. In my eyes, this is superficial to how we use our time through whatever tool. When deep-seated fears and passions aren't addressed, screentime can become an acceptable, but detracting and lonely substitute when it otherwise might not be.

In contrast to many posts I read on the subject, the Internet helps me laugh, have fun, and connect with people. Instead of it bringing ruination, I see how overwhelmed visitors can become by it, such that creative excuses prevent most from capturing succulent fruits from such a ripe jungle. My own online adventures spent browsing, reading, and writing have shown me as much.

Instead of settling, I can believe in rising up to the challenge. I have the autonomy to use my surroundings to help people and strengthen my social graph in ways that could very well surprise me.

I see the intertwining of the past and modernity between the lines of this supposed resurgence of old technology.

The same excitement of calling, messaging, playing games, or jamming to music on flip phones and iPods can be had on smartphones. Speaking of intertwining old and new, our present selves get to enjoy the proliferation of videos (like Kelsey's) that afford retro technology the exposure enthusiasts feel they deserve.

Retro computers, consoles, and games are regularly given second lives through the vast possibilities that emulation, mods, homebrew, revivals, and other augmentations provide them. What better way to coordinate all that than through the Internet, which not only supports research and development, but reconnects us with entertainment we loved and might have lost throughout the years.

Visual media, whether physical or streamed, gets enjoyed by family, friends, and more in myriad ways. Watch parties, reviews and ratings, and hyping up upcoming releases or re-releases all contribute to feelings of community, suspense, and excitement. Films, documentaries, and other media from the past can teach us just as much as new releases can, if both don't already complement each other nicely.

Book reviews, summaries, recommendations, and club meetings get orchestrated whether through physical books, e-books, or any other kind of reading device. The expanding Internet hosts more vessels for book discovery, acquisition, and discourse than ever before. There are so many professional and amateur publications to read even compared to a few years ago, let alone compared to retro or vintage eras. Isn't that amazing?

Let's not forget how us blogging on the Internet about any of the above enhances our lives too. Having a passion is great per se; sharing that passion with the world can open many doors.

Reaching out by whatever means necessary holds meaningfulness regardless of how abundant or scarce said means are. For example: I think about ai birthday wishes with how there was a genuine and kind-hearted attempt to send love and appreciation, even if the recipient didn't quite appreciate how the sender sent their wish.

Even then, there's value in aligning your environment with your personal taste. Mindshare spent on rapid fire messengers beyond help can be redirected toward conscientious conversationalists who make you excited to see your phone light up. If you don't have people online or offline that make you feel that way in your life, how can you best find them?

I feel excitement from connecting with others on the Internet.

Take this very blog for instance. People whom I would have never met otherwise have acknowledged me as a writer, inspiration for themselves, and fundamentally someone whose thoughts are worthwhile enough to send a gracious email to. Do you know how gratifying that feels? Help us fuel our fire such that our connections grow stronger with each passing day.

Instead of giving credence to hostility as an immovable behemoth, can I envision it as a challenge to overcome, difference to understand, or entity to kill by kindness?

The presence of a central place indicates that many more subsets to inhabit. Such large numbers escape the imagination of many. In the case of the Internet, countless untapped spaces thrive that you won't hear of even a fraction of them. Can it be worthwhile to discover or cultivate the few niche spaces that will treat you and your idiosyncrasies best? I think so. Go and find conversational cultures:

What people call a dead platform I call lacking a home within it. How seriously do people curate their experiences to zoom in on what they seek?

Being terminally online relative to the general population doesn't have to mean atrophying your offline social life. Put another way, your Internet connection doesn't have to justify disconnecting with your network.

While I'm not as connected with the people around me as I can be, I can do better whether by offline, online, or hybrid means. I can organize the in-person meetings. I can send out heartfelt emails and replies. I have the power to siphon those that I care about as offline or as online as I prefer. When I require help, I can ask for it, because what else is there left to do in life but to help people?

Like gardeners, we can do our best in whatever space we enter to hone our green thumb and ensure flourishing gardens. Muting, blocking, filtering, and even exerting the underrated power of ignoring what you want to see less of can yield extraordinary results. I can see how the same online maintenance that certain groups of people detest is just a mirror of the arrangements we manage in physical environments. While I wonder why I think that detestation is louder online than elsewhere, it could very well be a consequence of the garden I built and the diet it provides.

If past excitement when the phone dings transmogrified into mild annoyance at any phone sound, are the ways you use your phone bringing you joy? If not, how can you relive your past excitement?

On people finding ways to disconnect in order to reconnect, connections established through the Internet are and can be used for this purpose. I recently thought about that while writing about the magnitudes of friendship:

For those you communicate with on a daily or otherwise regular basis online, how can you work toward interacting with them in the real world?

The Internet, like many other tools, is as much as you make it to be. I'm sure of that.

Want to reach out? Connect with me however you prefer: