Mario Kart World and that new Donkey Kong game. everything about the Switch 2 looks underwhelming
Celebrities
I couldn’t care less about any of them, I don’t understand why people follow them on social media or read gossip about their love lives.
Makes zero sense to me
Souls games.
Ed Sheeran.
In-N-Out.
Gen alpha stuff
dr who
Tik Tok. It’s just vine but no one is funny. How many videos of people just driving their cars with some nonsense text overlaid, like, how many hundreds of that are needed? How are you going to stand out? It’s just a way for the uncreative to take part in creativity. Which they aren’t.
Just like the fast food thing, TikTok is literally addictive. It’s the new breed of addictive tech. It’s the fentanyl of tech.
Fast food.
I’m not saying there’s exactly “hype” but it seems to have a permanent grasp on the minds of chronic users.
In 2025, with our knowledge of nutrition, people are still denying that it’s basically hot candy disguised as food… people are still arguing that it’s nutritional enough that is okay to eat.
No, it’s the equivalent of cigarettes. Stop eating that shit, recognize it for what it is: addictive poison.
In the same way that sugar/candy is physically addictive, fast food has been proven to have the same physiological effects. It’s literally an addiction.
Yep, and that’s why users go berserk typically when I point out that it’s basically hot addictive candy, not food.
Addicts go nuts when you tell them they can’t or shouldn’t have their medicine.
Blockchain. I’ve always seen it as a solution looking g for a problem. And I’m a 12+ experienced software developer now.
Meh I think the decentralization is a pretty nice use case actually. It’s great that no one can shut it down and no centralized entity can just decide that your money is gone now (for cryptocurrencies).
Look at Monero. Since it’s almost impossible to track governments are actually trying to ban it but they can’t shut it down because anyone can just spin up a node and there’s nothing any government can do about it except banning it from exchanges. I think that’s pretty neat, although the environmental cost for this technology together with LLMs are absolutely crazy
My SO has long rants about blockchain and the people who think it is useful. My own, completely non-technical, criticism is “so you’re saying privacy is enhanced by putting every transaction ever onto a permanent, unalterable public ledger?”
The only real use for the block chain is tracking stocks to prevent illegal shortselling.
So it will never ever ever get used for that purpose.
Obligatory fuck citadel.
Balatro.
Almost every single mention of it I see online makes it sound like the most freaking addictive drug. Any of you seen that Star Trek TNG episode where this weird addictive headset game takes over the Enterprise? Just like that.
It’s probably a good game, but all those posts feel really off putting to me.
Big number go up, get brain drug dose. not much more to it than that.
It’s a really fun game. People exaggerate the “addictive” aspect because… you know… “internet”
Y’know, while I also think it’s exaggerated, there’s definitely some truth to it. I was playing it on my phone while my friend’s kids were watching, and they incessantly tried to get me to pick opening packs over any other game mechanic.
I think it definitely does abuse that “loot box opening” dopamine pathway a little too well in a perhaps a less than healthy sort of way, even if it doesn’t cost you any real money.
So while it is a very good deck building strategy game, I totally get the reason it has the reputation it does.
It’s also a card game. Card games are practically synonymous with human civilization. So it already has innate appeal to a wide audience.
I don’t like that kind of game. I didn’t like Balatro. I’m more into realism and simulation though. I had no idea why all of my favourite sites couldn’t stop talking about it. Honestly, I think standards have fallen a lot further than we thought. Again though. I’m surviving until the release of Elder Scrolls 6. Balatro was never really on my radar.
We live in a world where bastion and undertale and tw3 are ‘good games’.
There are times when hype and marketing and fad take over, and nobody can see that the game is poor or ho-hum… Or in the case of undertale, pure shit.
Oh god, I feel like I’m going to be massacred.
K-pop
hey, you’re valid… I’m from Korea and it’s crazy seeing how people drool over kpop nowdays. no attention for the actual good music, the korean rock and hip hop and funk and jazz and so on… just the corporate boybands.
