Where does your interest in retro things come from?

[RIG]

futuristic aesthetics peaked in 2000-2009.
i also didn't get to experience the internet much because i grew up without it, i'm playing catch up basically.

 

[punishedgnome]

futuristic aesthetics peaked in 2000-2009.

Agreed. Skeuomorphism is peak graphic design and you can't convince me otherwise.

 

[remember_summer_days]

Peak futurism is 1950s futurism lets be real. Either that or the utopian visions from the 1880s. I feel that by Y2K end-of-history times people were already sort of cynical about the future being any kind of utopia. Like 1990s-2010s futuristic aesthetics seek to be more or less cool than utopic unlike those of earlier decades

 

[Shantotto]

I find old stuff, especially more obscure videos, technology, online communities to be less hyper stimulating, more slow, and for a lack of better words, more human. It feels like old media, old technology, is primitive, less connected to the noise of the world similar to what what life used to be like. It's there to serve one purpose, and only one purpose, the utility you paid for when you purchased it. A physical dictionary is standalone, it exists to define words and nothing more. No ads, no tracking, just a stack of paper filled with words that inadvertently happens to be very effective at crushing spiders.
Maybe the point I'm getting at is that old stuff, old media is upfront. Everything it aims to do or convey to you is present when you purchase it. It can not communicate with the rest of the world. It's not there to keep you on a subscription service, sell you skins, serve you ads. It has no alterior motive. And if they re-release to Netflix or the Nintendo e shop, atleast it comes from a time when it had no alterior motive.

Old stuff just feels more authentic.

 

[gorilla squid]

The shit that I like the most just got old. That's pretty much it to be honest.

 

[Thunderclap99]

The answer on my side is: I simply missed out on a lot when the retro things were new. So they have the duality of being nostalgic while being new at the same time. Not to mention it feels just right for me to show some love to things that are not current. If something is good, then its good even after the fad is over.

Ultimately, you can really feel they had a different mentality about how entertainment products etc. were supposed to work, they had a different philosophy. I think you can do great things if you use the current tech and mix it with the different mentality of past ages.

 

[JihyoParkXX]

I think I got a youtube recommendation for the 'Remember Summer Days' vaporware compilation, ( which I just realized is my user name lol, I guess it stuck in my subconscious)

I always thought your name comes from the City Pop song by Anri, now I feel silly realizing that you might have never even heard of the song lol

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHKb38-nl3U


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

 

[eris]

I find old stuff, especially more obscure videos, technology, online communities to be less hyper stimulating, more slow, and for a lack of better words, human. It feels like old media, old technology, is primitive, less connected to the noise of the world similar to what what life used to be like. It's there to serve one purpose, and only one purpose, the utility you paid for when you purchased it. A dictionary is standalone, it exists to define words and nothing more. No ads, no tracking, just a stack of paper filled with words that inadvertently happens to be very effective at crushing spiders.
Maybe the point I'm getting at is that old stuff, old media is upfront. Everything it aims to do or convey to you is present when you purchase it. It can not communicate with the rest of the world. It's not there to keep you on a subscription service, sell you skins, serve you ads. It has no alterior motive. Or atleast if they have added it to Netflix or the Nintendo e shop, it comes from a time when it had no alterior motive.

Old stuff just feels more authentic.

I typically watch older stuff for this reason and made the mistake recently of watching a netflix show.

Holy shit it felt like prolefeed. Just appeals to basest instincts to get you to keep pressing next episode button

 

[manpaint]

These posts kiiiind of answer it for me. I actually have zero interest in specifically retro things or nostalgia. I just think that so many modern iterations are legitimately worse than their predecesors. Windows XP for example is simply better than Windows 10 to me, so I use Windows XP instead. Luckily I don't do a lot of computer stuff and the games I like are old too. But I use a lot of older things almost exclusively for that one reason. Any other reasoning is covered above.

Based. I personally use Windows 7 and will never touch Windows 10 on my main machine.

As for my answer for the thread, there is something I really dislike about most modern stuff. As others have said old stuff feel more authentic and it often had a soul.

 

[punishedgnome]

I find old stuff, especially more obscure videos, technology, online communities to be less hyper stimulating, more slow, and for a lack of better words, more human. It feels like old media, old technology, is primitive, less connected to the noise of the world similar to what what life used to be like. It's there to serve one purpose, and only one purpose, the utility you paid for when you purchased it. A physical dictionary is standalone, it exists to define words and nothing more. No ads, no tracking, just a stack of paper filled with words that inadvertently happens to be very effective at crushing spiders.
Maybe the point I'm getting at is that old stuff, old media is upfront. Everything it aims to do or convey to you is present when you purchase it. It can not communicate with the rest of the world. It's not there to keep you on a subscription service, sell you skins, serve you ads. It has no alterior motive. And if they re-release to Netflix or the Nintendo e shop, atleast it comes from a time when it had no alterior motive.

