alt Hacker NewsThere’s a human connection element to old radio that streaming will never replicate. And I worry that it’s gone from modern automated radio too.
It used to be if you were driving down the road and heard a song you liked
Hearing a song you liked on the radio hit harder then playing it yourself because you knew that there was another human nearby at that moment in time that had picked it out and played it. You were physically tethered to them through invisible waves through the sky. Lonely road trips felt less lonely. Late night work shifts felt less alienating because there was somebody ELSE working late.
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When I opened https://radio.garden/ and spun the globe the first time, I tuned to a radio station somewhere in Africa, and it gave me tingles to think that in Lagos at that same moment, some bus driver was surely listening to the same music.
> You were physically tethered to them through invisible waves through the sky
We've got a thing, and that's a-called radar love
We've got a wave in the air...
Radar love
Or at a stop light and the car next to you is listening/singing to the same song. Never happens anymore.
Younger generation get this connection out of live streaming
Yes! Exactly this. I'm the OP and I wrote about this specifically as well.
https://blog.jimgrey.net/2023/01/10/connecting-through-the-e...
You can still listen to the radio while driving, many people still do that, I still do that. I agree though that in essence streaming is a very alienating experience.
Yes, and I agree with a sibling comment that livestreaming is the modern equivalent, if not in ease or quality but in spirit. It's also why, despite having many movies in my library, I enjoy turning on TCM to watch old classics. I know that thousands of people at any given time are probably watching the same piece of history I am, right then.
I don't know. I mean if that is the criteria then livestreams surely fix this because there is another human at that moment in time also and you can even interact with them. Or do you like the passive interaction that they should just play music and shut up
This still exists today. When a new song gets released on YouTube for example a group of people close to it in latent space gets it recommended. By seeing a recommendation of a song in your feed you are part of a cohort of people with similar tastes.
Never in my life has radio in my country played music I wanted to listen to. The first thing I did when I bought my first car was disconnect the antenna entirely.