Old 4chan becomes a trending aesthetic for TikTok zoomers

[turntableToothache]

why don't zoomers make their own culture instead of mining ours, hm??? hm????

Their own culture is shit like huffing Galaxy Gas priced at 90 dollaridoos that gives them brain damage, and ending up even more retarded than they already were for a tiktok. Can you really blame some of them for looking back to 2007 /b/ and thinking "yeah, things were better back then"?

 

[containercore]

why don't zoomers make their own culture instead of mining ours, hm??? hm????

We're in a period of cultural stratification where really there is nothing to invent, or any reason to, so the best you can do is go back and comb through previous aesthetic trends, hence aesthetics culture, CARI and things like that. Really I find myself doing this as well, I don't think anyone can escape it right now. You'll notice the 2010's produced shockingly little in terms of culture. All we can do is make different kinds of vaporwave.

 

[eris]

CARI

Looked at this site, so glad we have like 8 zoomers in a trenchcoat larping as an "institute" trying to tell us what "aesthetics" are called.

 

[Voicedrew]

That would be a disaster, it would destroy the platform and ruin the culture we have here, we would simply be overrun and then corporatized. although i think we should have a procedure if such an incursion event would happen, i think i'll make a thread on that.

If this happens, we should suspend the creation of all new accounts.

 

[RisingThumb]

4chan has been a reanimated corpse for so long that it's impossible to feel bothered by any of this, and it's really no different or any more fake than other forms of "old internet" nostalgia

I think this is an interesting point that No56 brings up. 4chan has gone through so many "phases" or generations of internet culture. imo, it's not as culturally significant as it used to be, but it's interesting to compare 4chan with Newgrounds, where one kept it's identity better than the other.

4chan nowadays is like a site that has lots of internet myths and legends circling it, and I think that's part of the appeal. I think the 90s, 4chan, the old web, the darkweb and other stuff like that kind of has this weird parallel mythology in most people who are tech literate enough to use twitter or facebook, but tech illiterate enough to not know how forums or mailing lists work.

Additionally, the sense that 4chan is a reanimated corpse of its old culture, well... weirder things have happened. Consider Greek culture and the Greek pantheon and how the Romans pretty much made a reanimated corpse out of its culture. It's a strange phenomenon that culture gets revived and recontextualised, and I think it's this recontextualisation that makes people have a negative reaction to it.

 

[☉Kud]

Additionally, the sense that 4chan is a reanimated corpse of its old culture, well... weirder things have happened. Consider Greek culture and the Greek pantheon and how the Romans pretty much made a reanimated corpse out of its culture. It's a strange phenomenon that culture gets revived and recontextualised, and I think it's this recontextualisation that makes people have a negative reaction to it.

It kind of reminds me of how goth was initially defined as a music-based subculture, but as decades went on, people started thinking of goth as just a fashion style where they dress completely in black and look creepy, ignoring the core of the subculture that was the music.
I was too young to be browsing 4chan during its golden age so take my word with salt, but I'm guessing the public perception of 4chan really did change drastically like that, especially after the beef with Tumblr.

 

[containercore]

Looked at this site, so glad we have like 8 zoomers in a trenchcoat larping as an "institute" trying to tell us what "aesthetics" are called.

This is the kind of thing that should be right up your alley as a poster on a vaporwave forum but I guess since it was made by le zoomers it must be an EPIC FAIL...

Really, it's quite comprehensive and has cataloged a lot of very specific styles and trends that many people would just forget about anyway.
It's mostly the project of this guy: https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/channels. I for one, think it's a remarkable resource and am very grateful it exists. Get over this *oldhead* shit, please. For your own sake...

 

[Some_porcupine]

This is the kind of thing that should be right up your alley as a poster on a vaporwave forum but I guess since it was made by le zoomers it must be an EPIC FAIL...

