Jim JarrettDec 30
Natasha 🇪🇺
Saw the Fediverse described as where elder millennial, Gen X and boomers go to retire from the internet, and immediately felt the peace that passes all understanding wash over me. None of us have to struggle any longer. We completed our time.
Dec 30 at 12:15amWeb
Show threadGreem (Graeme. Not Graham!)Dec 30

@Natasha_Jay Hrm. Gen X lies between the two, there's many of us here, but we've been predictably overlooked.

Related: Slackers was a documentary.

Show threadAdaDec 30
@greem @Natasha_Jay Came here to say this :P
Show threadNatasha 🇪🇺Dec 30
@ada
@greem
Fixed ... 😉
Show threadben morettiDec 30
@Natasha_Jay @ada @greem should have left it unedited!
Show threadgoedelchenDec 30
@Natasha_Jay @ada @greem what age group is GenX?
Show threadGreem (Graeme. Not Graham!)Dec 30
@goedelchen @Natasha_Jay @ada 1965 to 1980, so right now aged 45 to 60.
Show threadTerenceJan 15
@greem @Natasha_Jay
Isn’t that us Gen-Xers by definition? Overlooked? It defined us back in 1987, and I think it always has.
Show threadbazkie 👩🏼‍💻 bitplanes 🎵Dec 30
@Natasha_Jay fitting. It does feel like I've retired from the internet at large.
Show threadkevinDec 30
@bazkie @Natasha_Jay Certainly retired from that #xitter bs machine
Show threadAudrey Winter has moved!Dec 30
@kmmfoo @bazkie @Natasha_Jay Forcibly retired (i.e. randomly banned) from Zuckerville. It's turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me on the internet.
Show threadSteve FeltenDec 30
@Natasha_Jay It’s a struggle to reply, what with the arthritis in my fingers.
Show threadVon XylofonDec 31
@stevefelten @Natasha_Jay If it's a joke, it passed right over my head. If it's not and you're on Android, FUTO Keyboard with voice input is absolutely amazing and fully open-source.
Show threadSnake Oil SalesmanDec 30
@Natasha_Jay im still clinging to obscure subreddits till lemmy gets bigger
Show threadVon XylofonDec 31
@SnakeOilSalesman @Natasha_Jay It's difficult with Lemmy. I felt Mastodon was going to be the thing right when I joined. With Lemmy, I am getting the same vibe as with Diaspora – I'm just not sure the tech will work with the target audience. I'm just not feeling it.
Show threadJonathan SullenbergerDec 30
@Natasha_Jay Who said anything about retiring from the Internet? If anything, I am considering posting daily prompts by which people here can answer.
Show threadNatasha 🇪🇺Dec 30
@pinoycelt
Perhaps much of the rest of the internet we knew retired from us then?
Show threadJonathan SullenbergerDec 30
@Natasha_Jay Yes and no, half of my high school classmates didn't have social media when I last spoke to them. I choose pseudonyms except for LinkedIn due to being hacked and privacy concerns. I will always find a home away from home online though.
Show threadMeznor UNGRATEFUL MIDDLE POWERDec 30
@Natasha_Jay this resonates so much. ♥️
Show threadJames 🦉 #FBPE 🇪🇺Dec 30
@Natasha_Jay While amusing, I very much felt like I was *returning* to the internet from whatever the hell the other places had become.
Show threadNu ModularDec 30
@Natasha_Jay You will address me as Old Modular...
Show threadSpark Purcell (they/them)Dec 30
@Natasha_Jay retiring from antisocial capitalist social media is not retiring from the internet, lmao...
Show threadVon XylofonDec 31
@ailurocrat @Natasha_Jay From what the majority of the internet has become, perhaps.
Show threadChaos DirectorDec 30
@Natasha_Jay Well, it beats Springfield retirement castle...
Show threadMagical CatDec 30
@Natasha_Jay
Hello? What if endless fight for fight for fight about a fight is a thing that has ben imposed by state(s), billionaires and people whose work is to sell us something, and this sense of calm is just how real life looks like as soon as you throw all these VR glasses away and detach self from The System of endless run for illusion of the success?
Show threadKerr Avonsen (she/her)Dec 30
@koteisaev @Natasha_Jay Intriguing thought. I intuit that this illusion has its roots in the Industrial Revolution, and only multiplied with the onset of the Computer Age - the Rat Race racing with other Rats getting faster and faster simply because everyone else is going faster and for no other reason than that. This busy-ness eats away at our calmness, leaving us with nothing but anger, distraction, and worry.
Show threadEaterOfSnacksDec 30
@kerravonsen @koteisaev @Natasha_Jay This 100x! While I don't subscribe to every movement prefixed with "small" or "slow", online or off, I sympathise with the general idea. There's ever less desire to do the things I enjoy better, faster or more visibly than anyone else. Just to do them, learn in the process, and take pleasure in that.
Show threadSordid Amok!Dec 30
@Natasha_Jay Fediverse, news and Wikipedia are all I do on the www anymore.
Show threadDuckbilled Plattypus.Dec 30
@Natasha_Jay Lol. Older and wiser. This is what de-Nazification looks like. Huzzah.
Show threadSteve BellovinDec 30
@Natasha_Jay @wendynather It's where we go to confer, converse, and likewise hobnob with our fellow wizards.
Show threadNatasha 🇪🇺Dec 30
@SteveBellovin
Coffee and spellbooks...
@wendynather
Show threadSteve BellovinDec 30
@Natasha_Jay @wendynather My phone is named Grimoire…
Show threadKerr Avonsen (she/her)Dec 30
@SteveBellovin @Natasha_Jay @wendynather Excellent!
Show threadbstowDec 30

