Current Events > Star Trek not having social media has aged like wine.

(+) Yeah! (+)

How did we avoid getting into the hellish dystopia the world is currently creating and instead have a glorious utopia?

They didn't have fucking Facebook and Twitter.

Kirks parents didn't spend all day screaming about trans people and children's TV shows at strangers.

Well, it *is* supposed to be an idealized future

Our timeline and the Star Trek timeline diverged before social media was invented. It's how it became a utopia.

All the chuds are trapped in their Holodecks yelling at closets full of those combination-shorts-and-skirt things.

It's why I wish we were in that universe.

In real life people are busy trying to date their AI girlfriends. In Star Trek people grapple with additions to dating their holodeck girlfriends. I think both have their ups and their downs.

I'm not super familiar with ST lore but wasn't Earth really shitty before the Vulcans showed up?

HighSeraph posted...

I'm not super familiar with ST lore but wasn't Earth really shitty before the Vulcans showed up?

Ye, 10 years after WW3

They also abolished capitalism

They do have social media though. Literally The Doctor from Voyager sends a Holodrama back to the alpha quadrant and it goes viral.

HighSeraph posted...

I'm not super familiar with ST lore but wasn't Earth really shitty before the Vulcans showed up?

We used eugenics and gene altering to make superhumans who ruled over their own little fiefdoms with an iron fist and constantly made nuclear war at each other but eventually we either killed all the superhumans or blasted them into space

Tyranthraxus posted...

They do have social media though. Literally The Doctor from Voyager sends a Holodrama back to the alpha quadrant and it goes viral.

That's just normal media

Tyranthraxus posted...

They do have social media though. Literally The Doctor from Voyager sends a Holodrama back to the alpha quadrant and it goes viral.

Television (or their futuristic equivalent) is social media now?

TMOG posted...

Television (or their futuristic equivalent) is social media now?

No. The holodrama is content. The social media is people spreading it around.

Tyranthraxus posted...

No. The holodrama is content. The social media is people spreading it around.

So TV channels and streaming services are "social media" since it's how the content in question is distributed to the masses?

First Contact established the Earth was pretty shitty prior to 2063.

bfslick50 posted...

First Contact established the Earth was pretty shitty prior to 2063.

So we only got about 20 years to go then?

Bring it on

Toonstrack posted...

So we only got about 20 years to go then?

Bring it on

WW3 started in 2026 and ended in 2053.

Does Star Trek really describe its world as a utopia? Don't bad things happen all the time in that show?

MabinogiFan posted...

Does Star Trek really describe its world as a utopia? Don't bad things happen all the time in that show?

Earth is utopian, problems tend to be from outside factors.

Which uh

Doesn't sound great now that I put it like that

TMOG posted...

So TV channels and streaming services are "social media" since it's how the content in question is distributed to the masses?

The distribution isn't the important part. The important part is that literally everyone was talking about it within a day.

MabinogiFan posted...

Does Star Trek really describe its world as a utopia? Don't bad things happen all the time in that show?

It's post scarcity, not utopia.

So its cannon that social media communication doesnt exist in Star Trek?

And they used flip phones.

MabinogiFan posted...

Does Star Trek really describe its world as a utopia? Don't bad things happen all the time in that show?

More or less it is, at least for humans on Earth. Bad stuff happens yeah because otherwise you wouldn't have a story but it's usually things like space anomalies, hostile aliens, or solving disputes between other non human factions.

Hayame_Zero posted...

And they used flip phones.

TBF those "flip phones" weren't using radio waves for their calls so I can give them a pass on that one.

MC_BatCommander posted...

Bad stuff happens yeah because otherwise you wouldn't have a story but it's usually things like space anomalies, hostile aliens, or solving disputes between other non human factions.

Or the admirals of Starfleet doing really stupid things. Like, over and over.

Tyranthraxus posted...

The distribution isn't the important part. The important part is that literally everyone was talking about it within a day.

Remember Lost? Or The Da Vinci Code?

I thibk the problem is corporations owning out democracy actually

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


600 million dead in the process.

InfinityMonster posted...

WW3 started in 2026 and ended in 2053.

Oof.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

So really we're right on track we just don't get to live in the awesome future segment

MabinogiFan posted...

Does Star Trek really describe its world as a utopia? Don't bad things happen all the time in that show?

I they don't use the word "utopia" (although they do literally say 'paradise')

Within the Federation there's no resources issues, no racism, no sexism, no crime, no poverty, no prejudice, no hunger, free healthcare (of immense quality), no war. Just the greatest minds in the galaxy bumming around, having adventures, doing science stuff, trying to learn and improve themselves in jolly co-operation.

