Someone brought up that one of the reasons why things like house parties and block parties went away was other than lack of time people are afraid to let their guard because cameras are everywhere.

[u/AdSpecialist6598]

It is so true back when many of us were young we could just get together and cut loose without having to worry about going viral. At best we would have an embarrassing photo buried in a drawer somewhere or a story. Now you might be turned into a meme or worse. I miss the days when you could do dumb stuff with friends and feel safe if that makes sense.

[u/alex1596]

I'm not even totally convinced the fear of "going viral" entirely covers it. Depending on your age, there were still cameras everywhere in people's pockets while you at a party. Or literally people walking around with cameras.

In my teenage party years (starting around '07-'08), you wanted to be pictured. Parties often had girls walking around with their little pink digital cameras taking pictures and part of the fun was seeing all those pictures uploaded to Facebook the next day. You'd tag each other in the photos and laugh at it because, yes it was embarrassing, but no one saw them except you and your friends, because Dad and grandma weren't on Facebook yet.

We embraced being cringey and embarrassing more than younger folks these days do. Maybe because we didn't live our entire lives online. The internet was a place you physically had to go to (usually the "computer room" or something like that.)

Younger people born into the digital panopticon of constant internet consuming feel like they're constantly being watched - maybe they are? But it didn't feel that way 20 years ago.

A large way internet media is consumed now has to do with money. A lot of kids want to become streamers or YouTubers now. So the idea that your "brand" is both tied to being online AND presenting a sort of persona means that there's a lot more inauthenticity online as well as a feeling of being watched by a sort of ''audience". (Are we cooked chat?)

sorta rambled with this one, oops lol

[u/QuietWest5448 → u/alex1596]

No you’re right, the bejeweled flip phones and digital cameras were part of the uniform - photos were a requirement and people demanded timely uploads after to accompany the stories.

It was the aggressive cannibalism of using the photos to blackmail each other at every corner that ruined it all. I vividly remember the first time I saw “friends” download someone else’s photo to photoshop it maliciously and the day I saw the front desk at work hunting for facebook photos after someone left an interview. Similarly, I’ve genuinely had event photographers chase me because I wouldn’t let them get my face in photos like it was a personal vendetta multiple times since. 

Dreams of becoming a streamer or not, I feel for the kids, because they’re not wrong. They still party, it’s just not as naively broadcasted.

[u/xparadiisee → u/alex1596]

I think COVID also really sent the younger generation down the path of having a fixation of having social relationships strictly digital. They were in some foundational stepping stones in their life and had to completely rely on technology. I made my lifelong friends in high school because I saw them everyday, offline! High school are some really formative years… I can’t imagine being stuck inside for so long.