You might have seen posts on the internet titled “Only 90s kid will understand”. And you might think that that kind of nostalgia might make sense to only 90s kids. I am talking about stuff like Tape-Recorders, VCRs, Pepsi etc. Well this kind of emotional connect that we have to forgotten artifacts stuff isn’t just limited to this trend.
A long time ago…
Just imagine a time when humans started the practice of agriculture. There might have been some older people then with nostalgia about days when they used to be gatherers. The time when they used to constantly relocate over the year and gather things to eat, wear, make primitive tools etc. Life was easy, there was nothing like home or you might say: family was the only home and places were just irrelevant. Every day was a new day where they again had to search anew for food.
These searches allowed great interactions with nature. Our ancestors had a better understanding of nature than us. But even nature would surprise them the moment they thought they knew enough.
These same wanderers are what we call travelers in 21st century
History is just one dimension of this phenomenon. I am a 90s kid and I have seen trends changing in last 2 decades. And these transformations were drastic and still ongoing. My childhood was a period when people just relied on public transport and public transport simply delivered. There were no OLA , Uber transport companies those have just arrived when they are just needed.
There used to be labs for using computers and footwear was not allowed inside lab. Labs were strictly cooled and maintained well. There had to be good reasons to use a computer in those days. One could not just use it to while away time. With Windows 95–98 we learned to safely turn-off computers. You see: it was a big deal.
Back in those days the most affordable screen available to us was the Television screen with some really limited broadcasting channels. Television was an inescapble trend then as radio was once. Some had luxury of using VCRs where a video of choice can be played.
History vs History
Hunters, Gatherers, Farmers, or 90s white collar employee. All of them had something common. They used to entertain them self. Our Jungle ancestors used to dance, act, play drum and eat together with their family. This entertainment was important for their survival. And rest of the time doing some physically intensive work was normal.
In 90s entertainment would be to watch a movie with family either at home or talkies. Visit a circus or a music concert. For work, a telephone and some files, this is what an office table looked like. And there was so much interaction within people depending on profession. Life was busy enough.
Today
Our ancestors entertained for the sake of entertainment. We have totally changed the perspective. We need entertainment all day and we work in between. Almost everyone has a smartphone in hand which seldom stays in your pocket.
We pay for premium content, we crave free content, we scroll content, we watch content and we share content. We watch sequels so that we understand when new content is ready. We watch prequels which is usually release after sequels to understand what happened before sequels.
When we pay for it monthly/yearly we make sure we are using it in our favor, by actually abusing it and not using wisely. Netflix, Prime Videos, Hot-star, YouTube and more. We want to complete everything like a pilot completes his flying hours. We watch one-time content because they are not so good but it is important just in case. Producers are making a hell lots of content, customers are consuming it and this world is going nowhere. And everyone is stuck in this viscous cycle.
These big blocks of content usually don’t fit together with each other. And yet we still have some time to utilize so we scroll the contents. We scroll it until our ISP is providing the best services. We never realized that some much time have just passed and that is what we call submerged experience.
So we scroll until we are not hindered. Scrolling give us ability to consume mixed content. Text content, Video content, Image content, Interactive Content all at same time. So we scroll until we are disturbed by slow internet connection or a notification from next application which you have purposely or purposelessly clicked and landed into next submerged experience. This has something new and we can even scroll here.
That’s not the end, if this screen is our phone we might continue on a laptop. Some are fortunate to have a smart TV as well, they might prefer to continue there, once at home. Even vehicles are now equipped with screen. Just imagine how much we are looking at screens or I say we are tricked to look at screens?
“Scroll Scroll Scroll your screen gently down the (internet) stream”
Conclusion
Notice the difference between these periods that we have briefly discussed.The purpose of this article was to setup a good foundation. It was required to first know that there is a problem that we have realized by breifly comparing periods. I will discuss some more on how and when, which type of content is affecting us is detail in my future articles. And will also come with some blueprints about how can we deal with it to some extent. Till then take a good care of your eyes.
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