Seeing Tom Scott and MatPat being called the “old internet” might be the thing that puts me in retirement
TIL I was using the Jurassic Internet as a teenager
Old internet to me is straight up pointlesswasteoftime.com, which eventually got absorbed by Cracked like a cheap suppository after David Wong (aka mediocre comedy writer Jason Pargin) sold out. That was in 2007. And now Cracked is functionally a content graveyard.
And I thought the old internet was YTMND,slashdot, and fark.
Fuck I’m old.
Kuro5hin goes in there somewhere too
And now Cracked is functionally a content graveyard.
I’ll have you know that Cracked is the number one source for shitty listicles that were generated by running a /r/AskReddit thread through an AI.
I assume, at least. Haven’t actually visited cracked since before 2010 probably.
It got bought out by the company that owns KnowYourMeme, ebaumsworld, and the “I can has cheezeburger?” website in 2019. That’s pretty much all you need to know.
The general reaction to this post being “Who’s Matpat?” is super interesting to me. And the comments saying that Tom Scott and Matpat aren’t old are also interesting since they follow the trend in Lemmy of the average age being a lot older than any other social network. I’m Gen Z and primarily consume content via a very Zoomer-heavy platform, YouTube, and the only other social network I have is Lemmy, which I’d say is very millennial-dominated. Which is why I stayed on Lemmy when I first got on here in June, since I liked the difference in opinion on the same topics on Lemmy and YouTube. Nothing related to the post, just something I’ve noticed for a while but never shared.
I feel like people not knowing this Matpat person may also just be a case of the channel being called “The Game Theorists”.
I have seen videos of that channel suggested, but never clicked on any, because it looked like typical content mill stuff to me. If you don’t watch any videos, you’ll only ever read “The Game Theorists”…
as a fellow zoomer I can verify that Lemmy is unique in that you and me as zoomers seem to be a minority here
This place is a lot like what the older Internet from the 80s and 90s was like, just a bunch of disjointed seperate individually run forums and communities run by passionate individuals in a world of digital anarchy where you can find something new every day. One minute you’re downloading guitar tabs handwritten by some random metal fan, to reading about some guy named Steve’s tribute website to his pet dog the next.
I think that’s what draws us in and keeps us here for the older folks.
Same here, it’s a lot more chill of a place at least
YouTube is zoomer heavy. I know that’s true, but I like to believe that I, a millennial, am still welcome there.
I remember YouTube being millennial dominated. I wonder if it’s just a phase before realizing you’re throwing comments into the void and by being a central social site that still allows anonymity, it just invokes trolls - like xitter.
Wait till you find out YouTube isn’t that old and came about because some horny dudes couldn’t find the video of Janet Jackson’s boob. I mean, 18 is ancient for the internet and other tech, but I’d say it goes beyond just being a website with its social prevalence.
I’ve got accounts older than my niece and she’ll be 16 in a month.
The public internet has been around about three times longer than what you’re calling “old”.
Geocities, Angelfire, and dialup modems are the “old” internet.
I used ftp, Archie, and gopher in college. I even had a paper book called “The Internet Yellow Pages” before search engines were a thing.
I miss IRC
Seeing MatPat being called the old internet is…something all right. Almost as disorienting as seeing all the “Who?” reactions to the news. I guess it isn’t that surprising given how huge Youtube is. I’m sure there are plenty of giant channels I’ve never heard of. That being said I’m curious to see if any more “old-school” youtubers decide to retire over the next year.
This is how I find out matpat is retiring?!
Right?!
For those of y’all who don’t know: MatPat has announced that he will be stepping down from The Game Theorists to focus on himself and his family; Tom Scott has gone on indefinite hiatus for similar reasons.
I believe this heralds a new era of the internet, where ‘old’ creators are not as influential as the ‘new’ crop springing up, given the rise of Tiktok and the general direction of social media as a whole.
This seems like a big change only because YouTube/content creators are such a new phenomenon. Makes sense to change tracks after doing the same thing for a while. Or retire if you get filthy rich. It’s a natural cycle, only this time in a new environment.
Tom Scott has been doing the same thing for 10 years. Hell I can barely do the same job for 2 years without getting bored out of my mind.
It’s kinda like tv shows. Doing the same one dash in and out is exhausting.
The Game Theorists
Who? I feel like my algo has me under a rock.
You are not alone
I don’t think it’s got much to do with new types of content being successful. If anything, those guys have just been doing this for so long that they definitely should take a loooong break, at least.
Tom Scott and Matpat didn’t talk about breaks; they’re closing up shop for good in some way: MatPat has said he’s handing over creative control of the Theorist channels and assuming a more casual admin role to spend more time with his kid. Tom Scott said that he set a limit for 10 years on his main channel; he may come back to it, but it doesn’t seem likely. Others are also quitting, such as Moo from the Vanoss Crew.
Tom didn’t say limit, he said goal. He said that after a break, he will probably upload videos to his main channel from time to time, but that when he does come back it won’t be at his current schedule or with his current format.
In other words, millennial media tired, zoomer media bussin’.
I can’t wait for him to come back in a decade only for his usual demographic to not be receptive at all to his shit because they’re all communists.
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Who is this Tom Scott guy? I know MattPat as a legend but Tom is a literal-who to me.
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Also a format change for Joel Haver: no more weeklies. Also Meatcanyon.
Nobody mentioning Jenna Marbles?!?!
Matpat gone? Good fucking riddance. Fascist piece of shit.
What, did multiple someones all get hit with allegations on the same day?
No, they’re retiring from youtube
We are living in a future Hypnospace Outlaw sequel right now
but that’s just a theory
