This has nothing to do with politics at all, just casual thoughts, I had to vent somewhere. Maybe it’s just me being a bit doomer or something, but my siblings, almost all of my friends and most of the people I know usually agree. You know how older people say that they miss 1980s for example, that’s basically how I view first half of 2010s for newer generation.
Everything was so much better then: internet, movies, TV shows, games, popular stuff, as for the internet, most of popular trash today was non existent including cringe ‘‘trends’’ etc, reddit wasn’t as popular and as talked about as today, there was Google+ and YouTube was best with Markiplier playing horror games being mainstream, Balkan YouTube being at it’s peak(anyone who is from countries of ex-Yugoslavia will know about what I’m talking about), Minecraft, GTA V, ARK Survival Evolved, Creepypastas, indie games, Pokemons everywhere, you name it. Movies were better and better every year (props to Cocaine Bear and few more recent movies which are actually good ofc), while today most of the movies are either boring sequels, ruining originals or terrible remakes, with newer games also doing the same thing.
It was 2017 when everything started going to shit on the internet, very early 2017 started good, but then in about mid 2017 everything changed: dramas and cringe trends started on internet, open racism on social media started becoming more frequent, people complaining about everything etc, reddit and TikTok becoming more popular, good social media getting shut down or ruined with updates, cringe games becoming popular while old ones including literal Minecraft went into irrelevancy(it came back later thankfully) etc.
And life was so much better then in general, not everyone was complaining and depressed irl, I remember every day after school going with siblings and friends on sports center across the street from school and spending whole day there. Today, it wouldn’t be even possible since almost everyone I know is depressed and very closed in, including new people I meet, everyone is basically just looking after themselves closed and not giving a shit about anyone or anything if you know what I mean. People are just becoming depressed shells more and more, what is up with that? Not so long ago before a few years, this would be unimaginable and here we are. I’m saying 2012-2016 since that was the best time imo. As I said, my siblings agree with me, most of my friends also but they just kind of don’t know why is that.
Does anyone else feel the same or similar about that time?
I think part of this also has to do with your age. We all tend to have nostalgia for and perceive the cultural media of our formative years as having been somehow better at the time, and as we move into adulthood we have the impression of a decline having taken place. If you grew up in the 90s, especially in the West, you would have said that the late 90s, early 00s were the golden age of video games. I remember having the same thoughts in 2010 that you are having now, i was disappointed with the direction that video games were taking and wished they could go back to what they were earlier. In hindsight it is quite obvious that i was associating these games with a simpler time in my life when i had less to worry about and was more oblivious of what was going on in the world.
The same happens with other media like movies/tv. And the entertainment industry has figured out that they can capitalize for instance on 80s nostalgia with shows like Stranger Things. Those who grew up in the 80s absolutely idolize that time despite the fact that in many ways it was a total shitshow of a decade in which the lower classes were being ruined by Reaganite/Thatcherite neoliberalism while the rich were riding a high wave of enthusiasm at having succeeded in dismantling the postwar social democratic consensus. What is going on in society as a whole is always reflected in the culture and arts as well, in movies, tv shows, and later video games, these all strongly tend to match the Zeitgeist of the time.
Not quite since I was already missing that time only a year later after 2017, decline is 100% there. Some of us are still kids and we still miss it. Movies now mostly ruin originals or are boring, there. 1980 were good from what I hear until 1989 obviously, movies and media was best during that time, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s were the golden age for most of the genres, that doesn’t make early 1990s good of course.
As I said a few times, this is all ignoring the politics since previous decade was shit from the beginning, why do we have to count politics in deciding whether or not internet, movies, TV shows and games were better then?
As i said, you cannot ignore politics in this discussion since politics infiltrates everything. Media is part of the superstructure of society and is influenced to an enormous degree by the material basis. Media reflects the general mood of the time and developments in the political and economic spheres. For instance have you noticed how the rise of the gig economy coincided with the general adoption of predatory monetization practices in video games like DLC and micro-transactions? Or the trend of relying more on established franchises, sequels, prequels, spinoffs, etc. rather than inventing original new material which is due to the tightening of profit margins forcing corporate producers of movies, shows and video games to take less risks and go with the “safe” option.
As Marxists we do not look at one element of society in isolation, we take a holistic view and look at the interactions of all the various parts of the system.
Yes but the thing is that I didn’t know shit back then about politics until like mid-late 2019 and still loved and missed that time as I still do now. And always hated exploiting the greatness of older movies to death with sequels, remakes etc.