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You can also view this article at https://medium.com/non-monetized-together/what-are-some-subtle-changes-youve-noticed-in-the-world-lately-ef455bc602d9.

Here I’m starting a discussion thread about subtle changes you’ve noticed among people in the past few years. Not big changes that people talk about, but ones you just barely notice, registering as nothing more than a different sense in the air.

I’m interested in hearing your responses because I like hearing perspectives about things I might not be thinking about much. Here are a few examples I’ve noticed:

· People don’t react to music anymore. Remember how people would be like “that’s my jam!” when they hear a song they like in public? Why don’t people do that anymore? I feel like this has been a thing since the pandemic started. Maybe they just don’t play good music in public anymore.

· Nobody my age is living in my town anymore. This is very noticeable for me, but not so for most other people. When I was in high school, there were a ton of other teenagers in the area, and there still are. But now that I’m 24, it seems like people my age have mysteriously abandoned my town. Where did they go? I doubt they’re finding a place of their own because it’s pretty rare for someone to do that immediately after they graduate. Yeah, there’s university residence, but that’s temporary, and besides, most of my peers are finished university already. Since I live in a suburban town that orbits a major city, you would think new graduates would want to stay here because it’s the cheaper option, but they aren’t, so I’m really confused about this one.

· Social media comment sections are mostly simple reactions or emojis. Entire comment sections on TikTok and Instagram containing huge stretches of emojis and simple sentences like “whoa” or “I’M DYING.” These comments were always a thing but I don’t remember them overtaking feeds to the extent they do now. Please don’t do that in this discussion!

· Commercials feeling like an AI wrote them. I never pay much attention to commercials, but I saw someone on r/decadeology point this out, and so I just had to start paying closer attention to ads. Once I did that, it was extremely obvious how generic ads have become. The script for these commercials literally feels like AI without the quirkiness.

Zoomers not holding conversations. When I was in high school, my classmates could all hold conversations no problem. But for most of university, it seemed like people really had to force themselves to keep a discussion going. I feel like I’ve actually gotten better at it over time. However, I’ve noticed socializing has become a challenge for other zoomers. Not just when they talk to me, but when they talk to other people as well. Oh, and this only seems to be a problem with Generation Z. Not with other age groups. I think it might have to do with a rise in social isolation among zoomers.

Have you noticed any of these examples yet? Do you agree or disagree with any of them? What other changes have you noticed?

#SocietalChange #Observations #SocialTrends #Discussion #PersonalExperience

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Does getting in a political Internet argument throw the rest of your day off course? Are you stuck deciding between the anxiety of staying silent and the anxiety of participating in the argument? Ladies and gentlemen, I have found a way to approach politics that might actually address your needs.

Here’s the idea. In the comments section for the article on this link, one of you readers can answer the question, “what political movement concerns you and why?” Then another person can respond to that comment and explain why that person doesn’t need to be concerned. This way, the focus of the argument can be focused on using politics to provide comfort and security to others.

Please remember, this doesn’t mean you should invalidate the commenters’ concerns or make them feel misunderstood. The commenters’ worries should be approached as legitimate. Even if it isn’t legitimate to you, it’s legitimate to them, and may be emotionally or mentally painful for them. Moreover, these fears won’t just go away if the commenters are told they’re not real. By approaching politics this way, I hope that this will promote empathy and solidarity for people with different viewpoints.

Now let’s take Internet discussion to its full potential!

#Politics #Discussion #Support #OnlineCommunication #PoliticalDiscussion

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[NASA/Unsplash]

Take a look at this discussion thread started by a librarian who has been requested a book that is so elusive that it can’t be found anywhere.

Now I can tell that this mystery isn’t going to go viral like some other examples because it wasn’t posted to a mainstream website and because it’s not a memorable example. Despite this, nine other people have replied with suggestions. The linked thread is an example of someone forming an equal power dynamic with the people who respond to them instead of trying to post something that interests a lot of people.

There are many discussions online that are just like this, where somebody posts something that will be significant to very few people but puts the respondents in a position where they can lead the discussion. However, this approach to discussion is usually limited to contexts where the initial poster is looking for help from respondents. The initial poster feels stuck solving a mystery on their own, so they make a post about it. Their mystery lacks viral qualities such as nostalgia, suspiciousness, familiarity, or strangeness, but usually other people will help them out anyways.

Compared to the discussions on the rest of the public Web, these interactions are built on a more equal relationship between initial poster and respondent. Yet they are almost always carried out in cases when the conversation starter needs help from others and so has no choice but to put commenters in a more powerful position.

If you think about Medium or Instagram or Twitter, most of the public initial posts are people doing something to grab people’s attention or to get some sort of emotional response from viewers. They are putting the spotlight on themselves. There’s nothing wrong with this, but a lot of people forget that social media can also be used to highlight the repliers’ contributions to the discussion.

I feel like Nonmonetized Together stands out from other blogs for this reason. The posts on NMT aren’t the author’s posts, they are discussions for the community. This makes the comment section become less about the initial poster (like most of social media) and more about the community (like the librarian forum).

I encourage people to expand on the information in the blog’s initial posts, place it in a new context, make tangentially related replies, and respond with a different purpose than the article (but not with a different purpose than NMT). If people respond with these comments, they will make it so the comment section is not just responding to NMT but contributing to it.

Hopefully Nonmonetized Together will help you feel less invisible.

#Discussion #OnlineDiscussion #InternetComments #SocialMedia #Internet

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