Really, it's quite comprehensive and has cataloged a lot of very specific styles and trends that many people would just forget about anyway.
It's mostly the project of this guy: https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/channels. I for one, think it's a remarkable resource and am very grateful it exists. Get over this *oldhead* shit, please. For your own sake...

yeah, i heard he is cousin of Madonna or so

 

[RainySky]

It certainly seems there is a whole 'myth' of 4chan, supported by a bunch of media a portraying it as some special wild-west of the internet. Bit like wild west films: arguably they portray something that never existed in that exact way, but they make for a great setting, evoke a sort of 'back when you could do what you want' kind of feeling that can provide a great backdrop for stories and legends.

It pains me to admit, but zoomer me grew up having watched a lot of 4chan related media in my early teens, e.g. on youtube. Theres no shortage of 4chan related stuff in a variety of genres and spheres: creepypasta type things, more 'internet history' type videos, hacking related stuff. Just try type 4chan into youtube and mess around with the filters; you get shortform content, hour long stories, clickbait thumbnails and more serious looking ones. Common motifs in the thumbnails, aside from the colours of the site itself, seem to be wojaks, pepes, a painful amount of matrix and anonymous pictures, 'spooky' filters and effects, glitch effects.

Almost all of it is pretty bottom-of-the-barrel stuff lol. Titles like 'The mysterious depths of 4chan', 'top 10 times 4chan pranks went too far' etc. However, there certainly seems to be a lot of it in terms of volume, and I suspect that it gets reccomended to people a lot. I just opened a blank youtube tab and had to click four tech related videos and scroll through the sidebar a bit for the algorithm to pop out its first 'creepy hacker 4chan' video. What I mean to say is that most people's exposure to 4chan is probably exlusivley as an imagined, romantic setting filled with crazy conspiracy theories, murderers, counterculture, hackers, memes, all that. I know teen me found himself somewhat dissapointed when he actually went to the site and found it a lot more boring than advertised. I think it seems very reasonable that people might eventually come to build an 'aesthetic' surrounding these ideas - but I would also suspect that a lot of this asthetic would end up derived from media about 4chan rather than having much to do with the actual site or its real history.

 

[Sketch Relics]

We're in a period of cultural stratification where really there is nothing to invent, or any reason to, so the best you can do is go back and comb through previous aesthetic trends, hence aesthetics culture,

I think it's the other way around actually, culture is usually produced and managed by people in the upper 20's ~ 40's which at this point is the Millennials and given that Millennials are absolutely infested with anti-culture they haven't really produced anything significant and are far more likely to destroy promising ideas or old concepts rather than further refine them. So rather than take on from the Millennial line of non-cepts zoomers are attaching to older, far culturally stronger elements like 4chan, various older musical styles (the retrowaves), and other notable aesthetics.

 

[containercore]

I think it's the other way around actually, culture is usually produced and managed by people in the upper 20's ~ 40's which at this point is the Millennials and given that Millennials are absolutely infested with anti-culture they haven't really produced anything significant and are far more likely to destroy promising ideas or old concepts rather than further refine them. So rather than take on from the Millennial line of non-cepts zoomers are attaching to older, far culturally stronger elements like 4chan, various older musical styles (the retrowaves), and other notable aesthetics.

This type of analysis relies too much on certain generations possessing more virtuous qualities than others, which is reductive and likely untrue. The stratification has to do with there being very little "means of production" available for culture. Many previously viable modes were being dismantled in the '10s and replaced with *content*. Take Gen X for instance. A smaller generation but very culturally prolific due to coming up in a time that facilitated cultural production. People bought CDs and moviesat $20 (in 1990s money no less) a pop. The 2010s were a wasteland of culture and also a wasteland wrt job opportunities, the two are very much interlinked. Culture is perhaps starting to "move" again, because all the boomers are retiring. Also 4chan isn't millennial culture? It's like, peak millennial.

 

[Sketch Relics]

This type of analysis relies too much on certain generations possessing more virtuous qualities than others, which is reductive and likely untrue.

