I think this is an important post for anyone with a #retrocomputing hobby.
You can’t just hide behind the nostalgia without seeing the big picture. It’s not healthy.
https://antientro.pics/retro/criticism/2024/05/05/sick-of-old-computers
I think this is an important post for anyone with a #retrocomputing hobby.
You can’t just hide behind the nostalgia without seeing the big picture. It’s not healthy.
https://antientro.pics/retro/criticism/2024/05/05/sick-of-old-computers
@paulhart it’s fine to collect stuff and like old computers and video games etc (I do!)—but completely uncritical nostalgia is a sign of problem
@thomasfuchs also the simple fact that these products are being made because they’re targeting a market with disposable income enough to afford them.
And mea culpa, I’ve often wanted (and sometimes purchased) stuff like this. At this point I think I’d be fine with a retro-styled Game Dad and a couple of MicroSD cards.
@rootcompute no one is saying it's categorically wrong; the criticism is about being uncritical and not realizing the context of things--and that this uncritical obsession with nostalgia is unhealthy for people personally and for society
@thomasfuchs If I can't like Windows XP because it existed at the same time as the Iraq war, then I guess every piece of technology and media that exists today should be invalidated while existing concurrent to the mass slaughter of Palestinians (or war in Ukraine if you prefer)
Nostalgia absolutely can be weaponized in reactionary movements but that doesn't mean it is categorically wrong. By the same token, new technology is not good because some people's social values have improved
@santiago it’s also fine to like old stuff (I do!), but you have a richer experience when you realize the context of items and what they meant back then and mean today etc.
@thomasfuchs History moves on several axes at the same time. Some of them backwards at times. I think it’s sane to pick from each period some specific items and trash the rest.
One can get inspired by 1950’s design furniture and not wish to go back to such dark times for minorities.
In terms of computing retro doesn’t always mean going back to the 80s but trying to rebuild some human joy that existed in the tech itself before advertising and A.I. took hold. Neo-retro as some say
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