It’s the same shit that’s popular in the US. manufactured popularity. we could talk about all the factors about how they pulled it off, but who cares, it’s a bunch of shitty music created by desperate people selling their souls to rapists who prey on modern social isolation to sell empty fantasies to the masses.
that’s the point of the music! you should be proud to dislike it. now go listen to something good, like Jaurim (자우림)
Can I massacre you with hugs for this? 'Cause that’s the only impulse I have for your saying it.
(I agree, if you haven’t spotted this. 😉)
There’s good and bad kpop, like there’s good and bad of most genres.
Pick-up trucks for anyone that’s not a farmer, construction worker or dirtbike rider.
They are so dumb and impractical for normal driving. I don’t get it.
I believe there was some tax-benefit for them in the US at some point…? Then it makes a tiny bit if sense i guess.
But what’s even dumber: cross-overs. Worst of both worlds.
Part of it was EPA regulations fucking up small trucks. Another part is that they’re safer for the occupants, deadlier for everyone else. And then there’s general machismo.
I love my small car but it’s getting impossible to drive anymore when the LED headlights of these trucks are literally at my eye level blinding everything. They are a danger and the only way out it seems is to join them and get above the lights.
I agree with pick ups. The issue has been that bigger pick ups are generally exempt from fuel efficiency mandates resulting in manufacturers making bigger and bigger pick ups. They don’t make compact pick ups anymore. Add in America has some fascination with owning trucks. I’m actually gonna disagree on crossovers. For most people I agree they’re impractical. But they’re better than SUVs and pick ups. Most people actually need a mini van or wagon but we just stopped making those
This is basically Florida. Tons of massive trucks on the roads, all driven by assholes that I will judge absolutely by their truck alone.
I would go further and say they are stupid for everything. Oh i need it to haul stuff. And you didn’t get a bus? Are you stupid?
Nowadays I use my pickup for work, but when I bought it, it was simply for fun - not for any practical reason. There’s not much more to it. They look cool, they’re fun to drive, and they make you feel like you’re operating a machine, not just something meant to get you from point A to point B.
You’re just not the kind of person who’s into that - and that’s fine. You probably aren’t into playing the flute either, but I doubt you’d say you “don’t get it” or that it’s dumb.
As a non- flute player, other people playing the flute improves my life. Non-essential trucks take up more space on the road and hurt the environment more than alternatives, for absolutely no reason.
But this thread wasn’t about what you feel morally superior about compared to others, so I’m not sure what your reply has to do with anything I just said. We’re discussing not understanding the hype around something and that’s what I was responding to.
This thread also isn’t about justifying hyped activities. I responded to your comment, like you responded to the comment before yours.
Explanation is not excuse.
What about excuse? I haven’t edited my comment, and I didn’t mention excuses. Did you reply to the wrong comment? Or do you think justifications and excuses are the same thing?
It’s a saying - it just rhymes better than “explanation is not justifying.” You know what I meant. I gave an explanation for why some people do what they do, and you responded as if I were justifying it, which I wasn’t.
Had you used the word excuse, that would at least suggest I acknowledge something is bad but am still okay with it - which would be closer to how I actually feel about it. But saying I’m justifying it implies I think it’s right, reasonable, or morally acceptable, which completely misrepresents both my view and the intention of my post.
feel like you’re operating a machine
Funny because I’m assuming your truck has an automatic transmission. Try getting a very cheap, small car with manual transmission and tell me what feels more like driving a machine to you 😏 . The cheaper the better, because all those electronic aids like lane assist, traction control, adaptive cruise control, etc are just disconnecting you from the actual metal.
I rented a small base model Peugeot 108 when on holiday on Crete a few weeks back. Nothing more exhilarating than taking that go-kart onto a mountain road: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl3a-LWS_kE
But honestly, thanks for the comment! I’m happy to learn why people like them so much!
I’m assuming your truck has an automatic transmission
It’s almost 20 years old and doesn’t have automatic anything.
