Old 4chan becomes a trending aesthetic for TikTok zoomers

[☉Kud]

I think while what you're saying is rooted in truth, the vast majority may be a consequence of this information war being waged against the generations. While tech illiteracy was something that has been an issue for each generation up to a certain point, the vast majority aren't as dumb nor astoundingly myopic as you are alluding to. We are the product of our generation and while we may stray from the mould in certain ways, generally we are never as bad as the stereotype.
I've interacted with zoomers and their problem solving skills are good, they tend to dismiss the culture of victimhood wherein they are all victims and perpetrators if only for the fact that when times are good it's easy to find a reason to lament. When times are hard the lamentations are too easy to get hung up on than the imaginary bullshit we idled are time with earlier.
We're encountering another generation defining problem that has changed many people's outlooks on life and their actions and I see it every day.
While I don't think you're entirely wrong when viewing gen z from the internets and only the internets, the chronically online aren't the only metric one must use to measure the mettle of a generation.

So many people tend to forget that there exists zoomers who are normies that prefer interacting and thriving within the real world than on the internet.

But yeah, a sense of victimhood is definitely prevalent at times of crisis, but is this also another issue of past generations? Perhaps they reacted differently from zoomers during circumstances like that? For zoomers in particular, I'm guessing social media algorithms' push on culture wars oddly complimented their search for an identity during adolescence.

 

[eris]

I've interacted with zoomers and their problem solving skills are good

You must have been interacting with different zoomers than I then. I don't think for a minute early zoomers are this fucked, but IME anyone born after 2000 has some collection of either: poor linguistic comprehension, terrible motor skills, or crippling anxiety preventing them from doing basic social interaction. I have seen many cases of this in both work and hobby contexts, manifesting in things such as failure to understand simple instructions, hamfisting very simple manual tasks, or refusing to leave their local area. I have seen horror solder jobs the likes of which you would never see even 10 years ago, people talking about how they are terrified to go to the next city over to attend an event, people failing to read more than 1-2 lines before throwing their hands up in despair or charging ahead and fucking everything up.

I surmise that these issues are generated mostly from a combination of fried attention spans in formative years, device usage over physical play in formative years, and helicopter parents. People like this always existed but the proportion was much lower.

From what I've heard going around, the kids that didn't skip the first 7 years or so of being devicepoisoned have all of the above and extreme anger management issues, so, I guess we're in for another round of this bullshit.

 

[Vampire Lover]

I think is pretty cool that new generations have gained interest in old Internet culture. And also pretty normal. Recent Internet has no culture; the period understood between 2015-2020 has failed to produce any due to different factors. There's a void, and the only way to fill it will be looking in the past because is the only place where culture can be found. I think this applies in general and not only to the Internet. There's not been a dominating cultural trend since the 2010s and people are rooting for meaning.

So I think this is a positive overall. The more new generations know about the past the better.

 

[Alice N Chain]

Doesn't this all just fall under 2000's internet aesthetics in general?

 

[404 Username Not Found]

I don't think for a minute early zoomers are this fucked, but IME anyone born after 2000 has some collection of either: poor linguistic comprehension, terrible motor skills, or crippling anxiety preventing them from doing basic social interaction.

Can confirm, I have the middle one. I'm diagnosed with something but it was when I was quite young so I can't remember for sure what - I believe it was dyspraxia. But everyone in my immediate family save my dad has some sort of medical disorder (if dyslexia which my sister has counts) so I doubt I'm typical in any sense.

I have seen many cases of this in both work and hobby contexts, manifesting in things such as failure to understand simple instructions, hamfisting very simple manual tasks, or refusing to leave their local area. I have seen horror solder jobs the likes of which you would never see even 10 years ago, people talking about how they are terrified to go to the next city over to attend an event, people failing to read more than 1-2 lines before throwing their hands up in despair or charging ahead and fucking everything up.

I surmise that these issues are generated mostly from a combination of fried attention spans in formative years, device usage over physical play in formative years, and helicopter parents. People like this always existed but the proportion was much lower.

I think you can also blame parents for this - being, I don't want to see too lax, but certainly not involved enough in raising their kids - half of the horror stories you hear from teachers involve parents complaining that the teacher should have taught their children basic skills for them.

