One of the many things I miss about the Internet of yore is the IRC rooms. Don’t get me wrong, IRC is still around. Indeed, there are even phone apps which were created in the spirit of the old IRC rooms. However, something just seems to be missing from these IRC applications. Maybe I'm just looking at the past through rose-colored glasses again. Then again, most modern IRC rooms are very underpopulated and most users who are logged into these rooms are dead-quiet. I remember a time not too long ago when IRC rooms were active and exciting, and the content was unrestricted and provocative. Perhaps I'm just looking in all the wrong places, but after working with a number of programs, it seems the days of yore are gone forever.
Internet chat rooms have gone the way of the 10 megabyte hard-drive. Nobody cares to use them anymore. And why would they? Today we have Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr and Reddit. And if you're feeling pangs for the Internet of ol', you can always become a member of some online forum or post on any number of anonymous message boards. Or use Blogger (zing!). That's about as far back as most people are willing to go.
So I guess this is farewell to the IRCs of yesteryear. It was good while it lasted even though it didn't last all that long. I'm sad to see them go because there is just something so damn cyberpunk about IRCs. The Internet handles, the relative anonymity, the randomness and excitement, the netspeak and culture. There are few things more interesting and precious than to talk with a random stranger from across the world for only a few minutes time. The brief exchange of information is just beautiful. And it's made all the more beautiful by its brevity.
Perhaps IRC rooms weren't all that great. It's true that one of the main reasons people used them was that there were few other options at the time. Sure, forums existed but IRC was live chat. Which was a wonder at the the time. Today, just about anything and everything has a live chat feature, only with far more options and functionality than even the most popular IRC programs ever provided. But they had character, dammit!
Heh, now I'm sounding like an old man. Current technolgy may beat the pants off of old tech in almost all conceivable ways, but old tech had a life of its own, every bit as precious as the life of current tech. In fact, old tech seems to have more character and life than modern tech. Then again, that may just be this old man blowing smoke. Or am I? Only time will tell if all this modern tech will gain as much character with age as its past counterparts had.
But here I am going off on another tangent. Whatever, it's my blog and I can tangent all I like. It's not like anyone reads it anyway.
But yeah, I do miss some aspects of the past, if not all aspects of the past. IRC being one of the aspects I dearly miss. Perhaps the days of IRC are not completely over. Perhaps, one day, the world will find a use for IRC and it will once again become what I believe it can be.
By the way, this is my first post of the new year. Hope everyone had a good New Year, even though mine was a bit sad. I suppose this is where I tell you my New Year's resolution. I hate setting New Year's resolutions, but I suppose I should set one. My resolution is to keep writing on this blog. Sounds reasonable right? Part of that involves finishing old posts. At this time, I've got around sixteen posts on the backburner, just waiting for me to finish them. This post being among them. I've got a habit of not finishing things I start, so I've decided to finish these posts as part of my New Year's resolution.
But why do internet relay chatrooms seem so cyberpunk? They certainly seem more cyberpunk than iPhones or any other smartphone, though it can be argued that smartphones are of closer relation to the cyberpunk world than IRC ever was. Upon further reflection, I think the reason I associate IRC and cyberpunk is that IRC is fairly common with the fiction. I've never seen a Facebook or Blogger in Blade Runner or Neuromancer, but, if you look closely, IRC (or lookalikes of IRCs) exist in those two works of fiction. Additionally, I believe the spirit of IRC is a close copy of the spirit of cyberpunk. Anonymity, mystery, loneliness, and subversion seem to be the hallmarks of both the cyberpunk genre and IRCs. Brothers in all ways but name.
Maybe I'm just losing my mind. Maybe I'm just making far too many associations between IRC and cyberpunk. Seeing characteristics and connections where none exist. Maybe I'm not. In any case, IRCs are out the door in favor of more fashionable technology. IRCs have gone underground, which is, perhaps, for the best. Just as cyberpunk has gone underground, so has its brother the internet relay chatroom. If the two are brothers, then their mutual obscurity makes them soulmates. How fitting it is that they should both go underground, one quickly following the other. And since the cyberpunk genre often involves obscurity and alienation within the narrative, the mutual obscurity is even more poetic. Almost romantic. IRC has never seemed as cyberpunk as it does today.
I'm rambling again at this point. But I guess I wouldn't be me if I didn't ramble every now and again.
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