I guess I’m curious about generations (namely GenZ and Alpha) who didn’t live in a pre-Internet time. Like,
- How was the concept first explained to you, or when did it click?
- Do you understand how insane it is to have the aggregate of all human knowledge — the only comparable thing once being a physical library or university — one search away? That it’s absolutely insane you can engage in a real-time conversation with someone on the opposite side of the world? That you can find niche communities in an instant?
- Were your parents super strict about internet usage? How quickly did you find workarounds?
Latish Gen Z here, it never really needed to click. Its been there the whole time, so it’s just a norm part of life, like it’s always been. Like, I get that it’s insane, but it’s not out of the norm for me, because it IS my norm. My parents were decently strict when I was little, but once I hit my tweens they gave me a LOT of slack.
Question from a late millennial, how real/popular were those Elsa spiderman YouTube brainrot videos that were a mini moral panic a few years back?
They existed but it was more of a “lol wtf” thing rather than an actual issue. Short form content like yt shorts or Tiktok are the actual version of it that draws legitimate concern. I don’t really think I know anyone who actually watched that stuff so I’m assuming it’s either bots or other countries.
The bouncing fruit videos though are hilarious and I’ve seen a few times in highschool that kids ask for the teacher to put on the bouncing fruit while they do their work. Not sure if it’s just the people at my school though lol
Like most things, the media likes to overhype things and create a moral panic so they can get their views.
I’m OoTL - what is up with the bouncing fruit?
Bit after my time