Early social networks vs modern social media

[Dani]

Does anyone remember those old Usenet newsgroups? I remember I used to use Windows Live Mail to access some of the groups, although I forget which I subscribed to it's been so many decades! That was around the same time I started DaniWeb as one of the only online communities for computer science students to learn from each other. Oh, how the times have changed!!

How do you think those early social networks compare to modern social media? Do you think they were more authentic? It seems like nowadays everything people post on social media is either too sensationalized or just highlights of a "fake" life.

[Salem]

Certainly anything on fakebook, instascam and shittock isn't worth the time of day to bother with. They're the equivalent of "Mos Eisley".

Old newsgroups, especially the moderated ones in the comp and sci hierarchies were a boon of useful information.

[Dani]

The flip side, though, is that, back in the day, they used to only really attract a techie audience who even knew they existed or how to access them, so what you were reading was essentially all existing within a silo of tech-savvy people ... a bit of an echo chamber, if you will. Social media, today, is ubiquitous to the point of pretty much giving everyone in the world a voice. In some ways, that makes it all that much more authentic to the current world we live in, for better or for worse, no?