Old stuff just feels more authentic.

The Internet used to be more like this too. You could still waste time on it, lord knows I did, but you had to be a more active participant. You'd be like, "I'd like to know about x". You'd search for it on Yahoo, Altavista or Ask Jeeves or "I enjoyed that movie. I am going to post a review of it on my favourite forum/Usenet group and see what others think." There was a lot less mindless scrolling and more mindfulness involved. It's basically gone from being analogous to choosing to read a book, play a specific game or enjoy a specific film to mindlessly flipping through cable channels out of boredom in the late 90s. From an active activity for most people to a passive one.

I can remember a time when a post on a forum less that a paragraph was scoffed at and the person making it would be called a retard unless it was a joke or a sick burn or something. How can a thought worth expressing be less than a paragraph? Now most people's posts are these short Tweets and Facebook posts. It's a totally different culture and involves way less thought.

 

[remember_summer_days]

I always thought your name comes from the City Pop song by Anri, now I feel silly realizing that you might have never even heard of the song lol

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHKb38-nl3U


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

Lol, I love Anri... That song, in particular, is one of my favorites. The vaporwave mix probably was named after that song.

Though my favorite album from her is still Heaven Beach, wish I also got that one on vinyl.

 

[eris]

Lol, I love Anri... That song, in particular, is one of my favorites. The vaporwave mix probably was named after that song.

View attachment 36939

Though my favorite album from her is still Heaven Beach, wish I also got that one on vinyl.

My ex tore the obi strip on mine

 

[JihyoParkXX]

Though my favorite album from her is still Heaven Beach, wish I also got that one on vinyl.

Damn those go for like 15000-20000 yen on Yahoo Auctions, you could've gotten the rest of her entire discography on vinyl with Heaven Beach alone. Couldn't imagine how much more it'll cost to buy on Discogs.

My ex tore the obi strip on mine

My Timely vinyl didn't even come with one, although I did buy it for less than 30 bucks from a geezer.

 

[Digital Caveman]

My interest in retro things comes from missing the chill vibes and aesthetics of days gone bye.

 

[PXEMANIAC]

my childhood was cut short, so its partially a shoddy attempt to feel younger again, but if you remove any connection ive had to it something about older things just feel more authentic (and better) in almost every way possible

 

[Andrew Eldritch]

I am also old and never grew up.

Edit: to be fair when I was young I wished it was the 70's. Forever in the wrong time smh

 

[Taikon777]

For me, it is simply the fact that things are simply different. I enjoy the that I can chose what I indulge in instead of being forced to consume only the current thing. And I just love the aesthetic and feel. It helps me to crave out a little piece of this world and claim it my own, even if it's just a pillow fort for chilling.

 

[Aeria Gloris]

For me i do not think it is just nostalgia but rather pure honesty with myself and what I like. For example, I see retro games to be harder, more mentally challenging and more expressive. The fact that their graphics are not meta-reality tier push me to use my imagination more which I like. The low poly aesthetics simply hit different.
This applies to anime as well. Older anime seems more raw, dark and story focused.

 

[Taikon777]

For me i do not think it is just nostalgia but rather pure honesty with myself and what I like. For example, I see retro games to be harder, more mentally challenging and more expressive. The fact that their graphics are not meta-reality tier push me to use my imagination more which I like. The low poly aesthetics simply hit different.
This applies to anime as well. Older anime seems more raw, dark and story focused.

Older graphics certainly have an "other world" feel. I have to agree about anime as well, I miss that style and craftsmanship that went into them.

 

[ignika98]

Despite being born in '98, I grew up in a third world country that was at least 10 years behind the west. So I experienced a weird mix of early 90s and early 2000s culture, aesthetics and media when I was very young. I also visited America quite often as a kid, basically once a year. So I wasn't absolutely clueless about what was "modern" back then. It was this weird mix of growing up around 90s stuff, knowing it was out of date but at the same time appreciating it cause it was all I had, and getting glimpses into the early 2000s every time I would visit America.

I think growing up between two decades of culture has made me interested in things both old and new. I feel nostalgia for old dial up modems and beige computers, but also for flip phones and mp3 players. I grew up playing the Nintendo GameCube, but I played Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask on it because those were the only games I had. Whenever I see old stuff, whether it's from the 90s or the 2000s, I feel a sense of nostalgia from the experiences I had as child, but also a sense of wonder from not being able to truly experience those decades.