From what I've heard going around, the kids that didn't skip the first 7 years or so of being devicepoisoned have all of the above and extreme anger management issues, so, I guess we're in for another round of this bullshit.

Also lockdowns to take into account - dyslexia or otherwise - my sister's reading skills went to shit over COVID because without school forcing her to read her books for lessons she lost out on practise that would have helped her (on some level) deal with the dyslexia. And you can make the same arguments for face-to-face communication and facing consequences for your actions from someone other than their parents.

 

[youtherthyf]

4chan as part of the "Dark Web"

peeps generally, not just kids tbh, think of many things slightly gory or outside the main stream as dark web. i was showing a page documenting the justin mohn case to someone older than me and she called it "dark web stuff". similarly had people legit surprised gore/shock sites existed


not for 4chan specifically but i got to see this "old web fascination" first hand on a relative's face. she is in 4th grade for context, almost her entire knowledge of the internet is through phone apps and didn't know stuff like YT and google were "websites".
i was explaining to her the concept of "making a personal site" and showing her some neocities pages. things that seem basic to us like being able to make the page look as you want, being able to make a game and people being able to play it on the web without download, making your own blog or art gallery that isn't on tiktok. she seemed legit surprised by all of it.

i agreed to teach her html and help her make one during summer break, if anything it gives me hope more of the kids on tiktok kick off social media and it's bullshit and move to the open web

 

[TheGr8Whoopdini]

Anti-corpo sentiment? Sure, yeah. There's plenty of sentiment but no praxis. I eagerly wait for the day when what you claim is true, but to this day I have not met anyone else who renounces social media.

What would count as renunciation, in your book? I maintain accounts on major platforms to keep up with artists whose work I enjoy, for example, and though I do intend to transfer all that to RSS feeds eventually, it's a big project, and in the meantime, the ease of discoverability and hoarding delightful new artists with a simple "follow" keeps me from even starting, because there's always more to discover and hoard before I finally pull the plug and jump ship. But I've almost never posted or interacted with anything on the mainstream platforms in my entire online career. So at what point along my plan of disengagement would I count as having "renounced" social media?

 

[RisingThumb]

Also just wanted to add, it's still better than this shitty aesthetic trend in the UK where kids are going about wearing puffy jackets and balaclavas to try and look like they're "well hard" and instead look like they're in some kind of gimp suit. I know it's inspired by drill rappers, but in comparison to people going about wearing balaclavas like some robber, the 4chan aesthetic trend is extremely tame.

 

[LostintheCycle]

What would count as renunciation, in your book?

Very simply, not having social media accounts and not using social media otherwise.
When I said renounce, it's primarily about what you do (using social media or not) and secondarily about an attitude that is actively against using social media.

 

[Some_porcupine]

Also just wanted to add, it's still better than this shitty aesthetic trend in the UK where kids are going about wearing puffy jackets and balaclavas to try and look like they're "well hard" and instead look like they're in some kind of gimp suit. I know it's inspired by drill rappers, but in comparison to people going about wearing balaclavas like some robber, the 4chan aesthetic trend is extremely tame.

there was this one on aesthetics wiki... but it seems it got deleted
nor cant find it on wiki as i forgot name of it

it was about middle east immigrants youth in germany that is rude, violent andallthat, like, i hate to criticize, but man, you too would be pissed if youd be stuck in reinforcement stereotype...

 

[RisingThumb]

there was this one on aesthetics wiki... but it seems it got deleted

Probably because saying most rap brings with it a poisonous cloud of gang culture which is something people think is racist because most rap comes from black people. The issue there isn't black people though, but it's "hood culture", which is far more prominent in the US. In the UK, it's just chavs influenced by that. It's definitely a faux pas to say something like this, which is probably why most Brits don't :/

 

[☉Kud]

Also just wanted to add, it's still better than this shitty aesthetic trend in the UK where kids are going about wearing puffy jackets and balaclavas to try and look like they're "well hard" and instead look like they're in some kind of gimp suit. I know it's inspired by drill rappers, but in comparison to people going about wearing balaclavas like some robber, the 4chan aesthetic trend is extremely tame.

