A retro, command-line inspired library of React components

Yesterday, I linked to a tutorial on Atkinson dithering. I think dithering is an extremely cool effect, especially when trying to achieve a retro aesthetic. Bill Atkinson developed his take on a dithering algorithm for the first Macintosh, and his results are supremely “Mac”—it tends to produce the most (subjectively) pleasant images compared to other methods.

But what’s the appeal of a retro aesthetic, especially when it comes to computers? I’ve been asking myself this question ever since I discovered SRCL, a React component library by INTDEV for building webpages with a retro terminal aesthetic. Let’s be clear, it does look very attractive and cohesive. But, given that you could make the web look like anything, the question remains: what is the appeal to a retro aesthetic? Obviously, nostalgia is at the root of any retro style—an attempt to recreate the past inside the present. What about the computers of the past are we trying to recapture in the present?

My hunch is that were trying to recreate the raw simplicity of vintage systems in order to recapture the trustworthiness and legibility of simpler computers. Presently, most of us are using devices that glued shut and unrepairable. We’re using web-based software that changes out from under us without notice. LLMs and neural networks are more popular than ever, and they are black boxes that produce inexplicable results. Tech has gone from a niche, enthusiast industry to a world-dominating force and a nexus of power.

There is an innocence, a naïveté, and a raw joy that’s invoked by referencing interfaces that predate the mass-adoption of computers and the internet. It’s comforting to think that just by applying a theme, we can relive a simpler time when computers were a novelty, their role in the world was still uncertain, and their impact was gentler. But nostalgia is always for an imagined past. This component system uses React, so the simpler computing mode it re-enacts depends upon bloated computing model that depends on large amounts of memory, fast internet connections, and cheap energy.

Its fun to play pretend, but it’s important to recognize how appeals to nostalgia mask the true nature of things as they are. When high-tech disguises itself as low-tech, you get the worst of both worlds: the excesses of the present and the limitations of the past, muddled together for an aesthetic goal. There are wonderful ways to achieve a low-tech, low-energy, and more sustainable web; but I’m afraid this is just window-dressing.