Young generation and forums

[Fade]

I'm just curious and would like to know from the young generation on here - what's your experience using this forum? Because I know social media dominates everywhere and forums were very popular in the 2000s, so what's it like using a forum platform as opposed to social media or a place like Discord which is somewhere in between?

In the late 90's and early 2000's it was all about forums and chat rooms. Private messenger apps were really popular back then too like MSN Messenger, ICQ, etc but forums were always a great place to go because of the community aspect of it.

So I'm just assuming using a forum in 2022 versus social media is strange, I suppose? This forum software does a very good job and perfecting the forum platform with some social integration, so I'd just like to know from an experience and usability standpoint.

Older heads too - what's your experience using forums compared to social media? I'd like to mainly hear mainly from the young generation on here though.

 

[DPrezd Beggar]

Older heads too - what's your experience using forums compared to social media?

I dont use social media. xdddd

E: i like forums much more since you can get information and all input at your own pace. In facebook back in the days it was like overwhelming, especially with many "friends".

 

[OGBama]

I've @Fade been a forum junkie (PM me to know the ones I've been a part of) since the early 2000s and I hate I didn't know about ILLMUZIK in 2000. I live on the ILL, Reddit and Gearslutz.

 

[Memento Beats]

Don't know if I qualify as older head or young generation (1995)

Personally, I like it here because if you want to find some specific information or a thread it's pretty easy to do it as everything has its own space. If you want to check some info about beatmaking you go to lab or industry. If you want to discuss battles, you go to battles section etc.

It's pretty useful in my opinion as for example groups on Facebook are a bit messy in my opinion. They're good for stuff like memes or some pages about tv series because you always get new stuff. Like every minute. But more specific Facebook groups (let's say about technical stuff or something) are pretty much useless to me as you have questions, posts etc. without any order. It can be overwhelming in my opinion.

I'm a Millenial/Gen Z so I was basically growing up with Internet and therefore I'm quite used to forums and I like them because of the segregation of information I mentioned (as I said not sure if I'm older head ). Frankly though, Illmuzik is the only forum I visit on a regular basis.Nevertheless, it's harder and harder to maintain and promote forums nowadays as younger people prefer Facebook due to constant information flow. And you can see @Fade how it looks like here now. Every older guy in here confirmed that back in a day Illmuzik was bursting with posts and now it's a place for a few people. Kinda like concert club turned into some small pub for locals.

 

[DPrezd Beggar]

Kinda like concert club turned into some small pub for locals.

Those are the best imo.

 

[Memento Beats]

Those are the best imo.

I completely agree with you I just used this as an analogy to depict the situation. And I think that when it comes to anything web related being a small pub for locals doesn't necessarily help. I don't know how much Fade makes off of Illmuzik. I mean *we* don't know if this is just his hobby or some source of income. It's surely a huge part of his life as this forum has been present since 2000. Also it's a large chunk of history and definitely rich cultural chronicle with all the beats uploaded here and battles.

 

[Memento Beats]

I mean *we* don't know if this is just his hobby or some source of income.

And it's obvious that @Fade would benefit better if it was a concert club and not pub for locals

 

[Fade]

The forum software from years ago was very basic but this one, Xenforo is really dope. They've managed to bridge the gap between social and forums, so the usability is much more interactive compared to others.

Yeah it used to be much bigger in terms of traffic but that goes for ALL forums that are still around. Social media really put a dent in the forum communities. What's interesting is that A LOT of people have flocked here since the pandemic. It could be numerous reasons why but it's cool that we still get a steady amount of new members, even young ones. But also, from what I'm seeing, social media has played itself out and is no longer interesting, it's just simply part of peoples' lives. So that's another reason why people are hitting up forums that still exist.

Sites like FB or Reddit are good because of Pages or Subreddits but it's not the same. As you said @Memento Beats everything is categorized here, versus just a list of chronological posts.

I'm just wondering what the younger generation thinks of a forum versus something they're used to.

 

[thedreampolice]

And get off my lawn!

 

[2GooD Productions]

Im banned from social media, it has an aversion to truth, here is the only online socialising I do now

 

[Fade]

And get off my lawn!

LOL. Has nothing to do with that, I just want to know what the experience is for new users.

 

[nikwen]

Personally, I really like forums and I grew up with them. It takes some time to get into a forum though and understand how it's structured. TikTok, Instagram, etc. are easier in that you can just start swiping/scrolling. I have friends who don't understand how Reddit or forums work because they are a bit harder to use than just to open an app and start swiping. You need to understand the different subforums, etc.

