#i have other thoughts about the culture around scenecore/nostalgiacore/etc. but

[netscapenavigaytor]

still was thinking abt that roblox thing and Why it bothered me so much when objectively there shouldnt be anything wrong with stuff being "better". and why i find myself gravitating towards old school internet culture and stuff lost and forgotten in the vestiges of the 'net. and like. i think i know now

everything is so clean and perfect and well made on the internet now that there isn't much of a place left for klutzy amateurish imperfect creations anymore. you have to be Really Good at creating things or you become an object of ridicule. it does not matter what effort or sincerity goes into something if it is poorly made. everything must be marketable forever.

and that is not to say that the internet used to be Nicer god knows it has never been "nice", "cringe culture" has existed for ages. but the bar has raised so high now. there are 14 year olds making beautiful art and animations i could NOT compare to even though i've practiced my whole life. and they Have To because you cant just make wonky ms paint cat drawings, those just dont cut it anymore.

and i think thats what people are really nostalgic for, not the sparkledogs and cascada songs themselves but what they REPRESENTED. the idea that you didnt need so much polish, that you could just Have Fun and people would have fun with you. and messy and wonky and childish and "bad" stuff still exists and is being made with genuine heart, but its easier to think theres something special and Different about the stuff youre nostalgic for so you can feel like youre Above the "new cringe." (i don't even think i'm totally beyond this mindset, myself, as much as i'd like to think i am)

and i don't know really who there is to blame, if there is a fair culprit. advertisers of course is the easy answer but that's not all of it, no one's really capitalizing on warrior cats amvs or whatever like that. i think maybe there's no one truly at fault, the classic internet grew up and honed their skills and no one MEANT to chase out the amateurs and children, they just continued to make the things they loved but were better at it now and could set their ambitions higher, so much better that in order to keep up everyone else had to jump straight into creating at a professional level.

i don't think i really have an ultimate point to this post. i'm just kind of rambling my thoughts here and i dont know if there's really a "solution" because in the end it feels ridiculous to say "polished content is the problem" especially because i DONT dislike stuff thats Well Made by any means and myself generally aspire to make stuff that's "good".

but the internet has definitely shifted in a way that does not really feel like "home" to me anymore, even if it's foolish to say it was EVER home to begin with