This is exactly what I mean tbh.

I know I was the one bringing it up but man, look at how everything becomes culture war BS now, including this thread (which is tame to be fair, but still, it's a totally different vibe from 2015).

And it used to be funny to me because I thought surely no one IRL cares about this? But no, people do, and now people in our highest levels of government are literally shitposting like they're on 4chan.

Quote Originally Posted by DiaDeem View Post
OP: Why don't I feel anymore like I'm 20 and it's 2015?

Because you're 30 and it's 2025.

Unless you make peace with the passage of time, it's only gonna get worse the older you get.
Nostalgia isn't a bad thing, but melancholy is a symptom of chronic depression and shouldn't go untreated.
And nah, I really don't think it's just me. I went down memory lane and looked at social media from the early 2010s. It was so pure. The Internet unironically liked wholesome, "cringe" advice animals memes. People were sharing xkcd nerdy jokes. There was frankly barely any politics on the Internet. It was kinda relegated in a corner - traditional mainstream media during primetime hours.

Look at this game now. And look at the Internet. You can't be sincere anymore without being called cringe. If I said I would love to design a flying car, people will come at me Twitter-style, talking about how that will be something only the rich could fly in, or whether I'm going to make it in America to resist the globalists or whatever. Let's be for real right now. Can you imagine the VA drama happening during Heavensward?

I don't think it's depression man, I'm very happy with my own life. But looking at this game's community is upsetting. Look at all the bickering between healers and non-healers at the start of this expansion. So much ridicule, dehumanization, and a complete refusal to even lend just the tiniest bit of empathy towards healers upset at their role. It reminded me of what's going on in America.

I feel like the FF14 community and our society now feel like 4chan, all the clapback, the dismissal, the irony, the insincerity... 4chan honestly won, because both left and right now co-opted its toxic style, substance notwithstanding. There used to be a time where you could share a stupid Doge meme on the Internet and everyone would reply with silly jokes. Can you imagine that happening anywhere in 2025.