About 99.5% of the "bad things" are outside the Federation. Like the Borg or Future Guy.

You get lines like "Oh yeah, I remember learning about discrimination in history class." and "I don't understand, what are drugs?" coming from what are in universe senior experienced military experts who have travelled the universe and met thousands of people from hundreds of races.

Universe is so good people bring children along on to missions into uncharted deep space. The Enterprise has schools and gardens on it.

Imagine bringing your wife and kids to the Submarine with you for a Naval mission.

Guns_of_Verdun posted...

"I don't understand, what are drugs?"

Great, we finally get to hang out with aliens and they're gonna think we're an entire species of fuckin' squares

HighSeraph posted...

So really we're right on track we just don't get to live in the awesome future segment

We missed out on the key moment of the Irish Unification of 2024

Tyranthraxus posted...

It's post scarcity, not utopia.

Also, Earth is mostly portrayed as a near paradise. Still plenty of drama in space.

pegusus123456 posted...

We used eugenics and gene altering to make superhumans who ruled over their own little fiefdoms with an iron fist and constantly made nuclear war at each other but eventually we either killed all the superhumans or blasted them into space

And after that there was a full-on nuclear war. Or maybe it was at the same time, they're very unclear about that.

Star Trek is the good future.

Sorry bub

I think the Star Trek universe had social media.

DS9 episodes Homefront/Paradise Lost indicate there was communication among the populace in regards to politics, information/disinformation and propaganda.

Social media just wasn't a point of reference for pre-internet period Star Trek episodes.

cheat4ever posted...

I think the Star Trek universe had social media.

DS9 episodes Homefront/Paradise Lost indicate there was communication among the populace in regards to politics, information/disinformation and propaganda.

Social media just wasn't a point of reference for pre-internet period Star Trek episodes.

Sub-space communication is not social media.

Jadzia Dax doesn't cause a scandal by updating Curzon's Twitter to go "I'm a girl now lolz." and post memes about Klingons.

No one in Voyager is like "I can't access my Instagram!" while punching the wall

I feel like Vulcans would be absolutely savage to each other if they had Twitter.

In Star Trek's timeline, World War 3 acts as a reset for humanity. Most of the major population centers are destroyed. Most governments have collapsed. The remaining humans live a more nomadic lifestyle. The internet and social media had been eliminated.

By the time they began to rebuild, faster than light travel had been discovered, the planet had made contact with alien races, and technology vastly superior to anything they had before became available. I doubt getting Facebook back up and running was a priority for anyone.

Captain's Log today I had a very big poop

Shrek doesn't have social media either. Coincidence? I think not.

Guns_of_Verdun posted...

Sub-space communication is not social media.

Those episodes I mentioned took place on Earth. They hint at the reactions of regular citizen's reaction to the war, a terror attack by the Changelings on Earth, sentiments of xenophobia and mentions of rumors circulating among the populace of Earth. This wouldn't occur in a vacuum, there's a means of discussion among the populace of Earth en masse.

UnsteadyOwl posted...

I feel like Vulcans would be absolutely savage to each other if they had Twitter.

It turns out Social Media is what caused the schism between Vulcans and Romulans

Thousands of years ago when their ancestors were still a violent race. Vulcans embraced logic and Romulans embraced Twitter

"Let's fucking use black holes as a power source on our ships lol!" is true brainrot

As is being able to travel across the universe for centuries and yet not realize the sun right next to your home planet is about to go Supernova until it's too late.

Orville did an episode where everyone on a planet was basically a walking Reddit upvote/downvote counter.

Starks posted...

Orville did an episode where everyone on a planet was basically a walking Reddit upvote/downvote counter.

They stole this episode from Black Mirror who stole the episode from Community who I'm pretty sure stole the episode from somewhere else

I still counter assertions that people in the past were dumb with the unchallengable observation that they didn't have television.

Guns_of_Verdun posted...

How did we avoid getting into the hellish dystopia the world is currently creating and instead have a glorious utopia?

They didn't have fucking Facebook and Twitter.

Voyager slipped a retcon in one of their episodes where Ed Begley Jr was a conman from the future who changed the timeline back in the 1960s. He introduced digital technology and personal computers, using it to become a billionaire CEO. The thing that tipped off the Voyager crew was that people had laptops a full two centuries before digital tech was invented in the TOS timeline.

So yes, in a way it was social media that destroyed our timeline according to Star Trek.