There's a similar trend in the US where they wear masks similar to those in order to look tough or ghetto. They call them "Shiestys" after rapper Pooh Shiesty, who often wore those masks in music videos and stuff.

 

[turntableToothache]

There's a similar trend in the US where they wear masks similar to those in order to look tough or ghetto. They call them "Shiestys" after rapper Pooh Shiesty, who often wore those masks in music videos and stuff.

 

[nakadashi]

I am also indifferent because I dislike 4chan except for /wg/, but I disagree it could have that effect. Simply, I think they like having their identity tied to what they say. So then, if anything they'd rather be forum posters.

/wg/ might as well be the only good board on 4chan, maybe because it is all images and no text?

You're giving these people lotsa credit by assuming they even watched the show in the first place.

Yeah, cause watching a whole anime series is such a super-human achievement.

Lame.

They'll never get truly invested in it. It's just a trend to them. They'll keep doing their usual social media bullshit because going to repopulate the old web is too inconvenient and doesn't get enough clout. They only care about looking cool and have absolutely no convictions. In a sense not much different than virtue signaling whatever issue is trendy to get all riled up about. The ones who truly aren't into that social media mess and trends will still be considered weirdos at best and nonexistent at worst. Those fucking retards would never survive five minutes on the actual 4chan. It doesn't provide enough of a dopamine hit. Not enough validation. And the culture there is at odds with their sanitized uwu shit. Hell not even that many newfags make it on Agora Road and it's much, much tamer than 4chan can be.

It's the same horseshit all over again. Just like these Twittards who made Neocities website that they abandoned fairly soon or don't ever update. At the end of the day most of these muppets will go back to their one true love: social media. Just like those cottagecore girls who are fantasizing about le simple life and I bet my ass that they would not last a week doing so.

Fuck this shit, sincerely.

If anything, 4chan is much more of a dopamine-hit generator just due to the sheer randomness of it. The fact that you could encounter some good thread about exploring an abandoned building or some creepy videogame from somewhere on the web amid the piles and piles of garbage and recycled memes is definitely much more addictive than anything social media could offer. Heck, even Facebook (or Twitter, don't remember) hardcoded not showing new posts any given refreshes into their algorithm to simulate this random factor. Also, drop the rose-tinted glasses. 4chan nowadays is un-navigable due to the constant psyops running on it, but it was never "good". There were some gold nuggets here and there, but so were there on >reddit or even Twitter.

its that pinterest sorta mindset where as long as it looks cool or sounds cool they want it ... they dont even have 2 enjoy it or anything, its just for the sake of "aesthetics"

lmao, imagine someone made a music genre out of that feeling and then someone made a web forum out of that genre, that would be nuts.

The what club?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NyzQwwO4Os

I am tremendously white pilled on this right now, I see social platforms on life support as the kids don't see them as a place to be anymore. My zoomer cousin showed up with his phone on greyscale and eye comfort shield (blue blocking mode) to dinner the other day. He said he's not on any social media and that is pretty well standard for his age group.

The internet is in the beginning of a new renaissance - blogs, forums, anti-corpo sentiment, cyberpunk tendencies, caring about privacy all coming back bros!

Sounds like your cousin is a GigaChad.

 

[№56]

What in the sweet name of God is that
View attachment 129654

Don't bother reacting or responding to that kind of stuff, just report it so the mods can delete it as quickly as possible.

 

[Halico]

What in the sweet name of God is that

What's that website it sounds useful

 

[frozen]

How long till tiktok discovers Agora Road's Macintosh Cafe?

Never happening.

 

[macrobyte]

Never happening.

> TikTok will never discover us
> We are a super secretive special online forum
> Joined Jan 6, 2025

 

[N3TZZZ]

How long till tiktok discovers Agora Road's Macintosh Cafe?

Let's hope it never happens

 

[N3TZZZ]

How long till tiktok discovers Agora Road's Macintosh Cafe?

It's interesting how everything that was considered counterculture or alternative became completely mainstream, like punk, alternative rock, anime, video games, internet culture, aesthetic culture, and vaporwave etc, so sad