Then I haven’t said anything, but you’re also not the person I was writing about 😉
Taylor Swift. I actually like her music. I also understand that hardcore fans will exist for every artist. But Swifties take it to another level. I’m lowkey impressed by that fandom, but don’t get it.
You know how people who are into Q-Anon and Pizza-gate look at strange symbols and odd numerology to find strange connections to prove whatever crazy thing they believe. Taylor Swift like to release albums, singles and tours using favorite numbers, hidden symbols and hints in her other songs. So it fits that section of the internet who love to analyze to death things to find clues. Since she is so prolific there is enough material for her to hide these Easter eggs to generate endless conspiracies about when things are released. Since she does drop hints it makes sense that people love to find them. Its like a puzzle-game mixed with a conspiracy theory mixed with a “viral marketing campaign” all in one. And instead of unraveling the fabric of democracy she release music people like.
I like her music when I hear it, but don’t seek it out. From what I gather she really speaks to women, they get her in ways I (male) would not relate to. She strikes me as moral and doesn’t have skeletons in the closet or any weird behavior one would expect from someone that rich and famous. As dad would have said, “That’s a stand-up woman!”
She knows how to sell herself, which I find an admirable and difficult trait. I feel I’m 10x more confident than the people that post around here and she’s 100x more confident that I. And it’s not bullshit, unearned confidence a la Senior Musk.
And who doesn’t love how she fucked the record companies over at their own game? Knowing her own worth changed the industry.
Doesn’t hurt that she’s almost ethereally pretty. :)
I just saw Black Joe Lewis play last night and I know for a fact he’s a much better guitarist. But she packs stadiums and only 50 people were at his show. maybe it’s because he doesn’t show off his thighs?
I think you’re generalizing her way too much here. Her fanbase is mostly girls. They aren’t coming to see her thighs. She may not be the greatest guitarist in the world but she’s a great song writer and singer. Her Eras tour was also incredibly well done.
If she was 275 lb nobody would purchase her music. My point is not to body shame, but yeah … Don’t think for a second her look and mystique isn’t half of what is being sold to kids.
Lol! The music industry has fuck all to do with music…!
Bacon.
I mean I get it. We studied the marketing campaign that led to baconmania in class. It’s one of the greatest marketing campaigns of all time, right up there with “A Diamond is Forever” from de Beers.
However in the end, bacon is … OK. But there’s many better ways to use pork bellies than turning them into bacon. Especially the over-processed stuff that’s used on foods in restaurants.
Bacon was awesome before the marketing campaign. Bacon was awesome during it, and bacon remains awesome to this day.
Sorry about all the shitty bacon you’ve been fed.
I don’t remember a bacon marketing campaign. Regardless, bacon/pork belly is the most delicious meat in my opinion.
Bacon is a subset of pork belly. I love pork belly. But there’s so many more ways to prepare it than curing it and optionally smoking it. Indeed my favourite way of eating it involves steaming it.
As for the marketing campaign, like the de Beers campaign, it dates back a lot farther than people think today. The beginnings of baconmania traces back to the 1920s. One of the pioneers of PR directed a campaign that included finding 5000 doctors willing to say that a “heavy” breakfast was healthy for you and that bacon and eggs were a perfect breakfast food. This was then presented in media as “scientific consensus” and thus began the age of bacon for breakfast.
That’s how things stood until the 1960s. Bacon and eggs was a standard breakfast food. Pork sales were doing well, and pork bellies were a nice piece of extra income. But then the reputation for red meat started to slide. By the '70s all red meats started to slide, and the added anti-fat movement cause pork sales to tank across the board. Various pork marketing boards started making deals with fast food restaurants to push bacon as a way to boost pork bellies at least. They partnered with restaurants to create recipes that involved bacon as a “versatile ingredients” instead of just breakfast food. Bacon on salads. Bacon on sandwiches. Bacon here, bacon there. And with this, paired with, naturally, a whole lot of money poured into marketing (costs split down the middle with the partnered restaurants) the beginnings of baconmania started.
