[eg0n]

Anyone else notice you struggle to enjoy certain stuff dark, political, burnout worlds lately? I can't watch Deep Space 9 and I can't enjoy cyberpunk stuff now. I used to love that kind of stuff but lately I can't even think about it without feeling sad. I miss being able to fantasize about their worlds.

Just wondering if anyone else is noticing it's hard to enjoy that kind of stuff in the past year or so.

[Plasmawiz]

That's common throughout history I think.

Sometimes a fictional world gets too close to the modern issues we face to be a source of escapism. I feel similarly when reading cyberpunk and AI-centric science fiction, not because the worlds are dystopic but because the very concepts the authors explore within those films, games and books have been weaponised to justify our current social situation (e.g the concept of magical sentient AI used to push chatbots). A decade ago it was cool to read this stuff and keep up with the real-life developments when the tech was in its infancy, but now we have seen the effects it has had once deployed on the masses it is a lot more sombre. Same with video games like the Metal Gear saga, Kojima was on the ball 20 years ago. Ultimately a lot of this is due to people being forward thinking and making well-constructed predictions, both in philosophical and fictional works.

I do think it is important to not let current "happenings" completely sour your view on these works though, since the ideas are ultimately still worth exploring and the stories are still very entertaining and thought-provoking. Chances are that in another decade things will be completely different. My advice is to take a week to slow down and disconnect a little, switch up your media habits and come back once your mind is clearer

[bitzero]

Yes, but also no.

I have no issues with cyberpunk stuff because what I usually read/watch keeps the 90s vibe of "cyberpunk is an attitude" and (almost) always underline how you can use corpo tech against its intended use. I'm not naively optimistic, but I always think that we still have the chance not to play the corpo game, or bend its rules. I do not know if this will still be possibile in five or ten years, unless we have a sort of cultural revolution.

I have more issues with near-future fiction, like Cory Doctorow's works. I like what Cory writes, but it's more depressing because it's about enshittification, surveillance and other techno-social dynamics that are happening now. This stuff makes me angry - and more radicalized (and this is fine) - because (a) I'm pissed off that corpos try to fool me and (b) I see people are not getting the message, enshittification is considered ok.

Mind you: I don't live in the USA or in other nations where you are constantly exploited and - depending of your social group - even actively marginalized, deported and worse. So I'm privileged, today: some of the worst things I can imagine stay in books and movies.

But yes, I have the unpleasant feeling that our societies are slowly becoming quite BlackMirror-ish in many aspects, with most people not even noticing. This lack of interest and agency it's what worries me most.

[cobweb]

Same here. I’m normally a big fan of cyberpunk and all kinds of other spec-fic but I’m deep diving into fantasy stuff right now because fuck this timeline, lol.

[datarez]

I feel like I have to curate it a bit more. Like know the outcome and that it's not all going to be shit. Rewatched V for Vendetta a couple weeks ago and that was a bit satisfying.

I'm not normally one to read too much non-fiction but I've been enjoying reading into how fucked things have gotten. Reading Enshittification now and recently finished Filterworld and Digital Minimalism. All of them are in the same boat of how tech is just exploiting us. I feel at least seeing the strings for what they are help to be able to avoid them or give a good why to it.

[Buny]

My reading rate has been shit since covid started. It recovered a bit in '23, but '24 and '25 have been down again. And that's because of *waves hands around*.

I have a lot of books that have hit the Did Not Finish pile because I found them too depressing. Now that I think about it, it might also be why I've shifted back from Sci Fi to Fantasy. Eldritch horrors are easier to take than middle managers.

You might want to look for Solarpunk stuff. A lot of it is in the cyberpunk vein, but with a more hopeful bent.
One I liked is Fix the World

[BustaMarx]

I can still enjoy things like that but I really find myself nodding along with events and characters in these works rather than thinking "damn that's wild."

As a previous reply said, near-future/present work like from Cory Doctorow tends to hit a little harder for me. That said, he strikes a defiant and hopeful note in "The Lost Cause," and damn am I here for it.

[bitform]

I stopped watching Gen V from The Boys universe because it was just feeling too close to regular life (without the powers and gore obvi). I never thought of it as an escape to the enjoyment, but I did find the world itself entertaining.

I think part of why I enjoy mork borg so much is this clear, defined apocalyptic end where people's call to adventure happens in spite of the doom, To strive for living life to the fullest knowing the stakes are already the highest they could be. I think that's a very positive message even if the world is cold, cruel and literally dying.

[SynAck]

Welp, let's try this again - take 2. Just as I was posting my previous thought, my ISP decided it was time to upgrade the service and my internet was down for most of the late night. That's what I get for staying up past my bedtime. Speaking of dystopia....

The gist of what I was going to say was that I agree with many of the sentiments as others here and while I tend to find a lot of the "near future" stuff to hit close to home, I most often use it to kind of rekindle and stoke the fire of reminding me that there's still a lot of rebellion and seizing of the means of computation to do. That being said, having stuff that's just "20 minutes into the future" and seeing the shitty implementations that we actually got as opposed to what might have been, well.... yeah, that's a bit hard to swallow after a while if one can't internalize it into some sort of motivation for action. I feel that.

It's already been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but the thing that bothers me the most is the fact that a lot of this near future writing seems more like preaching to the choir because the ones who are reading it are those that have already heard it a thousand times and the ones that should be reading it, aren't. I'm continually surprised at how many people just don't care that they're caught up in this dystopia that could have been better but wasn't. It's almost like these works aren't for us, yet we're the only ones reading them.

[bitform]

It's almost like these works aren't for us, yet we're the only ones reading them.

Having not consumed a lot, but maybe enough to make a difference, I can see this.

[bitzero]

Cyberpunk philosophy was born in 90s, and it matters and shows. When I myself immersed deeply in it, there were many digital and physical spaces where I could exchange ideas and projects with like-minded people. Internet, FidoNet, local communities, occupied buildings, rave techno parties, BBSs, abandoned basements, you name it. Both mainstream and counter-culture spaces, I mean. And meeting people led to creating things, making a movement, changing stuff, making a positive impact (even if just locally).

Today, it's completely different. Social spaces where people meet, share ideas and do stuff together aren't the norm and aren't incentivized. They're even antagonized (see libraries). Losing the sense of community, people also lose its strength. It's supposed to be this way in many western societies: "don't care about others, you're special" means also "you're alone against exploitation".

Cyberpunk was like "get agency on tech and do thing together". Today most people aren't interested in having agency, so the creative part of cyberpunk is lost. But it's not lost on us. We'll be the digital shamans of the future.

[Buny]

Speaking of libraries, we just had, (among other things,) an active shooter drill. Fun!

[5tern1]

I collected all my cyberpunky photos in a folder on my phone and recently went through it and and ... yeah. I was so exited and now I'm not feeling that anymore.
The cyberpunk media somehow never got me that hard, I still enjoy the movies I liked in the ways I liked them before, but I'm not a movie person so maybe that's why.

Maybe I need to do a new cool project and actually commit to it again. Maybe I need to grab the hopes and spite of being a punk in this dystopian world again somehow.
Does anyone have ideas on how to do that?

[bitform]

Maybe I need to grab the hopes and spite of being a punk in this dystopian world again somehow.
Does anyone have ideas on how to do that?

I think it's something that comes with using meat space counter culture spaces?
Go to shows, go to the library, stake out a community garden, dumpster dive....

but most importantly : Talk to people.

[Buny]

+1 to the library. Not just because I'm a librarian. Just mostly.

We love having people between 20 and 55 that aren't just their for their kids. No punk type stuff run by us at my branch, but there might be people using our spaces to do so.