Pictures that’ll make you say: ‘I forgot social media was like this once’

When we think about social media today, our minds may drift to different places. For some, our mind’s eyes toward Instagram and Tumblr’s gorgeous imagery of exotic locations, beaches, frosted mountains and fields of tulips we’ve never seen in person. For others, we may think of the influencers posting every drop of the smoothie that is their best life. Maybe it’s the outfit of the day pictures that inspired our splurge on bucket hats and vintage jackets, or maybe it’s sports updates It could be the TikTokker who told you your ex is coming back or the Twitter threads on any and every topic that your Whatsapp group blew up over. Or maybe, for the simple social media folk, it’s just wondering about why your old school friend from 20 years ago still needs to update the world on their latest holiday.

Regardless of how we see social media now, which is admittedly quite critical, there was a time where we were all excited about it, and the Internet was just a weird and wonderful space to do one important thing: share.

Here are some pictures from the earlier days of social media that may make you feel a little nostalgic for a simpler time, and some reminders of how the world used to work.

1.YouTube

Annoying Orange, Charlie the Unicorn and Happy Tree Friends were all the rage back in the early 2010s. The graphics? Terrifying! The plots, mostly unnecessary. Yet, these were the YouTube channels that made up a lot of Gen Z’s childhood and there’s a strong nostalgia for a time where people really posted anything they felt like just because they could.

2. Old Instagram Filters and poses

 

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A post shared by Kendall (@kendalljenner)

Bright, overly saturated filters were the only way to share your pictures. Add in some pouting, a peace sign to signal your presence and a deep unrelated caption and you were in. We can laugh at it now but again there’s a curious sense of comfort and cringe when we see our own edits. At least back then we were honest that images were filtered, and even the world’s top supermodels were part of cringe city.

 

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A post shared by Kendall (@kendalljenner)

But now we’re all caught up on being ‘natural’ without actually being natural. If you’re someone who takes your Instagram seriously, you know everyone talks about the ‘aesthetic’ of their feed. I’m here for the aesthetics too, but I do think there was a kind of freedom in letting the world know that exuberantly pink, yellow and orange tones weren’t actually how your face looked.

3. Memes 

I’ve seen so many posts recently that have said “you may be old but are you this old?” before inserting certain memes to cue memories I thought I’d forgotten. Memes were the foundation for how we speak on social media. Self-deprecating humour and relatability formed the pillars for us to connect with others and ourselves.

 

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A post shared by Tokyo ? (@b.i.p.o.l.a.d.e.i.n.e.e)

Even though memes are strikingly different now (super specific, and sometimes just make you wonder if it’s funny or a personal attack) they are a language all unto their own, and I can’t wait to see the future where art students will sit going through history books studying “the original memes”.

4. Vine

Vine was an institution. Some say it was TikTok’s ancestor and in some ways that’s correct. But Vine was gone all too soon. It was one of the first quick video sharing platforms that really turned memes into videos. We laughed at Jerry Purpdrank, recreated the iconic Sunglasses girl’s dance and levelled up infinitely by realising the power of short funny videos that now dominate the world.

via GIPHY