I don't think it's an essence of virtue it's more that the values and thought processes taken up by a large portion of millennials are antithetical towards quality creation. This has a knockdown effect which can prominently be seen in stuff like Concord, the fat acceptance movement, or equity. Concord is an absolute trainwreck of bad character design and uninspired game-play, fat acceptance runs off delusion and denial of consequence, and equity basically functions by kneecapping people to produce equal outcomes, rather than trying to uplift struggling individuals or allowing the gifted to excel. None of these are good jumping off points for gen-z and it's difficult for things outside the Millennial paradigm to flourish due to the shear zealotry the more devoted individuals show towards their ideals at the exclusion of others.

Also 4chan isn't millennial culture? It's like, peak millennial.

It's very, very early millennial culture. Most of the notable millennial stuff comes from this period like Facebook, Youtube, or Newgrounds. From before the self destructive nature of woke pervaded throughout a large section of the millennial population and on that thought. Since then most of it has just been slowly rotting from the inside.

Culture is perhaps starting to "move" again, because all the boomers are retiring.

I would attribute it more to the fact that zoomers are starting to move in and woke is slowly, but surely on it's way out. I hope we get better stuff out of it, I don't think Millennials are incapable of good creation, they just got destroyed by ideology. With that losing grip over them, we might get more good stuff from em before they go.

Also, I'm speaking from the perspective of being a Millennial myself.

 

[containercore]

I don't think it's an essence of virtue it's more that the values and thought processes taken up by a large portion of millennials are antithetical towards quality creation. This has a knockdown effect which can prominently be seen in stuff like Concord, the fat acceptance movement, or equity. Concord is an absolute trainwreck of bad character design and uninspired game-play, fat acceptance runs off delusion and denial of consequence, and equity basically functions by kneecapping people to produce equal outcomes, rather than trying to uplift struggling individuals or allowing the gifted to excel. None of these are good jumping off points for gen-z and it's difficult for things outside the Millennial paradigm to flourish due to the shear zealotry the more devoted individuals show towards their ideals at the exclusion of others.

IDK that example is like something that was universally panned as out of touch. "The fat acceptance movement" is something from 2013 tumblr.. This isn't really representative of the generation's tastes or values at large, moreso it's representative of what corporations want. More "inclusion" = more customers. You're framing "woke ideology" as something integral to the millennial outlook when there was a very cringe millennial movement of the 2010s known as the alt right. Really the deficiency in taste and creativity you see everywhere is purely from the corporate stranglehold on media. Wokeness was mostly a useful cudgel for ambitious strivers because of how unmeritocratic and stratified career advancement had become, which is why it got so much oxygen. Why did music/film/etc. decline during the time when the money started being drained out of these things? Woke ideology? I think it's the money personally...

 

[turntableToothache]

It kind of reminds me of how goth was initially defined as a music-based subculture, but as decades went on, people started thinking of goth as just a fashion style where they dress completely in black and look creepy, ignoring the core of the subculture that was the music.
I was too young to be browsing 4chan during its golden age so take my word with salt, but I'm guessing the public perception of 4chan really did change drastically like that, especially after the beef with Tumblr.

It's not uncommon for people to say "go back to 4chan" and similar in response to someone saying edgy shit (or just things they don't like), I've seen it. I guess being a 4chan user is now linked to being an edgelord on the Internet, regardless if you're actually a 4chan user OR an edgelord. I've also seen people refer to any imageboard they see on screenshots or video as "4chan" and treated the same way, so if you use any imageboard then you're instantly indistinguishable from a /pol/ user these days.

 

[AnHero]

a poster on a vaporwave forum

This is a vaporwave forum?

 

[AnHero]

My belief is that it takes a certain isolated 'incubation period' for 'culture' to form; i.e things like small cohesive local scenes, specialized clubs, artists beating their own paths, taking a certain very specific set of ideas (many times because they don't have exposure to other ideas) and refining them continuously... Having read a number of artist biographies and 'history of the scene' type writing, I get the impression that there's usually a phase of 'nobody is watching except this small and very specific audience' at which point certain unique tropes are defined and refined without much pressure or self-awareness on the artists' part. Think about how many previous scenes can be strongly tied to a specific city or even venue. CBGB for punk, The BatCave for Goth, washington DC for hardcore music, Seattle for grunge; no one from outside was paying attention to these scenes until they developed a very specific, intriguing culture, and then spread globally.