By the mid-80s, with the establishment of the National Pork Board, baconmania truly took hold as said board pushed pork in all its forms (anybody remember “The Other White Meat”?) both as a “lean” alternative to beef and shoving bacon into anything imaginable (chocolate cookies, say) as some kind of “flavour treat”. This marketing campaign started to ramp up just in time for the arrival of public Internet and thus were the seeds planted for the bacon insanity today.
Baconmania is a cynically manipulated set of marketing campaigns that dates back a hundred years and is going strong, rivalling “A Diamond is Forever” for effectiveness and endurance.
Very interesting, sounds exactly like what the diary industry does. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are both heavily connected.
For those curious, see Climate Town latest video “Dairy Is Milking America Dry”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQiLly6Z1xs
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=NQiLly6Z1xsI love nor being american so much
Vinyl records.
If you’re rejecting online music streaming and wanting music in physical form, CDs look a lot more practical. CDs are smaller, less delicate, and don’t physically degrade every time you play them. CD playback hardware needs essentially zero maintenance and is crazy cheap still.
Could it be for nostalgia? But I’ve seen people younger than peak vinyl get into music on records. They wouldn’t have any nostalgia for vinyl.
Is it for the sound quality? But I’ve seen chiptune albums available on records! It would be truer to the music to load it onto a real Game Boy or something.
The reason the people choose vinyl is because of its limitations. CD has a larger dynamic range, but because it’s fully digital, producers can abuse that fact and make an extremely loud and dynamically compressed record and the CD will play just fine.
If you tried doing that on vinyl, the needle would fly off the record. So thanks to this physical limitation, people who produce for vinyl are forced to make a quieter, more dynamic record. It’s less fatiguing on the ears, and if you want a louder record, you can simply turn up the volume.
The reason I like vinyl is how slow and deliberate it is compared to other mediums. If I want to play a record I have a limited curated selection which I purchased with a specific use case. These are all played in my living room and are generally slower and relaxing type music. If I want to play a record I will need to start at the beginning and typically commit to hearing the entire thing in its entirety. Each side I have to choose to continue which slows down the process. I can’t skip ahead to the songs I like and it doesn’t automatically play anything once its done. Its slow and has a large physical object which I enjoy.
If I used CDs I could skip to whatever song I like or have it automatically play the next CD. With a multi-disc changer I wouldn’t have to choose what I want to hear each time. I have CDs which I use in my car for a different use case which is to listen to when the radio is being annoying.
This exactly.
It’s the ceremonial steps that precedes the listening experience that adds flavour to the enjoyment.
If I want to just listen music and do other things I just use Apple Music + AirPods/Soundbar, but if I want to listen a certain album and make the experience more active, I use the record player.
My music collection on vinyl is curated since each album involves a higher cost.
There is also my fascination on analog things, I have an automatic turntable and love the orchestra of mechanical sounds from all the internal components.
Edit: Forgot to mention that on streaming platforms sometimes the only version available is a remastered version that was rereleased on CD that fucked the dynamic range during the loudness war or is an edit of the original one.
It’s the ceremonial steps that precedes the listening experience that adds flavour to the enjoyment.
Exactly. Its a ritual for the listening experience. If I had to add up the hours of listening to Vinyl vs streaming, streaming would win hands down. But I love the vinyl when I use it which is usually an experience. We do a lot of vinyl around the holidays since we spend a lot of time in my living room relaxing. Which adds to the experience
I like vinyl for it being big enough to be somewhat like a poster. I’m hoping to eventually gave a vinyl wall when I have my own place
I’m 30 so CDs were well and truly widespread during my formative years so it’s not nostalgia for me
Vinyl gives you better dynamic and frequency range than CDs. Like if you play Genesis’ “The Firth of Fifth” on CD there’s a segment that sounds like the bass is being run through some extreme distortion effect. It isn’t. It’s just being played at an extremely low frequency that the CD can’t properly catch, so you’re getting distortion artifacts from it. Playing the same passage on vinyl, however, assuming you have equipment that isn’t low-end trash, and assuming you have decent amplifiers (note the plural) in the loop, and are playing them out of good speakers, will give you an undistorted bass note so low that you can barely make it out … if you’re young. (People my age can’t hear it at all.) But whether you hear it or not you will feel it echoing through your chest cavity.