Not saying it can't be done, but there are easier alternatives now. I think a lot of young people (my age or younger) just don't bother with the old, more complicated stuff.

 

[Iron Keys]

Personally, I really like forums and I grew up with them. It takes some time to get into a forum though and understand how it's structured. TikTok, Instagram, etc. are easier in that you can just start swiping/scrolling. I have friends who don't understand how Reddit or forums work because they are a bit harder to use than just to open an app and start swiping. You need to understand the different subforums, etc.

Not saying it can't be done, but there are easier alternatives now. I think a lot of young people (my age or younger) just don't bother with the old, more complicated stuff.

I think it's to do with the temporary-ness, termporality or whatever of stuff. Think like Snap Chat. Just clips and clips and clips, stories, voicenotes, clips, clips, photos, voicenotes, this track, next track.

ADHD by way of their digital environment and the way things are being consumed. Thing are so discardable. Even though this all happens online and has permanence they have the feel of impermanence.

They'd more likely watch a YouTube/Twitch stream of you reading out extracts of the forums with some graphics and talking about it in an overdramatic fashion.

 

[Memento Beats]

I think it's to do with the temporary-ness, termporality or whatever of stuff. Think like Snap Chat. Just clips and clips and clips, stories, voicenotes, clips, clips, photos, voicenotes, this track, next track.

ADHD by way of their digital environment and the way things are being consumed. Thing are so discardable. Even though this all happens online and has permanence they have the feel of impermanence.

They'd more likely watch a YouTube/Twitch stream of you reading out extracts of the forums with some graphics and talking about it in an overdramatic fashion.

People are just overstimulated these days. Forums don't provide this kind of stimulation as social media.

 

[Fade]

Yeah the instant gratification is what everyone wants today but forums have a nice structure that can't be beat. If you look at the young generation coming up, it's all about apps and what that app can do for them in X amount of time. Instead of taking time to learn how to actually MAKE an app like that or build a computer, for example, they just want everything done right away.

It makes me wonder though how things will be in the future as the younger generation gets older - will they be able to code? Will they be able to build things? Because those are things that take time to learn.

Maybe we'll end up with a society that doesn't have schools anymore because "learning is so hard and take so long". LOL.

 

[Memento Beats]

It makes me wonder though how things will be in the future as the younger generation gets older - will they be able to code? Will they be able to build things? Because those are things that take time to learn.

Some of them, yes. Especially those who come from poor background and didn't enjoy much of life in their childhood. Those will have the right mindset and those will be creators of future in my opinion. People who have will to fight for certain things. At least this is what I think.

Maybe we'll end up with a society that doesn't have schools anymore because "learning is so hard and take so long". LOL.

Probably majority of people will behave this way.

 

[Fade]

A lot of people criticize social media, myself included, but it's a VERY serious issue. Humans were not meant to consume that level of information, even just the regular amount of internet information. Social media is anything but social, and it's both sad and scary to think how future generations will behave.

Right now there's a video going around of some douchebag that flipped out and threw a smoothie at a young woman and went nuts. Everyone is attacking the guy, but actually the first I noticed was the two women (teenage girls maybe?) and how the reacted. They just exploded on the guy. One kept yelling "BYE BYE BYE" and "fuck you" and all that. Right away I'm thinking that's a result of the internet, specifically social media.

Think about it - when someone on the internet talks shit you will most likely go nuclear and attack them too. But in real life you can't act that way. I'm thinking this is how the younger generation reacts in real life - just like online. That's scary and also cringy.

 

[Iron Keys]

Yeah internet was mostly fun at first, even things like facebook. Then it literally just became this tool for people to indulge in what can only be described as deep bloodthirsty spite. It's the default response to everything; different opinion? insane attacks and insults. Someone did something wrong "cancel them" 'make them resign' 'kill them' etc etc.

Even when people do group kindness there's an air of falseness and cringe mob-mentality to it.

The other problem is the world becomes like a 'one culture' / 'one society'. So instead of places etc having their own cultures or trends. It's a 1 world trend. People seem to mistake which country they're from. People in the UK protesting in front of police like "hands up don't shoot" when they don't even have guns or complaining about issues that are issues from other coutries but accusing their own countries of it.

People just clueless as fuck. And people only seem to adopt the bad things not the good.

 

[Fade]

@Iron Keys That's a good point about theUK with "hands up" protest. Makes no sense whatsoever. I remember last year we had people protesting downtown Montreal with TRUMP and American flags. LOL. WTF.

But yeah the internet and society has changed drastically in just the past 5 years. I always think of clips like this:

 

[OGBama]

The @Iron Keys Internet made culture homogeneous.