Nowadays there is the built in expectation, right from the beginning, that whatever work you produce might reach an audience of unspecified millions. In practice this doesn't usually happen, but the promise weighs heavy on artists minds, and I think leads them to play along with tropes that most consumers would find already familiar or comforting. That is, rehashing already established styles and re-iterating already popular tropes. As a small example, think about how a typical comment section on youtube is just people making variations on the same already expected joke over and over, trying to seek approval. Imagine if, for whatever reason, you could only read comments from people who live in your general area. There would, at the very least, be a few things like area specific in-jokes, that varied from place to place.

I was reading a book called 'Filterworld', about the influence of social media algorithms, and there was a very intriguing section about how a number of very similar, 'instagrammable' coffee shops were appearing all over the world, ready-made for trendy social media posts. None of them were founded by the same person, or had any relation to each other. These coffee shops were not influenced by the local culture of their countries, they were influenced by the potential of striking it big on a generic globalized cultural stage, and as a result they turned out much the same, everything from the light fixtures to the paintjob pushing the expected buttons.

 

[RainySky]

I was reading a book called 'Filterworld', about the influence of social media algorithms, and there was a very intriguing section about how a number of very similar, 'instagrammable' coffee shops were appearing all over the world, ready-made for trendy social media posts. None of them were founded by the same person, or had any relation to each other. These coffee shops were not influenced by the local culture of their countries, they were influenced by the potential of striking it big on a generic globalized cultural stage, and as a result they turned out much the same, everything from the light fixtures to the paintjob pushing the expected buttons.

Kinda tangential and I dont mean to derail the thread, but can confirm Ive noticed something similar with travel books while browsing travel sections in bookshops recently: some new travel guidebooks, rather than being in a more traditional format, explicitly focus around telling the reader what places provide the best 'content'. Down to suggesting what time of day to go where, what angles to take the photos from, suggestions as to themes and series of posts to do. Kind of funny, seeing the need for content leaking into the real world hehe.

 

[AnHero]

Kinda tangential and I dont mean to derail the thread, but can confirm Ive noticed something similar with travel books while browsing travel sections in bookshops recently: some new travel guidebooks, rather than being in a more traditional format, explicitly focus around telling the reader what places provide the best 'content'. Down to suggesting what time of day to go where, what angles to take the photos from, suggestions as to themes and series of posts to do. Kind of funny, seeing the need for content leaking into the real world hehe.

Then you go on instagram and every photo of the place looks the same, when the picture-taker's goal was likely to be as unique as possible...

 

[Some_porcupine]

Then you go on instagram and every photo of the place looks the same, when the picture-taker's goal was likely to be as unique as possible...

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows — vemödalen​

WEBvemödalen. n. the frustration of photographing something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist—the same sunset, the same waterfall, the same curve of a ...

 

[Alix]

Their own culture is shit like huffing Galaxy Gas priced at 90 dollaridoos that gives them brain damage, and ending up even more retarded than they already were for a tiktok. Can you really blame some of them for looking back to 2007 /b/ and thinking "yeah, things were better back then"?

You can't escape Mark Fisher no matter how hard you try.

This is one of the main reasons why. There have always been people who wished to be born years ago, but now it may be the most logical choice. Would you prefer to live on a time with brain melting internet brainrot, vape-smoking and hyperindividualization or the idealized healthier times of your preference?
These are just the effects of the current ultrafast and hyperindividualized state of society. Preferring that to a sense of community and peace (whether your "lost future" is 2007 4chan, late 90s Internet, 90s indie lifestyle, the 80s or even the 60s) is weirder than the opposite.