@Natasha_Jay

Gen-Xers leave traditional social media because of world-weariness, the fading of our power in a world shifting towards the Age of AI Bullshit, and a spiritual call to the Federated Lands where we can find peace, as our time in the commercialized Internet ends with the defeat of the Metaverse and the destruction of the Meta Quest fever-dream. We travel west on ships from Reddit, X, and TikTok, seeking a final rest in the land of Mastodon, a place free from decay, though some linger or fade away in Bluesky. 

Show threadSibshopsDec 30
@Natasha_Jay Good to be here.
Show threadPaco HopeDec 30
@Natasha_Jay This resonates so much... (I'm #GenX)
Show threadJon Jones ✌️Dec 30

@Natasha_Jay probably a lot fewer boomers than the others by far. Too many Boomers I know leashed only to Facebook like a lifelong smoker to an oxygen tank.

Edit: geez so many typos

Show threadDavid J. AtkinsonDec 30
@DVWhat @Natasha_Jay I’m tail end of the Boomers, but old enough to remember when that term was made up. I am VERY pleased to find plenty of my cohort here and also the other generations, all interested in ideas, good conversation and amusement. Good people! Without knowing it, the Fediverse is what I’ve been seeking and now I’m content.
Show threadTara Marchand 🏳️‍🌈Dec 30
@Natasha_Jay Feels Usenet-esque.
Show threadJochie 👨🏻‍💻🏳️‍🌈Dec 30

@thraeryn @Natasha_Jay Our watch has ended?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOCV-JJPErA

Jon Snow "My Watch Has Ended"

YouTube
Show thread🐜Dec 30
@Natasha_Jay That means I am an old fart. :(
Show threadClaudine C Dec 30
@Natasha_Jay I'm seriously considering retreating to Gemini (*not* the Google thing) or even Gopher which is still alive in some places.
Show threadKerr Avonsen (she/her)Dec 30
@claudinec @Natasha_Jay Gopher is still alive? Golly.
Show threadRobin AdamsDec 30
@kerravonsen @claudinec @Natasha_Jay Wonder what's on FidoNet these days?
Show threadClaudine C Dec 30
@robinadams I never got on to #fidonet but apparently it still exists – https://www.fidonet.org/
FidoNet

Show threadClaudine C Dec 30
@kerravonsen You can even visit #gopher holes through a web proxy these days, e.g. https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw
Show threadElisabeth MDec 30
@Natasha_Jay so ... All the generations, except the one so old it doesn't social, and the ones so young they haven't found it yet
Show threadDragonFlameDec 30
@independentpen @Natasha_Jay I belong to before boomers. I did X and Insta but left both the day Excretion Elon sacked 3000 by email. Found Fediverse and so happy here. Not unaware of world am still raging angry and very sad at cruelty and greed. But this place keeps me grounded as I see kindness, caring, small joys and informed comment. So yes, agree w OP.😊
Show threadAndrew C. DingmanDec 30
@Natasha_Jay aren't there Gen X folks in those age groups, too? Possibly including me, depending on who's drawing the line between Gen X and "elder millennial".
Show threadThe BoojumDec 30
@Natasha_Jay
The wisdom of the ages (or aged, at least), right here.
Show threadJurgens PieterseDec 30
@Natasha_Jay no retirement from this GenX! Rather find the fediverse a place where there are still actual people that can communicate.
Show threadcontrasocialDec 30

@Natasha_Jay

I guess, I'm just here because TikTok makes me cringe out of my skin.

Show threadSkjeggtrollDec 30

@Natasha_Jay

Harrumph. We didn't leave the Internet. The Internet left us, darned it!

Show threadfinityDec 30

Nostr is definitely not that.

Use @openvibe and you will see that without losing any access to mastodon.

Show threadChris LowlesDec 30
@Natasha_Jay The older Zoomers like me that grew up with it and are now winded from the onslaught, wanting to try out something akin to a cabin in the woods, but the cabin is at least attached to amenities.
Show threadWez FurlongDec 30
@Natasha_Jay oh, this is like Tolkien's elves sailing into the West
Show threadAquaman-CoreDec 30
@Natasha_Jay saddest thing i've read today. seems largely true but i hope it expands beyond that
Show threadKayla Eilhart (en)Dec 30
I didn't realize that the Fediverse is our Valinor, but yeah, sounds about right.
Show threadJonathan HendryDec 30

@Natasha_Jay

We sailed to the West.

Show threadCybermatronDec 30
@Natasha_Jay The Heaviside Layer 😂