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weird how every person clutching physical or local copies got lambasted as overthinking it then turned out they were all right on a timescale long enough that everyone can just shrug it off as normalized now https://twitter.com/princetrunks/status/1358172587440881665
steam is an exception not the rule just fyi
you can find some old film reel or vhs tape but eventually there will be no way to salvage obscure then deleted 10-15yr later youtube videos because it fell short of some algorithmic glitch or inactive account's failure to comply with new obscure term changes
just gonna be huge gaps in our culture eventually where archivists just shrug and go "no idea what went on here, sorry" just so some digital service with baby name branding ensured their ass was covered from like, idk, some AI thinking a meme was violating the rules
it sorta means baby boomer's cultural output will be immortalized as The Most Important Thing Ever while later gen's influence will turn to dust within a quarter of a decade.
then, generations later, the uninformed decide they were 'romantic' and 'unique'
then, generations later, the uninformed decide they were 'romantic' and 'unique'
that's fine we'll figure it out eventually, it just sucks that meaningful critique & like lost history get brushed over and leaves a gap for people to needlessly idealize the worst aspects of cultural eras like they existed in a vacuum
some things are worth preserving & documenting even if they're not actively consumed. we don't just throw ancient relics in the trash because nobody needs like, a stone age fish scooper or whatever. or "who needs these bones, this animal went extinct 500 million years ago."
none of these automated systems can decide what is or isn't important to us on a long timescale, only the ones they were built for (The Forever Present) so how is anyone hundreds of years from now supposed to understand what's left? it's fortified entropy, unnecessary, wasteful
this is exactly how we get weird ideas like "gay people are new" or "gender was always very binary" it's just people long before us deciding what the future would get to see, not even always out of malice. so yeah, these things are important, seriously
Shufflelizer or Mixem Vids or whatever absurd name some organization comes up shouldn't get to decide humanity's sense of self just because it made their imaginary viewer counts or engagement go up
the cultural fragments are timeless, those numbers really aren't in most cases. seems like a horrible trade, like paving over a historical structure or site so you can put up an ihop that closes in 4 years
dont even want to get into the whole "do you really own stuff" argument, that's obnoxious and it goes nowhere, it's just really sad that we give up so much and there's no real reason why. it's just careless like letting photos of your loved ones fall out of your pockets
there's like, rare copies of songs that were only distributed or found outside of obscure archives inaccessible to the public on platforms like groove shark.
gone. people didn't get a what cd membership to torrent music- they used it to collect out of print opera performances.
gone. people didn't get a what cd membership to torrent music- they used it to collect out of print opera performances.
like the beatles will be fine, they're not going anywhere- those obscure bands you listen to today? they're a few service / site shutdowns and asset shuffles away from only existing in the memory of the fans.
you see it all the time like 5 people get together on social media and go "hey does anyone remember x" and people will search for *YEARS* trying to figure out if it was even *REAL* like it was some creepypasta narrative.
then turns out, yeah, it was, it's just not available or saved anywhere.
like, a lot of this stuff isn't intentional. It's not just like, losing the opportunity to *know* these things in their original context or whatever. if you grow up post-baby boomer you constantly feel your stuff that informed your tastes is 'inferior' due to a lack of demand
demand that was, surprise surprise, often inflated and faked. so many people spend lifetimes just, assuming their stuff isn't worth even a fraction of society's attention, they appreciate or produce in shame or obscurity
sucked for gen x, so they made their own songs & culture, same w/ millienials, etc
gonna suck even harder later riding on a fading rock in space stuck w/ the endless cacophony of multi-gens of ppl who had opportunities you can't even dream of who lived in comparable easy mode
gonna suck even harder later riding on a fading rock in space stuck w/ the endless cacophony of multi-gens of ppl who had opportunities you can't even dream of who lived in comparable easy mode
"ugh this guy was a worldwide succcess when he was 15 on tiktok back when they had clean oxygen outside and didnt need to wear space suits on earth :/ nobodys gonna care about my synthmashed astrowave, mars colony doesn't even have music venues."
this is a pretty cartoonish metaphor but definitely illustrates this. like i grew up listening to Lo-fi hip hop stuff before we really had a name for it and just assumed it was insufferable nerd tunes. now its like the Default Mode Of Music for our current media timeline lol
so like, I just stopped- it was too hard to track the stuff down, too hard to hold onto physical copies without better resources or the time to dedicate to the collection. now it's everywhere & I dont enjoy it the same way I used to, I'm glad other people do now
when nujabes died i was like, really seriously devastated. for most people it was like "oh cool music, sad" for me it was like "this dude illuminated my youthful daydreams & earliest formative moments"
now you listen to that stuff and its like, devoid of emotional resonance I guess? just feels like elevator muzak- something for youtube infoposters to throw in so they can dodge copyright strikes. frustrating.
if your youth culture has zero value to anyone else, nobody is gonna push you to pursue those interests. not too long ago video games (and often still are) seen as a huge waste of time / not a good career despite... being the few active & EXTREMELY HUGE economic sectors rn.
you can just do whatever & really respect people who do, it's just hard to go for the moon when people actively or shame you in pursuit of the art you love, not everyone can get past that
dang thats a lot of tweets thanks for listening to this ted talk
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-08/introducing-the-beijing-silvermine-thomas-sauvin-china/13092150
speaking of preserving ephemerality
speaking of preserving ephemerality
