The Prehistory of Social Media: BBSes and the future of the net (with Kevin Driscoll)
Channel: Al's Geek Lab
Date: 10/07/2022

Kevin Driscoll, author of the book "The Modem World: A Prehistory of Social Media" and professor at Virginia University talks about social networking before the internet (Computerised Bulletin Boards, commonly referred to as BBSes). We also talk about how homogenized and corporate our current social media is and wax lyrical about how the future internet and social media could or should look like, and how BBSes of the past could influence those decisions. Kevin also discusses a number of other topics from his awesome book, which you can find more details of in the following places:

The most up-to-date info about where to buy the book/ebook: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300248142/modem-world

More about Kevin and his other publications:
https://kevindriscoll.info
https://modem.world
https://minitel.us

Don't forget to LIKE this video and please SUBSCRIBE to my channel! Press that NOTIFICATION bell so you get to know when new great videos come out that you'll like! I really do appreciate your subscriptions, it makes the countless hours I spend on this channel feel so worthwhile!

If you really like my stuff and fancy joining this channel to get access to perks, you'll be helping me develop the channel for the future with new equipment and spurn me on for more content:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpa_ZxyIl8u1TS3-rS1bTrg/join

I still have Patreon too: https://patreon.com/alsgeeklab
Or buy me a quick coffee on Ko-Fi: https://www.ko-fi.com/alsgeeklab

On the web & social media:
https://www.alsgeeklab.com
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/alsgeeklab
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alsgeeklab
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alsgeeklab

Contents:
0:00 Introduction to Kevin
1:17 What is a BBS?
3:02 The history of the BBS
12:05 Why BBSes were successful
16:15 Not just for nerds
20:32 'The Modem World' book
43:30 Going online for fun
49:20 Modern day BBSes
55:30 The freedom of web 1.0
1:02:00 What does it mean to experience BBSes for the first time in 2022?
1:04:00 The BBS bar to entry
1:07:30 Custodians of the net / net historians
1:09:00 wrap-up + where to get the book
1:10:38 End credits & links

#retrocomputing #BBS #ModemWorld #NetNeutrality