Re: Discord on Discord (but honestly, mostly my own rambling)
Today I came across this post by msd. First I was going to leave a comment but after realizing I was almost writing an essay I decided to make a post of my own. And then, somehow, I started to think about all the things that are more or less connected to the topic of the original post, at least in my mind (and in my mind, everything can be connected to anything, so watch out) and I ended up with a bunch of scattered thoughts. Might as well throw them here, this is also a good excuse to post in English for once. And oh well, this is mostly some unedited stream of consciousness so don’t expect too much.
The original post was made in February, right after Discord had announced their new bad idea. I'm not getting into that, though, because the part that really caught my attention was this:
As an aside to the age conversation, Discord has become a monolith in a way it never should have. As a group chat app / friends list chat program? Sure. That's its main purpose. But it's moved on to replace community forums, websites, even fucking FILE hosting.
Because I have noticed the same thing. Most of the time I use Discord to communicate with friends and fellow volunteer workers. The biggest server I am on has around one hundred members which is, apparently, not that much after all (especially when the server in question has been up for over eight years and maybe one third of the members are actually active and not just lurking around and leaving one day without anyone noticing). Sometimes I come across social media posts about servers with over a thousand members, more and less constant fighting and not gonna lie, intriguing drama. Aaand every time I keep realizing how I could not survive a day on those servers because even the idea of a group chat with that many people and constant new messages is terrifying.
And yet, an endless amount of those servers exist! But don’t get me wrong, the problem is not a big server itself. The problem is the way they are being used to share information, files and other stuff that could be useful for so many people (who won’t, for a reason or another, join a random group chat with 27,618 people just to download one or two PDF files or read one single guide on how to install something on their laptop). I personally have been in this situation multiple times and so far I have not come across a piece of information that was vital enough for me to join a Discord server with thousands of people. Keep your secrets then, it’s not like I cared anyway!
But to my main point, which can be summarized in a single sentence: the children yearn for the forums.
Or, in other words: This Discord server could have been a forum.
Because If I can be honest for a second (of course I can, this is my blog) I’m pretty sure that in many cases a forum would work better. Of course, Discord does have its own benefits such as voice channels and a mobile app but let’s be real: if your server has thousands of people who all share the same interests and the server in question also has plenty of guides and other helpful information, is it really that far away from a forum? I feel like at that point the main difference is just the accessibility — even though some forums do require an account in order to see basically anything I’m still quite convinced that most of them are still way more accessible than any forum-like Discord server could ever be (because an account itself is not enough, you also need to join the server which is rarely worth it).
And yes, Discord and its huge forum-like servers are just one example of this whole Thing where we are trying to fit every single thing on one platform. But is it really necessary? Not really. Why do we keep doing it? We like to call it easy and simple and convenient and of course, when it comes to the biggest social media platforms like Instagram, you also get the monopoly position (or at least the feeling of it). So of course it’s about who gets the most users, money and power — and every now and then it’s good to remember that platforms such as Instagram and Facebook are free to use because you as an user are the product.
And yeeesss, the unfortunate transition from the fun, creative and personalized internet we once had to this addictive Hell that is pretty much just a gambling machine in your pocket, we’re all familiar with it (probably). I’m not an expert but I’m pretty sure that the gambling machine part is more and less connected to the Thing. You know, the Thing where we are trying to fit every single thing on one platform. Because it’s eaaasy and simpleee and conveeeenient (and this is the part where all the huge large tech companies go ”oh trust me, there won’t be any consequences, just use our One And Only Platform For Everything”).
And we like to call it easy and simple and convenient and well, maybe it can be? Maybe it can be convenient to use Discord as your one and only app for communication, file hosting and notes instead of using one app for messages and calls, a second one for all the files you need to be able to access on every device you own and a third one to replace the default notes app on your phone (or god forbid, a tiny notebook people like me carry in their pocket almost all the time).
And maybe I am just a sentimental person who absolutely despises the internet and social media we now have and maybe I did drown myself in desperate nostalgia the second I realized I never got the fresh and colorful frutiger aero future I was promised (by the good old tech companies, of course).
But there is something boring and maybe even depressing in the idea of using The One And Only Platform for every single thing, from communication to hoarding PDF files. To me it feels like it’s missing the intent, almost like you’re just throwing all your shit in the same pile because it’s the easiest way to do it and you don’t really need to pay attention to it.
Again, this might be a dumb thought but maybe, just maybe the easiest and most convenient way is not always the best way. Of course, we as a species (and the species before us) love optimization and we have always loved it. We developed better tools and weapons to save time and energy and even the languages we speak tend to evolve in ways that get rid of unnecessary extra vowels and such!
But again, what is a human if not an animal and if there’s something I have learned in my studies of animal husbandry it is the fact that enrichment is not a luxury, it is a need. And sometimes I really feel like the current obsession with optimization is not the way to go. Sometimes it’s both sad and ridiculous how people on social media treat their own existence as a project and everything has to be as fast and easy as possible. Daily gym routine has to be as efficient as possible, meals have to be done in fifteen minutes and they need to have as much Everything as possible, not even mentioning how obsessed these people seem to be with the hours of sleep they get every night. If something can become numbers and statistics it probably will — but after all, that’s what tech companies love the most so it’s not even that surprising. When most of us are deep in the hell that is social media and we have become the product maybe it feels natural to optimize every single thing in our lives because what else is there to do?
Does this also mean that one good way to fight the big companies is just... unoptimizing? Taking the slower route, doing things the difficult way? Probably yeah, that would make sense. And since I have always been the kind of a person who questions all the ridiculous goals and rules we as a society like to come up with of course I have also questioned the whole optimization thing, way before people started to outsource their thinking to a chatbot that is just an extremely dystopian text prediction. And after all, I guess it kinda explains my love for physical media as well. I’m aware streaming services and digital downloads exist and I have also seen the amount of dust that can and will find the plastic cases that have been sitting on the open shelf for months. I know the internet has (almost) every album and (almost) every movie hidden somewhere, at least in theory. I know there are emulators that make it possible to play my most beloved PS2 games on this laptop no matter where I am. But maybe, just maybe I like the limited options and maybe there is something grounding in reaching for my CD player when I want to skip a boring track even though I could play the same album on my computer and press one single key to play the next song. Maybe there is something comforting in knowing that even though I won’t be home for a month some big company can’t make my physical games unplayable and once I get back I can just turn on the console that is almost my age.
My life might not be optimized but I sure as hell am enriched and when you really think about it, at least I don't have all my eggs in one basket. I have all my devices and notebooks and most of the things I love doing don't even require a stable internet connection. Sorry to the tech companies.