But that right there is the problem. Count the costs. You’ll need an upper-middle-end turntable to start with. Then you’ll need an equivalent grade pre-amp. Then you’ll want a power amp that’s even better (because the switching noise of a lesser power amp will be very audible with a sustained, loud bass note that low). And you’ll want speakers that can actually reproduce that frequency at all. (Most can’t.) So you’re talking low thousands of dollars of kit minimum. To hear about 15 seconds of a single song in all its glory.
That’s a bit stupid.
And that’s over and above the problems you’ve already state: that note will play gloriously perfectly on the second playing (the first playing will be slicing away some of the artifacts of vinyl production first). Then you’ll get … maybe a dozen plays of good quality bass that you will feel more than hear deep inside of you. And then it starts going away.
Thousands of dollars. To hear 15 seconds of a single song. Maybe a dozen times.
I mean sure, I guess, if you’ve got the thousands of dollars to blow, and are willing to constantly buy and buy and buy the same album over and over again, you be you, but I personally have much better stuff to spend my money on. (Like actual musical instruments.)
Oh, and if you’re buying vinyl to play on a turntable that puts the audio out on Bluetooth for Bluetooth-enabled speakers? Just burn your money. It’s a better use of it.
This is untrue. CD’s have a much larger dynamic range; 96dB compared to ~70dB, depending on how the record was pressed.
The reason why people say vinyl is more dynamic than CD is because producers are forced to make vinyl records more dynamic, so that the needle doesn’t fly off the record. With CDs there’s no such limitation, allowing people to make the album as loud and dynamically compressed as they like.
Edit: I should also mention that the 44.1kHz sampling rate of a CD is enough to produce a perfect analog waveform all the way up to 22.05kHz, which as you know is beyond the limit of human hearing. If produced correctly, a CD will always sound better than vinyl. Problem is that CDs often aren’t produced properly.
Because you don’t have to factor in needle skipping, you can produce a loud record that distorts, either because you want to be the loudest song in the listener’s music collection, or that you simply don’t know/don’t care about proper dynamics.
The distorted bass you’re talking about is not because of the limitations of CD, but simply because the CD version was not produced/mastered correctly. Like I said, the sampling rate of CDs are high enough to reproduce a perfect analog waveform every time.
Perhaps the CD is theoretically capable of better. In practice, however, it seems they don’t use that capacity (which leads me to suspect that “in theory, theory and praxis are the same; in praxis, …”.
I don’t have the technical chops to assess this. What I have are ears. And those ears tell me that actual physical CDs that I have held in my hand and put into a good sound system myself sound … well, sound perfectly fine for most music. It’s just some outliers (like the aforementioned “Firth of Fifth”) that sound far better on vinyl than any CD pressing I’ve ever seen.
I’ve never seen a CD that can produce bass that you feel rather than hear. I have seen vinyl that pulls it off. I suspect there’s something intrinsic to the formats that causes this.
Thank you for being the voice of reason.
I don’t have room for any sort of physical media. Yeah, I have some legacy tech I occasionally fuck with, and my sound system parts are from the 70s, 80s, 90s and up, but those parts do their job.
I mean… pretty much anything that gets hyped. For me, hype is one of the most reliable signals that I’m not going to be into something. That said, I’ll admit that the hype itself often keeps me from even giving things a fair chance. So it’s not that I’ve disliked everything that’s been hyped, but more that the ones I did try and didn’t enjoy made me even less likely to bother with the rest.
This is me in a nutshell. The more people that tell me to participate in any thing, the less likely i am to try it. Still haven’t watched Tiger King, for example.
