Some broken souls are holed up in a subreddit, trying to replicate the internet as it was in 2009
Aux Features RedditThe internet can seem like a lost cause in 2019. The state of things online being what they are, it’s easy to long for a digital refuge, a safe space evoking the internet of yesteryear. Enter: r/Stuck10YearsBehind, the subreddit where no one can tell you it isn’t still 2009.
The subreddit is precisely what it sounds like: a place where people can go to to post what they would have been posting 10 years ago to the day. In an interview with Mashable, creator Dylan Perkins said he came up with the concept “after going down a rabbit hole of old YouTube videos, memes, and forum posts from around 10 years ago and coming out of it feeling like I was in a different world.”
This isn’t the first time people online have yearned for the simpler pleasures of 2009, and with good reason. In 2009, sketch videos were rarer and, by virtue, funnier. In 2009, you could watch a video of a kid, drugged-up following a trip to the dentist, with very little concern of whether or not he was a virulent racist. And hey, remember Three Wolf Moon?
For some, r/Stuck10YearsBehind is a place where it feels to kick up your feet and ride out the storm, numb on the thrill of old memes and The Office. Others, however, will realize that just about every third post there is a Rick Roll. Forward progress has its charms, too.
Send Great Job, Internet tips to [email protected]
54 Comments
Isn’t even 2009 a bit late for Second Life and World of Warcraft references?
For the WoW reference, most definitely not.
WoW peaked in 2010.
‘09 was the heydey of MMOs, so Second Life had been thrust back in to mainstream popularity. WoW was probably at its most popular, which is why everyone was trying to make a freaking mmo, or “mmo”ify other online services.
Def too late for Second Life. WoW was def still going strong though.
Nope. In fact Second Life still has an active community that fluctuates between 60k-80k throughout the week. $$$ is still made by creators through the marketplace. And while the game hasn’t really updated the content has. A good 3d bento model is often $2-$15. But some people prefer nostalgia and like the old fashioned models instead.
It definitely seems weirdly late to be asking what it is. I think anyone who will ever hear of Second Life had already done so by 2009.
He’s goddamn right that Lich King was awesome and Death Knights were incredibly fun to play with.
I was an adult in 2009. Apart from having destroyed my knees and dealing with an incompetent authoritarian sludgefart in the White House, my life is noticeably better now.
Yea but that last point overall makes society as a whole noticeably worse.
Knee solidarity. I tore my meniscus last week being an idiot and thinking “Yes, I should start doing parkour at age 40.”
Are you me?
How about one where we act like it’s 1998 and talk about Mr T Ate My Balls?
Or webrings!
Hell yeah, that’s how you found the good stuff!
No kidding. Screw 2009; the late ‘90s is where it was at.
lol webrings. I administered one of those back in the day.
Still going strong.http://flamesgif.com/archive/ate_my_balls/mr_t.html
Well, then. This is my solid nominee for Saddest Place on the Internet.
Eh. I much prefer the internet of 1999.
I’d more than settle for you guys recreating The AV Club of 2009! This one… just ain’t working.
I guess I am not allowed to have my own opinion on this site.. #AVCLUBCENSORSPPL
My mom saw a 3 Wolf Moon shirt in a Prescott Arizona Gift shop and thought “Meh, Kid likes black T-Shirts” and gave it to me for Christmas a year or two before that Amazon review made it a meme. I didn’t wear it often… but when that meme hit… I informed my mom that she was a trend setter.