Old 4chan becomes a trending aesthetic for TikTok zoomers

[Some_porcupine]

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.

What were you ACTUALLY born in the wrong generation for?

When discussing nostalgic material, the phrase "I was born in the wrong generation" has become a commonly mocked cliche. Partly this is just because of its overuse. There was a time when you couldn't watch a music video who's comments weren't flooded with teenagers spamming the quote verbatim. I...

forum.agoraroad.com

Lost futures, Broken promises; Zillennial utopia 2010 web (zilleniwave)

Parallel thread with https://8chan.moe/404/res/17276.html Example: "internet will topple down *Patriarchy*!" album: https://forum.agoraroad.com/index.php?media/albums/lost-future-post-occupy-nonsense-world-boring-dystopia.39/ related...

forum.agoraroad.com

(mark fisher, cancelled futures...)

giving up on present, living on hopes of decay:

(Bad, post- modern, "future-less" (culture-less) timeline) Young people (1984-2014) giving up on life, future...

thanks @WhiteSnake for birthing this idea edit: what this post is about (skipping the foreword from user W-S who ghosted me XD)...

forum.agoraroad.com

in other words:

Let's Gamble YT Algo! (prev. cookies, pipelines and ego-traps of [/gen] echo-chambers)

Inu2u - involuntary user to user Do you use YouTube, are you signed in, do you click agora videos that were shared? Then you might have noticed that (hopes it is not only me) within few days, the videos you watched, - maybe you posted them, too, on agora, or even not - have been reposted by...

forum.agoraroad.com

 

[nsequeira119]

I wouldn't generally lend this credence as a legitimate aesthetic because 4Chan is ultimately just a website, and the images that are posted on it aren't that different from the images posted anywhere else. I mean, is the gif of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck pulling the Marvel/DC logos off the tree from /co/ considered 4chancore? I feel like the people who came up with this were probably influenced by the rumor that 4Chan is this mysterious, esoteric place with a ton of lore built in, when there isn't really all that much lore compared to other, more obscure websites

 

[LostintheCycle]

Mr Rollerwave is seriously telling us what is and isn't a legitimate aesthetic

 

[nsequeira119]

Mr Rollerwave is seriously telling us what is and isn't a legitimate aesthetic

Well, yeah- as someone who's directly participated in aesthetic history, I feel I'm somewhat qualified to speak on the subject. I don't think aesthetics, inasmuch as they're meant to serve as broad categorizations of visuals, should be based on any one particular brand or platform, I'm certainly not that cynical. If we started allowing that, we'd start seeing Facebookcore and General Electriccore and Frito-Laycore. There are other potential factors that could disqualify a given aesthetic from being legitimate, but that's certainly one of them.

Same reason I don't consider Disneycore a legitimate aesthetic

 

[LostintheCycle]

as someone who's directly participated in aesthetic history

read: edited pages on a Wikia

 

[nsequeira119]

read: edited pages on a Wikia

Well, not just edited, created entirely from scratch. And recorded two full-length albums of music which firmly legitimize the aesthetic as a label which should be used for a specific sound and look. If that's not how one creates and defines an aesthetic, I'd ask: How d'you generally suggest formulating one?

 

[D0loresH4ze]

 

[Some_porcupine]

Well, not just edited, created entirely from scratch. And recorded two full-length albums of music which firmly legitimize the aesthetic as a label which should be used for a specific sound and look. If that's not how one creates and defines an aesthetic, I'd ask: How d'you generally suggest formulating one?

Zillenial Broken/Lost Dreams & 2010 Millenial Net Utopia

https://zillennial-hopes.blogspot.com/2024/11/description-homepage.html https://sites.google.com/view/utopistic-nostalgias/homeintro#h.i94caaa3dmlc oldkidz-newblockz 16 hours ago cool! it is just brief shorthand! as timelines are literally spectrum, there are places here-and-there, (also it is...

personal-aesthetics.fandom.com

and eponymous google + tumblr site(s)

 

[eris]

Well, not just edited, created entirely from scratch. And recorded two full-length albums of music which firmly legitimize the aesthetic as a label which should be used for a specific sound and look. If that's not how one creates and defines an aesthetic, I'd ask: How d'you generally suggest formulating one?

 

[Jodo_Fan]

previous aesthetic trends, hence aesthetics culture, CARI and things like that.

Hey, that's an interesting site, thanks. Some of those styles are new to me. Others, I hadn't clocked their significance. So, yeah, interesting.

One thing, though, I notice CARI puts neon surf as starting in the late eighties. My folks ran a little design studio back in the day and they were churning out proto-neon stuff for surf/skate brands as early as the late seventies. Damn zoomers!

