I'm saddened that you're saddened by nerds relating to each other, talking about things they actually liked and feeling nostalgia.
Everyone, let's be sure we stick to the real business of HN: gossip about companies which were started for no reason other than to get sold, fighting over the brands of fetishized personal electronics, hagiographies of people like Steve Jobs and Edward Snowden, flamewars about women in tech, and preening about how we personally are the top 1% of software engineers and only hire people like ourselves.
My point is that they are not relating to each other.
Modern conversation seems to be morphing into the art of using others' comments as triggers for one's own monologue. Instead of having the discipline of quieting ourselves in order to comprehend what others are saying, we isolate ourselves into narcissism by placing mirrors onto their heads.
An awareness of this trend may surprise you about how little we actually relate to each other. Rather, we use others to relate to ourselves.
"People listened instead of just waiting for their turn to speak" [0] - Chuck Palahniuk
I have tried probably too hard to not be this person. As a result, i've had literally hundreds of people tell me I'm a great listener. I don't order food at my usual haunts, they just make it. Letting people talk, and actually hearing and giving one flying fuck, is more impactful than I ever imagined.
You sure it isn't just the limitations of the medium? Threaded discussion lends itself to longer messages. And since the author of the post isn't guaranteed to be here, we can't ask questions and expect an answer. If we were on IRC, I'd expect more of a two-way conversation. Instead we have people sharing their comments (Hacker News often reminds me of blog comments.)
By contrast, I'm delighted every time I come across another "me too, time for my story" comment in this thread, because those are the interesting ones.
Ditto, I've noticed this as an extremely common style of communication on this site, and I often have difficulty reading through the comment threads for this exact reason.
As the original author of the Imgur post, I agree with this.
Reading about people who have written PHP code on entry-level mobiles in 2005, or other Australians who tapped away on 15 year old systems at their school definitely has put me a lot more at ease. It has made me realize that my situation was not as bad as I'd felt initially, but rather many other people had the same deal growing up.
Contrary to the shock and rejection of belief expressed by a lot of people who have obviously grown up in areas with well funded schools and financially secure parents, this sort of thing happened to quite a lot of people, and it is STILL happening today.
I'd say there is still some kid out in some house out where I used to live, who is sitting in his room, hopefully not under the same oppressive circumstances as myself, but is working with his dads "old Windows 98 system" etc because it's all he has. There's no "right" in Australia to be up to date with the latest and greatest. No kid here has a guaranteed right to a mobile phone and a high powered computer in his bedroom, but is very fortunate to have them.
Thankfully, technology is much more affordable nowadays. In 2004, laptops were multi-thousand dollar items, but you can get a used system with Windows XP (or even 7) for less than a few hundred if you shop around now. I find that incredible.
I'm amused that a comment stating this point would (seemingly unironically) begin with the word "I'm".
For what it's worth I don't disagree that there is some cosmic absurdity and truth in what you are pointing out, but it's just such an innate component of human communication (in all of its forms, since long before there was an Internet and long before this post existed) that complaining about it is akin to saying "I'm saddened by the way these people are always breathing".
...and yes, I began this post with my own "I'm" to show I'm a proper software coder who appreciates the humor in meta-level recursion and thus I'm ever so clever!