 

[AnHero]

My folks ran a little design studio back in the day and they were churning out proto-neon stuff for surf/skate brands as early as the late seventies

I know there's some new-wavy stuff from the late 70s, but I have to ask hat this looks like. Do you have any pics?

 

[Jodo_Fan]

I know there's some new-wavy stuff from the late 70s ...

You might have a point there. Looking through that Neon Ooze Facebook group, I'm having trouble drawing a distinction. New wave seems to contain most of the relevant ingredients. If you have any guidance on this, I'd appreciate it.

Do you have any pics?

Probably, but it'll take a week or two. I'll see what I can do.

 

[astralita]

As a zoomer, I've been noticing the prevalence of this pattern of behavior from other zoomers since the late 2010s and then it forcefully intensified by the time COVID came. It got so terrible that I had to get off social media completely asap and for a while, I had a very bad month-long episode of depression because I had no zoomer friends on the internet or irl to contact and let out my zoomer shit to.

Then I found out about this forum as well as the personal and indie web, and I felt so relieved to find a community that actually recognizes these issues that my generation faces with little to no awareness. It felt like I broke off and freed myself from the shackles of blacklists, DNIs and cancel culture.

I'm glad that you could escape that social media voragine, it's really poison for the mind. And I'm glad that you could overcome that episode of depression.
And the best thing of indieweb is that, while we are not a hivemind and everyone have their opinion, we can discuss things just fine without tantrums or mass cancelation. And most important: we are aware that internet is not real life. Which in SM and mainstream sites seems that the line is not clear.

 

[Jodo_Fan]

One thing, though, I notice CARI puts neon surf as starting in the late eighties. My folks ran a little design studio back in the day and they were churning out proto-neon stuff for surf/skate brands as early as the late seventies. Damn zoomers!

I know there's some new-wavy stuff from the late 70s, but I have to ask hat this looks like. Do you have any pics?

Probably, but it'll take a week or two. I'll see what I can do.

Apparently that particular folder of old shit got lost in the shuffle at some point. Also, I was off on the timing a little, it was the early to mid eighties. I did find some stuff online but none of it is a good example of what I'm talking about.

The closest I got were some stickers. At least you can get an idea of the colour schemes and vibe involved. The majority of these are theirs.

 

[AnHero]

The closest I got were some stickers. At least you can get an idea of the colour schemes and vibe involved. The majority of these are theirs.

Oh yeah, this is real cool. I especially love the experimental typography. There was this moment in the 80s and early 90s where typography was really let loose.

 

[mydadiscar]

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 guess it explains why Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star suddenly got popular again. (But not Haruhi, Rozen Maiden, or Gurren Lagann, or at least not yet.)

These kinds of people do not even watch Lucky Star, as @turntableToothache said.
They constantly make le funni femcel memes about Konata, when not only is Konata relatively well-adjusted even despite her circumstances (her mother died in childbirth and her father is an antisocial otaku who lends her dating sims, a scenario that would usually set someone up for failure irl) with her having a part-time job despite being in high school and having an active friend group, however if they had actually watched the show they would realise that there is already a character that would fit most of what these kinds of people want in a character.

Specifically, Akira Kogami, host of Lucky Channel. She chainsmokes, constantly goes through mood swings where she lashes out violently towards others, looks cute and tries to act all cutesy to cover up her jaded and cynical true self, but has also been doing this since she was just a kid due to being stuck in the showbiz by her mother when she was only three, who controls her finances, and her parents are known to be divourced with her father never being mentioned, so he's probably out of the picture.

Schoolgirl, depressed but acts cute to hide it, constant mood swings, violent outbursts, substance abuse, mother who could probably be viewed as abusive, no father figure... tell me that's not exactly what these people want. And yet they don't know her. Because they are just posers, yapping on and on about a time they never experienced, sperging over things they have never seen because why actually sit down and watch a show when you can just look at memes about it?

I've mostly been yapping about "le femcel" types, however there is overlap, especially in this particular instance, see zombiebeatz2000 for a good example of this. I never thought I would hear of a "neetcore" or "hikkicore" but unfortunately I have been exposed to such nonsense. Also to demonstrate that these kinds of people lack awareness of the source material because they do not watch the source material.

I will say though, I'm glad they haven't watched it. Honestly, as much as it's sorta a cliche at this point and while I don't think it's as bad as a lot of people portray it as, I honestly have doubts that a lot of zoomers have the capacity to watch anime. I feel like it's not necessarily an attention span problem (Netflix, as I understand, is rather popular, and they tend to have longer episodes) but I feel that does play a part, but it's also the differences it has with Western TV shows and the language barrier, as well as the barrier of entry for some of them. Zoomers are heavily reliant on streaming services and while Netflix has some anime on offer, then they might have to branch out to Crunchyroll or whatever other streaming services there are. I feel like anime is just "that quirky thing that people say they're into to see more quirky".

...I'm also glad they haven't caught on to Rozen Maiden yet desu. Or desu at all for that matter, desu. I don't think I've any of those kinds of people using desu, desu.

 

[turntableToothache]

I've mostly been yapping about "le femcel" types, however there is overlap, especially in this particular instance, see zombiebeatz2000 for a good example of this. I never thought I would hear of a "neetcore" or "hikkicore" but unfortunately I have been exposed to such nonsense. Also to demonstrate that these kinds of people lack awareness of the source material because they do not watch the source material.

You say "hikkicore" and the first thing that comes to my mind is a battlestations thread with anons posting the most dogshit setups ever as a joke
e.g:

Are there really people out there romanticizing this kind of shit? Or thinking it's le quirky aesthetic? Nigga just be poor or go live in a third world country shanty town if you wanna live out your "hikkicore" fantasy of living in Chris Chan's room.

I will say though, I'm glad they haven't watched it. Honestly, as much as it's sorta a cliche at this point and while I don't think it's as bad as a lot of people portray it as, I honestly have doubts that a lot of zoomers have the capacity to watch anime. I feel like it's not necessarily an attention span problem (Netflix, as I understand, is rather popular, and they tend to have longer episodes) but I feel that does play a part, but it's also the differences it has with Western TV shows and the language barrier, as well as the barrier of entry for some of them. Zoomers are heavily reliant on streaming services and while Netflix has some anime on offer, then they might have to branch out to Crunchyroll or whatever other streaming services there are. I feel like anime is just "that quirky thing that people say they're into to see more quirky".

The only anime zoomers watch is flavor of the month stuff (ala Dungeon Meshi rn) or shonen shit like Jujutsu Kaisen or Chainsaw Man, they think every other anime is 1000 year old loli shit for middle aged fat neckbeards and thus not worth their time or respect.

 

[Halico]

My life goal is to one day have my room decorated like this with the slight difference of using cursed objects instead of Yoshi dolls.

Necronomicon next to the Tyco Garfield telephone fuck it

 

[Hobo8240]

I keep seeing this image posted now and then and it's so mind boggling how anybody chronologize the internet in this way.
It's like people born after 2009 think scene girls and lolrandum xd humor lasted until 2016 when Trump started making videos saying "these kids are the most cringiest ive ever seen lemme tell ya folks they make want to drink bleach" over gameplay of him playing CSGO
It's like the late zoomer version of this:

 

[BarnSwallow]

Specifically, Akira Kogami, host of Lucky Channel. She chainsmokes, constantly goes through mood swings where she lashes out violently towards others, looks cute and tries to act all cutesy to cover up her jaded and cynical true self, but has also been doing this since she was just a kid due to being stuck in the showbiz by her mother when she was only three, who controls her finances, and her parents are known to be divourced with her father never being mentioned, so he's probably out of the picture.

Schoolgirl, depressed but acts cute to hide it, constant mood swings, violent outbursts, substance abuse, mother who could probably be viewed as abusive, no father figure... tell me that's not exactly what these people want. And yet they don't know her. Because they are just posers, yapping on and on about a time they never experienced, sperging over things they have never seen because why actually sit down and watch a show when you can just look at memes about it?

Matter of fact, I was actually thinking the same exact thing recently. Youtube recommended me the entire dubbed show in 480p one day, and I thought, why the fuck not? Let's take it back to the 'good old days'. It was mostly how I remember it. I got a lot more of the reference now that I was no longer a dumb grade schooler. The one thing that struck me the most, however, was the Lucky Channel bits.

As a kid, I remember hating those segments. It felt like the same punch line again and again, disgruntled worker mad at job. "If I wanted that, I could just watch any sitcom on tv right now." I thought to myself. But as an adult? I actually get it now. It's the best part of the damn show.

So why isn't anyone talking about it? You can't go 5 seconds on social media without people memeing on how as an adult, Squidward was the real star of the SpongeBob. But with Lucky Star it's just the same retro-moe iconography of Konata recycled. I could say something about how every last one of them didn't watch the show, but honestly, I think it simply boils down to how Konata is a more positive target for projection. It has nothing to do with the substance of character and everything to do with how she's a safe female "literally me". It's the same thing as Bocchi being held up in the mainstream as the paragon of cringe, while Tomoko remains buried with more self-critical parts of internet culture.